Eight Dollar Mountain is a botanical treasure that’s threatened by massive nickel laterite surface mining. It’s home to a U.S. Forest Service Botanical Area and Bureau of Land Management Area of Critical Environment Concern. There’s a wheelchair accessible educational boardwalk into the heart of a Serpentine Darlingtonia Wetland. The beautiful National Wild and Scenic Illinois River flows at its base and across the river is the Days Gulch Botanical Area. Eight Dollar Mountain also marks the beginning of the T. J. Howell Botanical Drive.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, Eight Dollar Mountain is one of the most significant botanical sites in Oregon. It represents a major area of species endemism and is easily accessed from the Redwood Highway (between Cave Junction and Selma). The Eight Dollar Mountain Botanical Area , the adjacent Days Gulch Botanical Area, and the Eight Dollar Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern provide numerous opportunities to experience the botanically rich serpentine terrain of the Klamath-Siskiyou Region.
And there’s even more special features to learn about as you drive through this unique botanically rich landscape along the west side of the Illinois River Valley—from Eight Dollar Mountain to the California/Oregon border. It’s all part of one of the most dramatic expressions of the relationship between natural plant communities and geological formations that can be found anywhere in the world.
A wheel chair accessible trail into one of the rarest habitats in North America
A sign and turn lane on the Redwood Hwy between Selma and Cave Junction takes you onto a two lane paved country road and then to Forest Service road 4201 (aka, the Eight Dollar Mountain or Babyfoot Lake Road). The first stop after leaving private land is a wheelchair accessible boardwalk provided by the Bureau of Land Management at the Eight Dollar Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern. The elevated trail protects the rare plants and their habitat below and takes you to the edge of one of the rarest habitat types in North America—serpentine Darlingtonia wetlands. Beautifully illustrated Interpretive signs guide you along the way.
Ground water dependent ecosystems
Serpentine Darlingtonia wetlands are groundwater dependent ecosystems. In other words, they would not exist on the landscape without springs or other perennial sources of cool water with a relatively consistent flow.
The groundwater system that feeds the springs these fragile and unique wetland ecosystems depend on is not well understood. What we do know is that when their hydrology is altered by roads, mines and off-road vehicles, or even trails, the habitat is seriously diminished or permanently damaged.
While there are Darlingtonia Wetlands elsewhere, Serpentine Darlingtonia Wetlands are different and host a unique plant community. They are found only in Klamath-Siskiyou Region and the federal public lands on the west side of the Illinois River Valley have the highest concentration of these rare wetlands in the region and therefore the world.
Off road vehicles
Even though globally rare and host to plant species found only along a narrow strip of National Forest and BLM land—from Eight Dollar Mountain to the California border—the wetlands are being destroyed or permanently damaged by off road vehicle users who drive through them or even use them for mud bogging. This is why you see the fencing along the Eight Dollar Mountain Road. While essential to preserve these specific areas, the fences only protects a few of the wetlands and even then only if the fences are maintained and prohibitions on off road travel are in place and enforced.
While the above photo shows the extreme, it can take a only a single track to permanently damage a wetland. Vehicle tire tracks can puncture the fragile clay pan layer that keeps the spring water from seeping into the ground and disappearing. Puncturing the clay layer results in an alternation of the hydrology and drying of the wetlands or parts of them. This results in the loss of the rare plants associated with them. The layers of fine sediments and plant debris that form at the bottom of the wetlands also holds clues to the past through the carbon dating of pollen.
The greatest threat |nickel-laterite strip mining
The greatest threat to Eight Dollar Mountain and the other areas of botanically rich serpentine terrain in southwest Oregon is from the increased interest in the mining of its ancient nickel laterite soils. These soils were formed 1 to 5 million year ago under subtropical conditions. While in the past there have been attempts to mine at Eight Dollar Mountian, the economics never penciled out and the local opposition was fierce.
Five rare and endangered plants and the Serpentine Fen Conservation Agreement
Five rare plant species found in the serpentine Darlingtonia wetlands were initially proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Instead of formally protecting them under the Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service developed a conservation agreement between the Rogue River-Siskiyou and Six Rivers National Forest and the Medford and Coos Bay Districts of the Bureau of Land Management. Read the conservation agreement here. The principle threat to the rare plans is any activity that alters the hydrological function of the wetlands, We’ve briefly discussed two above.
The five plant species subject to the Serpentine Fen Conservation Agreement are:
- Hastingsia bracteosa Wats. (large-flowered rush-lily)
- Hastingsia atropurpurea Becking (purple-flowered rush-lily)
- Gentiana setigera Gray (Mendocino gentian)
Epilobium oregunum Greene (Oregon willow-herb) - Viola primullfolia ssp. occidentalis (Gray) L.E. McKinney & R.J. Little (western bog violet)
The land managing agencies need an educated public to care about the serpentine lands and their special features, like the Serpentine Darlingtonia wetlands, wet meadows, serpentine barrens, and Jeffrey pine savannas. The Eight Dollar Mountain/Day Gulch Botanical areas and the Wild and Scenic Illinois River corridor is one of the best places to learn about them. Learn, protect, preserve and enjoy.
The National Wild and Scenic River Illinois River corridor and the river’s outstandingly remarkable botanical values
Immediately past the Eight Dollar Mountain boardwalk, on FS 4201 road, and enter the Siskiyou National Forest. The forest boundary marks the beginning of the National Wild and Scenic Illinois River that you’ll be driving along. A U.S. Forest Service trail runs along the river from the parking area at the BLM’s boardwalk to the Little Falls recreation site.
Cross over the river on what’s colloquially known as the “Green Bridge” and you’ll be in the Days Gulch Botanical Area. The top photo shows one expression of the floristically rich Jeffrey pine savannas that are found on the federal public lands on the west side of the Illinois River Valley.
Learn more about the unique serpentine landscape here and about Jeffrey pine savannas here.
One of the five outstandingly remarkable values recognized by Congress when it added 50.4 miles of the Oregon’s Illinois River to the National Wild and Scenic River System was the diversity of plant communities found along the river. This is especially evident as the river runs between the Eight Dollar Mountain and Days Gulch Botanical areas and the T.J. Howell Botanical Drive.
In The Little Falls Recreation site has a small amphitheater with a fire pit. A kiosk before you cross the Green Bridge provides information about the Wild and Scenic Illinois River. On the
The road is one of the Illinois Valley’s three gateways to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and it’s also the T.J. Howell Botanical Drive (see below).
A hiking trail running along the Wild and Scenic Illinois River begins at the Darlingtonia boardwalk parking area. The trail ends at the Forest Service’s Little Falls Recreation site.
Eight Dollar Mountain is a mix of National Forest, BLM, State of Oregon and private land. The Southern Oregon Land Conservancy recently took on The Nature Conservancy’s Eight Dollar Mountain Preserve and is one of the private land holders. On the north side of the conical shaped mountain is the Deer Creek Center, home of the Siskiyou Field Institute.
The T. J. Howell Botanical Drive
The Eight Dollar Mountain Road also provides access to the Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area and Kalmiopsis Rim Trailhead. The road itself has been designed the T. J. Howell Botanical Drive. To download the U.S. Forest Service’s map and interpretive guide to the T.J. Howell Drive click here . To read Botanist Linda Ann Vorobik’s blog post describing the botanical areas and drive click here
Learn more about the Botanical Areas along Scenic River Area of the National Wild and Scenic Illinois River and the T. J. Howell Botanical Drive:
- Eight Dollar Mountain Botanical Area (USDA Forest Service , 2,738 acres).
- Eight Dollar Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern (BLM, 1,249 acres).
- Days Gulch Botanical Area (USDA Forest Service, 1,252 acres).
- Eight Dollar Mountain State Parkland (State of Oregon, 650 acres, about acquisition)
- Eight Dollar Mountain Preserve (The Nature Conservancy, 45 acres).
- The Siskiyou Field Institute and Deer Creek Center (a partnership between Southern Oregon University Foundation and the Siskiyou Field Institute).
- Eight Dollar Mountain, The Oregon Encyclopedia.
- T. J. Howell Botanical Drive.
- About Western Azalea (Rhododendron occidentale)
