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Oregon Mule Deer Trout Creek Winter Ranges

Metadata Updated: January 6, 2026

The Trout Creek mule deer herd is composed of residents and migrants that make short-range elevational migrations. Mule deer mainly winter at lower elevations surrounding Blue Mountain and the slopes of the Oregon Canyon Mountains. In spring, some of these mule deer migrate to higher elevations in the Oregon Canyon Mountains. Other members of the herd winter in the southwestern portion of the herd’s range, inhabiting areas near Hawks Mountain, the Pueblo Mountains, and the foothills of the Trout Creek Mountains. These mule deer migrate to summer ranges on the crests of Holloway Mountain and the Trout Creek Mountains. Notably, one mule deer formerly wintering on the Trout Creek Mountains migrated south from a summer range on the Nevada border to the Montana Mountains during the second documented winter before returning to Oregon in spring. Habitat on winter ranges consists of A. t. wyomingensis (Wyoming big sagebrush) plant communities and non-native annual grasslands. Summer ranges consist mainly of native grasslands, mountain big sagebrush plant communities, and mountain shrub communities. The Trout Creek mule deer herd faces several threats, including summer wildfires, highway barriers, and competition for resources. In 2012, the Holloway fire burned 462,017 acres (186,972 ha) including most of the Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon Mountains, resulting in the temporary loss of shrub cover at higher elevations and conversion of native forbs and shrubland to invasive annual grasses at lower elevations. Although no migratory mule deer attempt to cross U.S. Highway 95, some resident mule deer have ranges spanning the busy highway, which had an AADT value of 2,095 vehicles in 2018. The Trout Creek mule deer herd also borders the Barren Creek Complex HMA to the north and the Beaty Butte HMA to the east (DOI and BLM, 2020; BLM 2022). The Barren Creek Complex HMA contains approximately 2,500 feral horses while the Beaty Butte HMA contains 463 horses. Both feral horse populations surpass the respective maximum appropriate management levels of 892 and 250 horses, respectively, suggesting that mule deer and horses compete for resources in the few areas where ranges overlap. These mapping layers show the location of the winter ranges for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Trout Creek population in Oregon. They were developed from 51 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 28 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 5 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.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date January 6, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 6, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 6, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 6, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_6584b5d5d34eff134d42da28
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 e448066e-aa35-4910-b8c3-7a2789bd82a7
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -119.1156, 41.6375, -117.5065, 42.5568
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 428c692d92808d56d50d884d132cbeb48ad896f879966f7c71889de967b65332
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -119.1156, 41.6375, -119.1156, 42.5568, -117.5065, 42.5568, -117.5065, 41.6375, -119.1156, 41.6375}

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