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Okanogan-Colville Xeric Valleys and Foothills

Ecoregion in WA

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The Okanogan-Colville Xeric Valleys and Foothills ecoregion consists of the major river valleys, such as the Columbia, Colville, and Kettle River valleys, and the lower slopes of the Okanogan Highlands. The ecoregion boundaries correspond to the distribution of glacial drift and till that fills the valleys and overtops lower slopes to roughly 3,500 feet elevation. As a result, the soils are gravelly, stony, and generally droughty; they support a dry forest cover of ponderosa pine, larch, and Douglas-fir. Vegetation pattern is strongly driven by soil pattern and the gentle elevational gradient in valleys. Deciduous shrubs including ninebark, oceanspray, and snowberry are common understory components than in the Western Okanagon Semiarid Foothills (15g). Historically, with a high fire frequency, forests were open-canopied and represented a transition from the treeless shrub and grassland of the Columbia Plateau (10). Today, large, old, fire-scarred larch and ponderosa pine may be surrounded by younger, more shade tolerant, but less fire- resistant, Douglas-fir. The Okanogan-Colville Xeric Valleys And Foothills ecoregion is cooler, more mesic, and has more widespread forests and few woodlands than Ecoregion 15g. Woodland grazing and logging are more important land uses in Ecoregion 15r than in Ecoregion 15g.

— EPA

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