Great Basin Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)

Chad WelchLeave a commentNative plants
Sagebrush plant
Sagebrush leaves showing the 3 lobes on each leaf

Identification

Sagebrush is a very common plant in the fields, ridges, and wildlife corridor in Eagle Mountain. It can typically grow more than a meter (3 feet) tall, sometimes even more than 2 meters (6 feet). It is very aromatic and although it may not look like it, is in the same family as sunflowers and dandelions.

Each leaf is pale green to silvery gray and has three lobes which is where the genus name tridentata comes from. The trunk is relatively thick and usually crooked. The bark is grey.

Sagebrush has two root systems – a deep tap root that can go up to 4 meters (13 feet) into the ground to absorb moisture deep in the desert soil, and shallow roots that spread wide near the surface allowing it to absorb moisture quickly after a rain storm.

Shelter and Foragers

Sagebrush provides an important hiding place for jackrabbits, cotton tail rabbits, lizards and other small animals protecting them from predators such as the golden eagle.

It also provides a food source for pronghorn, mule deer and some other foragers, although the oils that give it the strong aroma also taste bitter deterring some foragers from eating it.

Indigenous Use

Anthropologists have discovered that many indigenous tribes used sage brush for medicinal purposes. They chewed it to relieve toothache, boiled a tea to ease stomach pains, and wrapped swollen or arthritic joints with a wet bundle to sooth joint pain. It was also steamed or burned like incense in some rituals or simply to purify the air.

Golden Eagle

Chad WelchLeave a commentNative Birds
selective focus photograph of a golden eagle
Photo by Francesco Altamura on Pexels.com

The golden eagle is the most common eagle in Eagle Mountain. There is only one other species of eagle native to the United States: the bald eagle.

Golden eagles are large birds of prey with a wingspan of 6-7.5 feet. Like most birds of prey, the females are larger than the males, but other than size, the sex cannot be distinguished in the field. They are dark brown with lighter, golden-brown feathers on the back of their head or nape, which is where they get their name from.

Their preferred prey of choice around Eagle Mountain is jackrabbit, and they will happily eat other mammals such as rabbits, ground squirrels and the like.

They typically build nests on cliffsides and the females lay up to 4 eggs per year. Golden eagles are usually monogamous and pairs may remain together for several years or even for life.