Restoring Central Oregon Habitat Means Protecting Native Plants

Legacy Old Growth Juniper. Note the healthy sage and grasses growing right up under the tree.

Central Oregon is home to a remarkable forest and shrubland ecosystem shaped in part by western juniper, Juniperus occidentalis. These native trees are more than scenery. They are habitat workhorses. Many old-growth junipers in our region are hundreds of years old, and some may be much older. As they mature, they produce berries that sustain countless birds through winter. Robins, waxwings, bluebirds, thrushes, finches, and many other species rely on these trees, especially during the harshest months of the year.

On our property, juniper, ponderosa pine, sagebrush, bitterbrush, rabbitbrush, native grasses, flowers, and forbs created a rich, layered habitat. This kind of structure is the ecological backbone for much of Central and Eastern Oregon. Birds and mammals have adapted to these landscapes, even as humans have changed them through logging, grazing, farming, development, and the introduction of invasive plants.

Unfortunately, there is a growing and dangerous misunderstanding about fire and native plants. Across Central Oregon, people are cutting down juniper, sagebrush, and bitterbrush under the belief that these natives are the primary fire threat. In some cases, goats are being used to completely eliminate all native plants, even the fire-resistant grasses. And, sadly, what no one seems to want to talk about are the noxious weeds that permeate our landscapes. 

The fire that burned through our area was driven by an endless carpet of invasive weeds and grasses on the Crooked River Grasslands. The fire's trajectory went directly over a previous fire (Grand View 2021). Rather than being restored, weeds were allowed to grow unabated across those grasslands. The 2025 Flat Fire hit this area and turned into an inferno as it lit up a continuous sea of dead, crispy weeds.  It was not healthy native habitat that created this fire's most dangerous behavior. It was weeds. In fact, our 40 acres of diverse native plants helped slow the fire. We had also created strategic firebreaks, open meadows, and habitat clumps rather than allowing a continuous carpet of tinder-box, dead vegetation. Those choices mattered.

Sadly, people are being allowed and even encouraged to completely denigrate their landscapes of any native plants. Yet, the Flat Fire lesson should be that we must manage land thoughtfully before and after fire.

Yes, thinning can be appropriate. Yes, defensible space zones around homes and structures is essential. Yes, firebreaks matter. But wholesale removal of native plants is not restoration. It actually has the opposite effect: disturbed and open ground, more sunlight, and weeds leads to higher long-term fire risk. Studies show removing juniper and not addressing weeds results in more weeds. 

Weeds are the enemy. Native plants are not.

Weeds, like this sea of cheatgrass, are the enemy. Native plants are not.

After creating defensible space and removing invasive weeds, land should be managed as an ecosystem, not treated like a war zone. Each property, meadow, woodland, and shrubland area should be evaluated for the species already present and for the wildlife that depends on them. Recovery should be selective, informed, and ecology-based.

Central Oregon’s birds and mammals now rely heavily on juniper woodland and native shrub communities. Many are cavity nesters or cavity users, including nuthatches, bluebirds, chickadees, woodpeckers, owls, and even wood ducks in suitable areas. Other birds, such as robins, finches, grosbeaks, crossbills, and many songbirds, use thicker canopy and shrub layers for nesting, shelter, and food.
These animals also need healthy sagebrush, bitterbrush, grasses, and flowering plants because those plants support insects. Insects feed birds, especially baby birds. Removing shrubs and native understory plants removes far more than “brush.” It removes food, shelter, nesting sites, and the living foundation of the habitat.

Ecologically, going "back" to some distant time before human colonization is not going to be possible for many of the microecosystems that make up Central Oregon today. Yet, this is often the argument used to persuade homeowners to remove Juniper and sage. The argument mainly being that the juniper have grown in and are not "meant" to be here. Not withstanding the obvious ecological reality that ecosystems change (redwoods used to grow to Alaska), who are we to alter an entire ecosystem that has been in place for 150 years or more? (And, who gets to say what that was?)

To the point, taking out Juniper for an illusive, unattainable goal of "restoring" sagebrush steppe throughout significant parts of Central Oregon is frankly misguided. It also reeks of the perpetual vilification of one of our iconic native plants. Juniper removal in much of Central Oregon simply won't bring back the full ecological diversity that is  sagebrush steppe. Having a patchwork of treeless, weed-infested landscapes won't bring any of the species of the steppe.

If we want to restore sagebrush steppe the landscape has to be robust enough to offer homes and food to those mammals and birds (and plants). True sagebrush steppe restoration requires large, connected areas of functioning habitat. Small isolated patches of sagebrush permeated by invasive grass will not support the full web of life that once thrived there. Sagebrush-dependent wildlife needs space, continuity, and plant diversity.

For the steppe to have a chance to recover, we must address the real problem: invasive grasses and weeds. Simply cutting down juniper without controlling invasives will simply open the canopy and give weeds more room to spread. Studies support this finding. In too many places, land managers are trading trees for weeds.

And, this is not restoration.

We would love to see more of the sagebrush steppe restored across Eastern Oregon and the eastern edges of Central Oregon. But that will require more than cutting trees. It will require reducing invasive plants, rethinking grazing pressure, protecting native shrubs, and restoring the plant communities that birds and mammals actually need. The species of the sagebrush steppe are unique and irreplaceable: Brewer’s sparrows, sagebrush sparrows, sage thrashers, western meadowlarks, horned larks, vesper sparrows, green-tailed towhees, rock wrens, pygmy rabbits, pronghorn, sagebrush voles, and many others.

Drive east, and you can still find them.

At the same time, the species of plants, animals, and insects that have evolved with our current native forest of juniper have a right to their own preservation. We should be looking at ways to improve this ecosystem, not destroy it. This ecosystem is not the source of our fires. These plants are not the enemy - they are our salvation. More natives = less inferno-producing weeds. 

We must stop confusing native habitat with fire hazard. A healthy native landscape is not the enemy. It is the foundation of recovery.

Killing junipers will not bring back native plants without weed removal.