Moore Park is a

municipal park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

Klamath Falls Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city was ...

, Oregon, United States. It is located along a section of the south end of the

Upper Klamath Lake Upper Klamath Lake (sometimes called Klamath Lake) ( Klamath: ?ews, "lake" ) is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south-central Oregon in the United States. The largest body of fresh water by surface area in Oregon, it ...

. Because almost all the fishing on the Klamath Lake requires a boat, with the exception of a few springtime bank fisheries, paved boat ramps at Moore Park are popular access points to the Lake for fishing.

Location

Moore Park is adjacent to Putnam's Point at the north end of the

Link River The Link River is a short river connecting Upper Klamath Lake to Lake Ewauna in the city of Klamath Falls in the U.S. state of Oregon.McArthur, p. 580 Draining a basin of , the river begins at the southern end of Klamath Lake and flows a short di ...

Trail and is approximately from the southern end of downtown Klamath Falls. Access is permitted through

U.S. Route 97 U.S. Route 97 (US 97) is a major north–south route of the United States Numbered Highway System in the Pacific Northwest region. It runs for approximately through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, primarily serving in ...

and

U.S. Route 140 U.S. Route 140Pennsylvania "Legislative Route 42")was a U.S. highway connecting Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Baltimore, Maryland. The route was deleted from the system in 1979; today the road's route is followed by portions of Pennsylvania R ...

. Moore Park has boat access to Upper Klamath Lake. Especially popular is Howard Bay ramp along the west shore of the lake.

Activities and amenities

Park amenities include a boat launch for canoeing, and fishing on the west side of the park across Lakeshore Drive, with paved ramps, restrooms, and docks. Moore Park also has soccer fields, tennis courts, open play areas, large picnic areas with barbecue pits, day camp areas, an extensive hiking and mountain biking trail system, and the Gingerbread House. The access road to the north has been closed permanently to automobiles and is used as a trail.

Fauna

The

Klamath Basin The Klamath Basin is the region in the U.S. states of Oregon and California drained by the Klamath River. It contains most of Klamath County and parts of Lake and Jackson counties in Oregon, and parts of Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou ...

is one of the most important staging areas for migrant

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which in ...

in the United States. The upland slopes of Moore Park provide viewing of many species of migrant and nesting forest birds, including

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

s. From the hills and the shore areas of Moore Park, including Putnam Point,

black-crowned night heron The black-crowned night heron (''Nycticorax nycticorax''), or black-capped night heron, commonly shortened to just night heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and N ...

s, Clark's and

western grebe The western grebe (''Aechmophorus occidentalis'') is a species in the grebe family of water birds. Folk names include "dabchick", "swan grebe" and "swan-necked grebe". Western grebe fossils from the Late Pleistocene of southwest North America we ...

s are frequently spotted, as well as

snowy egret The snowy egret (''Egretta thula'') is a small white heron. The genus name comes from Provençal French for the little egret, , which is a diminutive of , 'heron'. The species name ''thula'' is the Araucano term for the black-necked swan, app ...

green heron The green heron (''Butorides virescens'') is a small heron of North and Central America. ''Butorides'' is from Middle English ''butor'' "bittern" and Ancient Greek ''-oides'', "resembling", and ''virescens'' is Latin for "greenish". It was long c ...

Barrow's goldeneye Barrow's goldeneye (''Bucephala islandica'') is a medium-sized sea duck of the genus '' Bucephala'', the goldeneyes. This bird was named after Sir John Barrow. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek ''boukephalos'', "bullheaded", from ''bou ...

hooded merganser The hooded merganser (''Lophodytes cucullatus'') is a species of merganser. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Lophodytes''. The genus name derives from the Greek language: ''lophos'' meaning 'crest', and ''dutes'' meaning 'diver'. The ...

and

tree swallow The tree swallow (''Tachycineta bicolor'') is a migratory bird of the family Hirundinidae. Found in the Americas, the tree swallow was first described in 1807 by French ornithologist Louis Vieillot as ''Hirundo bicolor''. It has since been mov ...

s. Several species of warblers can be seen during the spring, including: yellow-rumped,

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

, Wilson's and

orange-crowned warbler The orange-crowned warbler (''Leiothlypis celata'') is a small songbird of the New World warbler family. Taxonomy The orange-crowned warbler was formally described in 1822 by the American zoologist Thomas Say under the binomial name ''Sylvia ...

Ground squirrel Ground squirrels are members of the squirrel family of rodents (Sciuridae), which generally live on or in the ground, rather than trees. The term is most often used for the medium-sized ground squirrels, as the larger ones are more commonly known ...

s and

yellow-bellied marmot The yellow-bellied marmot (''Marmota flaviventris''), also known as the rock chuck, is a large, stout-bodied ground squirrel in the marmot genus. It is one of fourteen species of marmots, and is native to mountainous regions of southwestern Cana ...

s are most commonly seen in the summer close to rocky habitats of Moore Park.

Flora

Moore Park has surrounded by grassy parkland sloping down to the lake from the roads on the south and east, and also habitats that range from

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

and

sage Sage or SAGE may refer to: Plants * ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb ** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family ** ''Salvia'', a large ...

steppe to dense pine forests. The overwhelming majority of the forests in Moore Park are Juniper woodland, primarily

western juniper ''Juniperus occidentalis'', known as the western juniper, is a shrub or tree native to the Western United States, growing in mountains at altitudes of and rarely down to . It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because it is a widesp ...

. Juniper has adapted to survive even under extreme dry conditions, which has led to its dominating sites by out-competing other vegetation. Fire suppression in the

has permitted western juniper species to expand rapidly into adjacent plant communities. To allow for plant diversity in Moore Park, juniper woodlands are thinned by land managers.

Sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

, Klamath plum, and

bitterbrush ''Purshia'' (bitterbrush or cliff-rose) is a small genus of 5–8 species of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae which are native to western North America. Description ''Purshia'' species form deciduous or evergreen shrubs, typically reach ...

predominate in the sage steppe.

References

{{Reflist Klamath Falls, Oregon Municipal parks in Oregon

Location

Activities and amenities

Fauna

Flora

See also

References