GUEST POST

Bella Fratkin

Bella’s second post! Read her first HERE. She is an amazing work-study student from Arcata High School that helps us out with everything from packaging books to post office runs to watching our kids… to using her exceptional writing skills!

The Klamath Mountains are home to vast populations of bird species. This is due to diverse habitats including riparian corridors, coniferous forests, oak woodlands, chaparral, meadows, and rocky cliffs. Over 350 bird species call the Klamath Mountains home for some portion of their life. Many of the bird species found in the Klamath Mountains are also found in other locations across the western United States but it is rare to find as many species residing in such close proximity to each other. 

The unique climate of the Klamath Mountains provides a rare opportunity for birds of different habitat types to cross paths. This is observed with Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleria ontalis), a subspecies that prefers a humid coastal forest habitat, and the white-headed woodpecker (Leuconotopicus albolarvatus), a species that requires higher elevation and drier pine forests. They are both found in the Klamath Mountains. 

We are proud to say that the San Francisco Chronicle has selected The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History as one of the best nonfiction books of 2022!

Filled with mystery conjured by unparalleled biodiversity, the Klamath Mountains tell numerous stories of evolution and resilience shaped over long periods of time. Geology is the defining character of this range, with numerous smaller mountain ranges forming a jigsaw puzzle of big-shouldered river canyons and sharp ridgelines. Within the Klamath Knot, the geology also shapes the climate with wet coastal rainforests in the west and dry semi-deserts in the east.  

Michael Kauffmann and Justin Garwood co-edited a new work titled The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History with the help of 32 other authors. Experts in all aspects of the region’s natural history came together and are the first to tell the entire story.

Glaucomys oregonensis

Until recently, mammalogists classified two species of flying squirrels in North America. But, in 2017, a third was added with the formal description of the Humboldt’s flying squirrel (Glaucomys oregonensis). Though slightly smaller and darker, this cryptic species was once considered to be part of the northern flying squirrel (G. sabrinus) group but genetic studies and an in depth look at the penis bone changed that. Northern flying squirrels inhabit the boreal coniferous forests of the northeastern U.S., Canada, and Alaska as well as relictual habitat in the higher elevations of the Appalachian and Rocky mountains. The Humboldt’s flying squirrel is a specialist of the Pacific Slope’s coastal forests from southern California’s sky islands, north through the Sierra Nevada, Klamath Mountains, Coast Ranges, and Cascades in conifer and mixed-conifer forests.