• GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
• ECOSYSTEMS
• STATES
• BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS
• KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS
• SAF COVER TYPES
• SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES
• HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:

Western juniper occurs from southeastern Washington and Oregon southward to the upper slopes of the Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Mountains of southern California [87]. It occurs along the western edge of the Great Basin in southwestern Idaho and northwestern Nevada [70].

The subspecies J. occidentalis var. australis occurs most commonly in the subalpine zone to forested uplands of the northern Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, southward to California's San Bernardino, San Gabriel and various desert mountain ranges westward into Nevada [44,98,103,106]. The variety J. occidentalis var. occidentalis occurs from the Cascade Range through the Modoc Plateau into adjacent parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and southward into northwestern Nevada [44]. It reaches its greatest extent in central Oregon east of the Cascade Range [103].

During the past 150 years, western juniper has extended its range and now occupies approximately 42 million acres (17 million hectares) in the Intermountain West [16,36]. It grows over approximately 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) in the Pacific Northwest [29].

ECOSYSTEMS:

FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES28 Western hardwoods
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper

STATES:

CA    ID    NV    OR    WA  

BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS:

1  Northern Pacific Border
2  Cascade Mountains
3  Southern Pacific Border
4  Sierra Mountains
5  Columbia Plateau
6  Upper Basin and Range

KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS:

K007  Red fir forest
K008  Lodgepole-pine-subalpine forest
K011  Western ponderosa forest
K023  Juniper-pinyon woodland
K024  Juniper steppe woodland
K030  California oakwoods
	

SAF COVER TYPES:

205  Mountain hemlock
207  Red fir
208  Whitebark pine
211  White fir
218  Interior Douglas-fir
237  Interior ponderosa pine
238  Western juniper
247  Jeffrey pine
250  Blue oak-gray pine
256  California mixed subalpine
				

SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES:

107   Western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass
109   Ponderosa pine shrubland	
110   Ponderosa pine-grassland
201   Blue oak woodland
209   Montane shrubland	
210   Bitterbrush 
212   Blackbush
322   Curlleaf mountain-mahogany-bluebunch wheatgrass
412   Juniper-pinyon woodland	
415   Curlleaf mountain-mahogany	
	

HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES:

Western juniper is an indicator of climax in a variety of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) grassland, shrub-steppe, and dry coniferous habitat types. It occurs as a codominant with singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla), big sagebrush (A. tridentata), gray low sagebrush (A. arbuscula ssp. arbuscula), stiff sagebrush (A. rigida), curlleaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius), antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), rubber rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus), green rabbitbrush (C. viscidiflorus), arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda), Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis), bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), smilo grass (Piptatherum micranthum), and Thurber needlegrass (Achnatherum thurberiana). Western juniper also occurs with spiny hopsage (Grayia spinosa), gray horsebrush (Tetradymia canescens), junegrass (Koeleria macrantha), needle-and-thread grass (Hesperostipa comata), bottlebrush squirreltail (Elymus elymoides), and other grasses [27,37,87].

Western juniper has been described as an indicator or dominant in the following published classifications:

A relict area in the central Oregon juniper zone [25]
Plant communities and habitat types in the Lava Beds National Monument, California 1979 [30]
Great Basin pinyon and juniper communities and their response to management [33]
Plant communities of the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon and southeastern Washington [41]
Plant associations of south Chiloquin and Klamath Ranger Districts, Winema National Forest [46]
Plant associations of the Fremont National Forest [47]
Vegetation types of the San Bernardino Mountains [49]
Plant associations of the Wallowa-Snake Province: Wallowa-Whitman National Forest [51]
Woodland classification: the pinyon-juniper formation [52]
Preliminary classification for the coniferous forest and woodland series of Arizona and New Mexico [58]
Forest/environment relationships in Yosemite National Park, California USA [76]
A vegetation classification system applied to southern California [79]

Related categories for SPECIES: Juniperus occidentalis | Western Juniper