Malheur Lake is one of the lakes in the

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge located roughly south of the city of Burns in Oregon's Harney Basin. Administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge area is roughly T-shaped with the sout ...

Harney County Harney County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,495, making it the sixth-least populous county in Oregon. The county seat is Burns. Established in 1889, the county is named in h ...

in the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Located about southeast of

Burns Burns may refer to: * Burn, an injury (plural) People: * Burns (surname), includes list of people and characters Business: * Burns London, a British guitar maker Places: ;In the United States * Burns, Colorado, unincorporated community in Eagle ...

, the lake is marsh fed by the

Donner und Blitzen River The Donner und Blitzen River is a river on the eastern Oregon high desert that drains a relatively arid basin, the southern portion of Harney Basin, from roughly 20 to 80 miles (30 to 130 km) south-southeast of Burns including Malheur Nation ...

from the south and the Silvies River from the north. Malheur Lake periodically overflows into Mud Lake to the west and thence to

Harney Lake Harney Lake is a shallow alkali lake basin located in southeast Oregon, United States, approximately south of the city of Burns. The lake lies within the boundary of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and is the lowest point in the Blitzen ...

, the

sink A sink is a bowl-shaped plumbing fixture for washing hands, dishwashing, and other purposes. Sinks have a tap (faucet) that supply hot and cold water and may include a spray feature to be used for faster rinsing. They also include a drain t ...

Harney Basin The Harney Basin is an endorheic basin in southeastern Oregon in the United States at the northwestern corner of the Great Basin. One of the least populated areas of the contiguous United States, it is located largely in northern Harney County, ...

. The western area of Malheur Lake consists of ponds separated by small islands and peninsulas. The lake's central and eastern sections are more open. The generally shallow water is suitable habitat for migratory birds, waterfowl, and aquatic plants. As is typical of Great Basin lakes, Malheur Lake's surface area changes dramatically with the local weather, climate, and season because the lake is in a very flat basin. A large influence on the water volume is local snow melt, especially from

Steens Mountain Steens Mountain is in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon, and is a large fault-block mountain. Located in Harney County, it stretches some north to south, and rises from the west side the Alvord Desert at elevation of about t ...

, south of the lake. For example, large snowpacks in the mid-1980s caused the lake to expand from approximately within three years, flooding usually dry areas and damaging a branch of the Oregon Eastern Railway. Soon afterward, drought in the early 1990s reduced the lake size to just , exposing large mudflats and dusty playas.

Geology

Malheur Lake is a remnant of a much larger

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

lake that drained east to the

Malheur River The Malheur River (local pronunciation: "MAL-hyure") is a tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon in the United States. It drains a high desert area, between the Harney Basin and the Blue Mountains and the Snake. Despite the similari ...

, a tributary of the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

. The size of this ancient lake, which existed during a wetter climate, has been estimated at , with a maximum depth of . Its outlet was originally a channel near New Princeton, but lava flows diverted the water to a gap near Crane. Much of the original lake bottom has since turned into desert or become meadows periodically watered by lake overflows. Mud Lake and Harney Lake are also remnants of the original

pluvial In geology and climatology, a pluvial is either a modern climate characterized by relatively high precipitation or an interval of time of variable length, decades to thousands of years, during which a climate is characterized by relatively high ...

lake. The lakes as well as nearby marshes and playas are part of Harney Basin. The basin, a closed depression, covers , which makes it larger than the state of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

Ecology

Malheur Lake contains many aquatic plants and grasses and is an important nesting and feeding area for waterfowl, migratory birds, and many other bird species. Wildlife includes

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

geese A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the she ...

, swans, herons,

egret Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

s, and

grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...

Malheur Lake Basin redband trout

The

Great Basin redband trout The Great Basin redband trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss newberrii'') is one of three redband trout subspecies of the rainbow trout in the western United States. The Great Basin redband trout is native to drainages in south central Oregon east of th ...

(''Oncorhynchus mykiss newberri'') has reduced access to Malheur and Harney lakes due to irrigation diversions, channelization, draining of marshlands, and high alkalinities. An exotic

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

population is present in Malheur Lake and has caused extreme habitat damage. Harney Lake has been inhospitable to redband trout for many years due to high alkalinities. Today, redband trout in the Malheur Lake basin are widely distributed in small- and medium-size streams. The redband trout is a unique subspecies adapted to the Malheur Lake basin ecosystem. In these closed, high-desert basins, redband trout have evolved to survive in environments with vast extremes of both water flow and temperature. They are one of only eight desert-basin populations of interior native redband trout. The Malheur Lake redband comprises 10 population groups in the closed interior basin of Harney and Malheur lakes. Historically, all streams were interconnected, and these fish moved through all the lakes and streams. While not an officially designated threatened or endangered species, the redband trout is recognized as important resource, and the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-399) sets aside land in Oregon for protection and research of redband trout.Malheur Lake Basin Redband - The Ecological Angler
/ref>

References

External links

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Malheur National Wildlife RefugeMalheur National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan
*Getting, A.C. (1992
''Lake and Marsh-Edge Settlements on Malheur Lake, Harney County, Oregon.''
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. 14(1): 110–129. *O'Grady, P.W. (2006
''Before Winter Comes: Archaeological Investigations of Settlement and Subsistence in Harney Valley, Harney County, Oregon.''
unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology. University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. 541 pp. *Templeton, A. (2015
''Oregon Archaeologists Discover 15,000-Year-Old Knife.''
(west of Burns, Oregon) Oregon Public Radio, March 5, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2016. *Vickstrom, D., and L.A. Sirrine (2001
''Harney-Maiheur Lakes Sub-Basin Assessment.''
Harney County Watershed Council. Burns, Oregon. {{authority control Lakes of Oregon Lakes of Harney County, Oregon Endorheic lakes of Oregon Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Geology

Ecology

Malheur Lake Basin redband trout

See also

References

External links