WMOD00314

• Project Name: Uintah Ecology Project
• Title: Potential Ecological Impacts of Snowpack Augmentation in the Uintah Mountains, Utah
• Date: 4/20/1981
• State: UT
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

temperatures to make the High Uintas a harsh environment for plant
growth. The low plant productivity of the interior of the range is a
consequence of the inhospitable environment.
Limestone and shales are currently confined to the edges (par-
ticularly the western flank) of the range. Deciduous forest of aspen
and thickets of oak are widespread above 1,900 m on limestones and
calcareous shales, but coniferous forest and alpine herblands dominate
the interior of the range where soils are derived from quartzite.
.,.;~

VEGETATION
The vegetation of the Uintas above 2,135 m is dominated by forest
(Table 1-1) with coniferous forest prevailing above 2,740 m. Roughly
60% of the coniferous forest is dominated by lodgepole pine, the most
widespread vegetation type in the Uintas. Large areas of Engelmann
spruce and subalpine fir also occur in the range. Ponderosa pine is
less common in the area and is largely confined to the east and south
slopes of the range. Douglas fir forms stands locally throughout the
range, usually on limey outcrops.
Wet drainage bottoms and poorly drained valley bottoms in the
forested areas support verdant and moderately productive subalpine
meadows and willow thickets, the chosen habitat of the moose which has
recently invaded the area and established breeding populations. Above
3,350 m, forests are reduced to tangles of twisted, shrub-sized conifer
trees or disappear completely. The gentler slopes at high elevation
support alpine herblands that only locally consist of a species complex
that merits the name alpine tundra.
The flora of the Uintas is rich consisting of over 1,050 vascular
plants, 140 mosses and l~verworts, at least 40 species of lichen, 235

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