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Oregon Mule Deer Beulah-Malheur Winter Ranges

Metadata Updated: January 7, 2026

With 204 GPS-collared mule deer, the Beulah-Malheur herd is one of the most extensively recorded mule deer herds in Oregon. Mule deer primarily winter along the Malheur River and the Stinkingwater Mountains, with some as far south as the Owyhee River. Winter ranges are covered by Artemisia tridentata (big sagebrush), grassland, and encroaching Juniperus occidentalis (western juniper). Although spatially dispersed, much of the Beulah-Malheur herd collectively migrates northwest to reach summer ranges across the upper elevations of the Malheur National Forest, Pedro Mountain, and Cottonwood Mountain. Primary summer range vegetation includes A. t. vaseyana (mountain big sagebrush), Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine), and western juniper with mixed-conifer forests and mountain shrub communities at higher elevations. In 2014, the Buzzard Complex fire burned approximately 398,596 acres (161,306 ha) between Riverside, Oregon and State Route 78, allowing Taeniatherum caput-medusae (medusahead) and other invasive annual grasses to proliferate in areas originally lacking perennial plant cover. Mule deer cross several major roadways during migration, including U.S. Highway 20, U.S. Route 26, and U.S. Route 395, while Interstate 84 is a complete barrier on the east. U.S. Highway 20 transects winter ranges for both migratory and resident mule deer and the section between mileposts 135 and 258 along the Malheur River accounted for an average of 179 mule deer-vehicle collisions each year from 2010 to 2022. The Burns-Paiute Tribe is working with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to identify wildlife passage solutions on U.S. Highway 20. These mapping layers show the location of the winter ranges for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Beulah-Malheur population in Oregon. They were developed from 303 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 179 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 5-13 hours.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 7, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 7, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 7, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 7, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_6584b536d34eff134d42da04
Data Last Modified 2024-04-10T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 5625cbae-764d-4a0e-b089-1557a2610c90
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -119.1285, 42.9312, -116.8714, 44.3148
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash df57ce8e7dea627a2d17615695400124fe8a715b2d08b723f736c269a80fe85a
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -119.1285, 42.9312, -119.1285, 44.3148, -116.8714, 44.3148, -116.8714, 42.9312, -119.1285, 42.9312}

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