Owens Valley Vegetation

Vegetation of the Owens Valley has been studied, classified, and described in many ways.  Paiutes living in the Valley when the first Europeans arrived were well-acquainted with the native flora and had developed extensive irrigation systems in several areas to propagate food plants (Sauder 1994).

Surveyor A.W. von Schmidt, one of the first Europeans to record observations, did not share the Paiutes’ appreciation of the native flora.  In 1855 he wrote that “on a general average the country forming the Owens Valley is worthless to the White Man.”  On the other hand, only four years later (1859), Captain J.W. Davidson of the U.S. Army evaluated the valley quite differently: “Every step now taken shows you that nature has been lavish of her stores.  The Mountains are filled with timber, the valleys with water, and the meadows of luxuriant grass. Some of the meadows contain, at a moderate estimate, ten thousand acres every foot of which can be irrigated” (Sauder 1994).  In 1864 William Brewer and his geological survey team traveled up the valley.  "The Sierra Nevada catches all the rains and clouds from the west -- to the east are deserts -- so, of course, this valley sees but little rain, but where streams come down from the Sierra they spread out and great meadows of green grass occur.  Tens of thousands of the starving cattle of the state have been driven in here this year, and there is feed for twice as many more. Yet these meadows comprise not over one-tenth of the valley-- the rest is desert.  At the base of the mountains, on either side the land slopes gradually up as if to meet them.  This slope is desert, sand covered with boulders, and supporting a growth of desert shrubs.   In one area Brewer also noted "the best grass I have seen in the state." (Farquhar, 1974)

In 1912, Charles H. Lee, and engineer for DWP, reported on water resources of Owens Valley.   He described vegetation on the valley floor in terms of three types: grass land, alkali land and desert land.  Lee's grass, and alkali land types we include in the Alkali meadows discussion (below) and Lee's desert land in the Alkali sink discussion.