Animals and Plants
Animals
The Payette National Forest provides habitat for approximately 300 species of mammals and birds. Deer, elk, mountain lion, bear, coyote, moose, mountain sheep, and mountain goat are among the larger forest animals. Smaller animals and birds include the river otter, snowshoe hare, marmot, osprey, and grouse. Rare species include the bald eagle, boreal owl, and whiteheaded woodpecker.
The Payette National Forest is also home to a wide array of native fish species, some of which are now rare and listed under the Endangered Species Act. Foremost among these are chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout. The former two species are born in tributaries to the free-flowing Salmon River, spend their formative years in the Pacific Ocean, and return to their natal streams to spawn and die. Bull trout exist on the Forest as resident, fluvial, and ad fluvial forms, occupying many rivers, lakes, and streams across the Forest. Less well known occupants of the Forest that have not been listed are pacific lamprey, with a life cycle similar to salmon and steelhead, and west slope cutthroat trout; both of these species have become somewhat restricted in distribution and abundance during recent decades.
Plants
The Payette National Forest is home to eight species of conifer trees. At the lower to mid elevations, from about 3,500 to 6,000 feet, you will find Ponderosa Pine and Douglas-Fir. At mid elevations, from about 4,500 to 6,500 feet, Grand Fir and Western Larch (Tamarack) can be found. Above 6,500 feet to around 8,000 feet, the main tree species are Lodgepole Pine, Englemann Spruce, and Subalpine Fir. On the highest ridges above 7,500 feet, one will find Whitebark Pine, which was officially listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in December of 2022.
The grass and shrub communities are dominated by Idaho fescue, bluebunch wheatgrass, stiff sagebrush, mountain big sagebrush, and bitterbrush.
A variety of wildflowers and other vascular plants also grow on the Forest. Thirty-eight of these species are so rare that we are tracking and protecting their habitat. Habitats for the threatened species, Macfarlane's four-o'clock, occurs in the Hell's Canyon area. Habitat for fifteen sensitive species of milkvetch, onion, camas, phlox, saxifrage, and monkeyflower occur from the grasslands of Weiser to the high, subalpine forests east of McCall. Over 1,500 plants grow and bloom from early March until late September whether it be in the river canyonlands or the alpine meadows.
