On a recent trip to Roseburg, Oregon, I got to spend two days exploring the North Bank Habitat Management Area, a 6,500+ acre property, which is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for Columbian white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus leucurus). Columbian white-tailed deer are one of three subspecies of white-tailed deer in North America. They were listed as federally endangered in 1968, but the populations in Oregon and Washington have since rebounded enough that in 2013 their status was downgraded from endangered to threatened. I was lucky enough to see dozens of these animals while in Roseburg, both in and out of the NBHMA.

The NBHMA landscape is comprised of steep hills, separated by various stream and river channels, and is mainly dominated by grasslands, oak woodlands, or a patchy combination of the two. The most common tree I encountered was the Oregon white-oak (Quercus garryana). Although it was late in the season, and almost all the leaves had already dropped, at first glance the trees did not appear bare; an entire ecosystem existed in their limbs. Two of the most noticeable residents of the oaks’ boughs were a type of hanging lichen and a species of mistletoe.

More than 100 types of lichen have been documented on Oregon white-oaks, but Usnea longissima, Methuselah’s beard lichen, is a large, easily recognizable species. Its network of thin, hair-like branches resembles the ‘hanging hair’ of a beard. It was likely named after the Methuselah described in the Hebrew bible as the man who had lived the longest; the text says Methuselah lived to be 969 years old, plenty of time to grow an extremely long beard. Unfortunately, because this species does not thrive in disturbed areas, habitat degradation and fragmentation have reduced the historic range of Methuselah’s beard, and it is now endangered or extirpated in most of Europe and Scandinavia, and rare in California. This decrease in range is also likely exacerbated by air pollution, since Methuselah’s beard is very sensitive to air quality issues.

The second obvious resident of the oak trees was the mistletoe. Most popularly associated with kissing at Christmas, mistletoes are actually a diverse group of parasitic plants that can be found across much of the world. Although traditionally considered by many foresters to be a pest, some biologists now think of it as a keystone species, providing a range of benefits, including bird habitat and soil enrichment. The oak mistletoe (Phoradendron villosum) I observed on my walk through NBHMA grew in obvious clusters on the oak branches. Like the American Holly I discussed in an earlier post, oak mistletoe is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. Both sexes produce an inflorescence with rough, elongated clusters of tiny flowers, but only the female flowers will produce whitish-pink berries.

Although less common than the oaks, the madrone trees present were even more striking. The madrone (Arbutus menziesii) is a broad-leaved evergreen tree with bright orange-red bark that naturally peels away as the plant ages. It is also the largest Arbutus species in the world, and can grow up to 100 feet or more in height. In the autumn, it bears clutters of red berries, which could be seen dotting the trees with red splotches of color even at great distances. Many mammal and bird species eat the berries, and in fact, I witnessed American robins and cedar waxwings frequenting the trees during my walk.