Downey lake is on a piece of property owned by a private landowner adjacent to the zumwalt prairie which is owned and managed by the nature conservancy (TNC), but this specific parcel is surrounded by…

Downey lake is on a piece of property owned by a private landowner adjacent to the zumwalt prairie which is owned and managed by the nature conservancy (TNC), but this specific parcel is surrounded by a different private landowner. The larger piece of the private parcel of land is approximately 3,200 acres of nearly contiguous land and is in a perpetual conservation easement and downy lake sits on a 100 acre parcel. The property predominantly consists of native idaho fescue (festuca idahoensis), bluebunch wheatgrass (pseudoroegneria spicata), sandberg s bluegrass (POA secunda) and other prairie grasses, forbs, and woody species along with the wide variety of wildlife that this unique plateau and canyon grassland ecosystem supports. Furthermore, the property supports spalding s catchfly, a native plant that is federally listed as threatened under the endangered species act. Approximately 50 acres of emergent wetland habitat associated with downey lake, a mid-elevation playa lake, as mapped by the national wetlands inventory, has spaldings catchfly in the surrounding area. The property is located on an ecological boundary between the zumwalt prairie, a 250,000-acre plateau grassland landscape, and the deep canyon grasslands of hells canyon, home of the snake river. Collectively, these two ecological systems represent the best remaining examples of pacific northwest bunchgrass ecosystems and include several catchfly key conservation areas (KCA). The relatively unfragmented condition of the landscape means that IT is a place where ecosystem processes (including pollination, reproduction and growth, and disturbance regimes of herbivory, disease, and fire) can operate at meaningful scales. This lake is a unique lake sitting at about 5,000 feet in elevation and is key for migratory birds passing through the region as a stopover, ELK and other herbivores use IT, and other flora and fauna