{{Short description|Prairie in Oregon, United States}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} The '''Agate Desert''' is a prairie located near White City, Oregon, {{convert|53|acres|ha}}<ref name=Nature.org /> of which is protected as the '''Agate Desert Preserve'''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/oregon/preserves/art6791.html |title=The Nature Conservancy's Agate Desert Preserve |accessdate=21 June 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101024185721/http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/oregon/preserves/art6791.html |archivedate=24 October 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite gnis|id=1116784|name=Agate Desert}}</ref> The area is not in fact a desert as its name suggests; it is so named because of the abundance of agate, petrified wood, jasper, and other minerals found there.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.rvgslibrary.org/Land/PlaceNames.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004051259/http://www.rvgslibrary.org/Land/PlaceNames.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=4 October 2018 | title=Jackson County Place Names Database | publisher=Jackson County Genealogy Library | accessdate=29 May 2019}}</ref> Much of the World War II army training base of Camp White was built in the Agate Desert. The Nature Conservancy is working to preserve the Agate Desert as a native Rogue River Valley grassland.<ref name=Nature.org>{{cite web|title=The Agate Desert|url=http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/oregon/placesweprotect/agate-desert.xml|website=The Nature Conservancy|accessdate=26 August 2015|archive-date=18 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150818215927/http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/oregon/placesweprotect/agate-desert.xml|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Ecosystem==
The area contains seasonal vernal pools that act as their own self-sufficient ecosystems.<ref name=Nature.org /> When the pools have dried up in the late spring, rings of wildflowers bloom in their place and the various plants and animals enter a period of dormancy until the next spring. The pools contain a rare species of fairy shrimp.<ref name=Landconserve.org>{{cite web|title=The Agate Desert |url=http://www.landconserve.org/content/agate-desert |website=Land Conserve |accessdate=26 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910031012/http://www.landconserve.org/content/agate-desert |archivedate=10 September 2015 }}</ref> The Agate Desert is also the only known place where the endangered big-flowered woolly meadowfoam plants grow and the desert contains over 500 of the plants.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/PLANT/CONSERVATION/profile_liflgr.shtml |title=Big-flowered wooly meadowfoam |publisher=Oregon Department of Agriculture |accessdate=28 April 2009| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20090504023203/http://oregon.gov/ODA/PLANT/CONSERVATION/profile_liflgr.shtml| archivedate= 4 May 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref> Cook's lomatium or Cook's Desert Parsley is also found in the Agate Desert and only grows naturally elsewhere in the French Flat of Illinois Valley, also in Oregon.<ref name=OregonLive>{{cite web|title=Habitat Will Be Protected|url=https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/07/habitat_will_be_protected_for.html|website=Oregon Live|date=29 July 2009 |accessdate=26 August 2015}}</ref> In 1998, Henri Dumont discovered a new species, Dumontia oregonensis, also known as the Hairy Water Flea, in the desert, and it is not known to live anywhere else.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hill|first1=Richard|title=Researchers make a giant Oregon find|url=https://www.citizenreviewonline.org/feb2004/researchers.htm|website=Citizens Review Online|accessdate=26 August 2015}}</ref>
==Preservation== Ecologists are currently conducting prescribed burns to the area, and volunteers are then spreading seeds of the native grasses and wildflowers in order to restore them to the area.<ref name=Nature.org /> Ecologists are also studying the various species, many of them rare, in the vernal pools. Development in the valley has left it at only about 25% of its original size.<ref name=Landconserve.org />
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20061005184104/http://www.fws.gov/oregonfwo/FieldOffices/Roseburg/VernalPools/HabitatRest.htm U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] *[http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/oregon/preserves/art6791.html The Nature Conservancy's Agate Desert Preserve] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101024185721/http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/oregon/preserves/art6791.html |date=2010-10-24 }} *[http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/oregon/preserves/art6791.html EIS on threatened and endangered species in the Agate Desert] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101024185721/http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/oregon/preserves/art6791.html |date=2010-10-24 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927185836/http://zipcodezoo.com/Plants/L/Lomatium_cookii.asp Agate Desert Lomatium (Agate Desert Parsley)] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050829081414/http://www.sou.edu/BIOLOGY/Faculty/Southworth/Oak%20Conference.htm Oak fungus in the Agate Desert] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050829184815/http://www.sou.edu/BIOLOGY/Faculty/Southworth/site.htm Whetstone Savanna] *[https://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/icb344/abstracts/vernal-pool-fairy-shrimp.htm Fairy shrimp]
{{coord|42.42917|-122.89722|type:landmark_region:US-OR|display=title}}
Category:Grasslands of Oregon Category:White City, Oregon Category:Geography of Jackson County, Oregon Category:Protected areas of Jackson County, Oregon Category:Nature Conservancy preserves