Flora and Fauna
This area of high divides, deep canyons and perennial mountain streams provides habitat for a wide variety of plant and animal life. With more than 7,000 feet of vertical relief, soils from several rock types, and abundant rain and snowfall, the diversity of ecosystems is unequaled anywhere else in the country.
The wilderness contains a number of isolated stands of locally rare conifers. For example, the subalpine fir grows along the granite moraines at the head of watersheds above 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in open areas surrounding lakes and meadows, in the Sky High Lakes Basin, in Shelly Meadow along the Pacific Crest Trail and in the Deep Lake area. All of the subalpine fir groves in northwest California are more than 50 miles (80 km) from the next closest subalpine fir stand, which is in southern Oregon on Mount Ashland. In addition, the headwaters of the Salmon River in the wilderness also hold a relict stand of Pacific silver fir, which is the southern most stand in the range of the species.
Common wildlife include the black-tailed deer and black bear. Less commonly seen species are badger and wolverine. Bird species include the great grey owl and northern goshawk. Also the peregrine falcon and bald eagle, both of which have been removed (August 2007 and August 1999, respectively) from the federal threatened/endangered species list. Fish species include summer steelhead and a spring run of king salmon in Wooley Creek, as well as resident rainbow trout in other streams in the wilderness.
There are several rare wildflowers that are adapted to serpentine soils of the Marble Mountain Wilderness and surrounding area. These include crested cinquefoil or crested potentilla (Potentilla cristae), Siskiyou fireweed (Epilobium siskiyouense), and McDonald's rock cress (Arabis blepharophylla var. macdonaldiana), a perennial found in conifer forests of California and Oregon. MacDonald's rockcress is both state-listed (1979) and federally listed (1978) as endangered.
Read more about this topic: Marble Mountain Wilderness
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