Playa Lakes Subject of Program

Choptie Prairie, located about 15 miles north of Klamath Falls, is among the ephemeral lakes in Southern Oregon that support a unique mix of plants and wildlife. (Klamath County Museum)

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Plants and animals that live in playa lakes and vernal pools of Southern Oregon will be the subject of a program during a meeting of the Klamath Basin Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon on Monday, Nov. 6.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the back meeting room of the Klamath County Museum, 1451 Main St. The meeting is open to anyone interested.

Ron Larson and Steve Sheehy will provide information on what they have discovered in “bioblitz-style” studies of nearly 100 lakes in Southern Oregon, as well as nearby areas in Nevada and northeastern California.

Playa lakes and vernal pools are bodies of water that usually dry out in summertime.

Among the plants Larson and Sheehy found were water ferns and the small but beautiful downingia flowers.

Animals they listed include a freshwater sponge, six species of fairy shrimp, numerous aquatic insects, four species of larval amphibians and numerous water birds. They also found a bryozoan, a colony of creatures described as a type of moss animal.

Larson and Sheehy will also discuss petroglyphs and other evidence of prehistoric Native American habitation of playa lakes.

For more information call (541) 281-9933.