| Oregon Islands Wilderness is a string of some 1,477 wave-washed rocks and tiny islands that mirror almost the entire length of the Oregon coast from Tillamook Head to the California border. These precious chunks of land, protected as the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, equal less than 800 acres, but those relatively few acres provide a nesting habitat for an estimated 1.1 million seabirds, more than nest along the coastlines of California and Washington combined. Beginning in April, black-and-white murres throng the islands. Summer brings tufted puffins, auklets, and murrelets, who stay here with the murres until August. Loons, scoters, and grebes arrive for winter. Five species of gulls and two of cormorants reside here year-round. These rocky islands also serve as haul-outs for seals and sea lions, who heave themselves up to give birth, to rest, and to molt. You'll see few plants other than sea palms and bobbing bulbous heads of kelp. Some of the islands support meager growths of twinberry, salal, and stunted spruce. The threatened seacliff stonecrop flowers here occasionally and nowhere else in Oregon. Approximately 64 percent of the island acreage has been designated Wilderness, including five acres managed by the BLM in the Coos Bay District. |
|
