Little Blitzen River

Gorge of the Little Blitzen River

The Little Blitzen River is a 20 km long tributary of the Donner and Blitzen River in the U.S. state of Oregon. It rises on the western flank of Steens Mountain, about 30 km southeast of Frenchglen and approximately 110 km south of Burns in Harney County. The Little Blitzen River flows through a gorge and then flows westward at 42 ° 40 ' 26 " N, 118 ° 47' 37 " W42.6737752 - 118.7935277 in the South Fork Donner and Blitzen River to the main section of the Donner and Blitzen River to form, of a further 65 km to its confluence with the Malheur Lake flows. The Donner and Blitzen River got its name from soldiers of German origin. They had crossed the river in 1864 during a storm and named him thunder and lightning.

As part of the Omnibus Oregon Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1988, the Congress of the United States pointed out that of the Little Blitzen River section of its source to its mouth with the South Fork Blitzen River as a National Wild and Scenic River. He also belongs to the established by Congress in 2000 to preserve the subspecies Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdnerii of rainbow trout.

Geology

The Little Blitzen Gorge, the gorge, which flows through the river, is one of four big U-shaped valleys that were incised on the western flank of Steens Mountain during the last ice age the ice. The 50 km long mountain is the largest meandering Table Mountain in the northern Great Basin. The eastern side is almost vertical, the west side falls a little flat from. This cut into the basalt canyons are up to 800 m deep. The Little Blitzen River rises about 2700 m above sea level, almost at the summit of the mountain; the height difference between the headwaters and the mouth is approximately 1400 m.

Conservation

The largest part of the watershed of Little Blitzen River is within the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area ( CMPA ), which was set up in 2000 to secure the long-term integrity of the region. The CMPA covers an area of ​​approximately 170,000 acres that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM ) and the Steens Mountain Advisory Council. Approximately 40,000 acres of which are protected as of livestock -free zone. The Little Blitzen Research Natural Area is a 40,000 acre nature reserve, in which, among other plant species such as saxifrage, Felsenblümchen and Penstemon. The river system of the thunder and lightning, including the Little Blitzen River, is the habitat for Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdnerii, and is the first - Redband Trout Conservation Area. It consists of the public land on Donner and Blitzen River and its Nebenflüssem above the Fish Creek in the width of the floodplain.

Recovery

The Little Blitzen River is a National Wild and Scenic River; the designation applies to the main watercourse and its main tributaries between the source region and the southern boundary of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Frenchglen. Leisure options in the counter include wildlife watching, camping, hiking and fish. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife writes the anglers before the Little Blitzen River to allow the fish caught again free.