The purpose is for you to visit several major biomes in Oregon and relate that to a map of Oregon. Several factors are stressing these natural biomes, you can look for evidence of this stress and comment on the potential changes in the natural system.
You will travel through six of the 9 ecoregions in Oregon plus a small region of the tundra biome.
Along the way you should make stops to examine the plants and the environment. Make notes on what you observe in each of the seven areas.
You can do this in either direction- if it's very hot, I might suggest doing this backward.
Leave Portland west out Interstate 84 to highway 26 toward Mt. Hood.
ZigZag Ranger station
At Government Camp turn up to Timberline Lodge - Tundra
Return to higway 26 go 14 miles east and turn NW toward Wamic and eventually Tygh Valley.
From Tygh Valley head north on 197 to Interstate 84 and return to Portland
Task:
Using the maps below (in particular the Conservation Biology Institute - Ecoregions map), determine what ecoregions you are going to travel through. You will need to correlate their map with a state road map.
As you drive through, pick a representative spot for each region. Give the location at which you made your observations.
For each region (including the tundra)
Provide a short description of each bioregion with altitude, precipation and other details from these web sites.
Give the location of the spot that you picked to represent this region. You might not be able to have a spot that is an ideal representation.
Write your observations from this spot. Pay attention to the temperature and humidity (relative to the time of day and weather) and plant types that you see.
EPA - http://www.epa.gov/naaujydh/pages/ecoregions/or_eco.htm
Oregon Atlas - forest types - http://www.odf.state.or.us/atlas/maps/fortype.gif
Precipitation in Oregon - http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/pcpn/or.gif
Altitude map of Oregon - http://www.odf.state.or.us/atlas/maps/orelev.gif
