Buttermilk

Buttermilk is a 19,373-acre Inventoried Roadless Area in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest of northern Nevada, occupying a montane basin in the Santa Rosa Range north of the Martin Creek Mountains. Major landforms include Buttermilk Summit, Hinkey Summit, the basin floor of Tom Basin and Buttermilk Meadows, and the cleft drainage of Box Canyon. The area carries major-significance hydrology at the Round Corral Creek-Martin Creek headwaters, with cold flows gathered from Alkali Creek, Harvey Creek, Middle Fork Round Corral Creek, Deep Creek, Round Corral Creek, Buttermilk Creek, and South Fork Indian Creek, plus discrete spring discharges at Recanzone Spring and Buttermilk Springs. These streams drain north into the Quinn River system.

Vegetation is dominated by Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe (54% of the area), Columbia Plateau Steppe and Grassland, and Columbia Plateau Low Sagebrush Steppe, with big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) over an understory of Great Basin wildrye (Leymus cinereus), arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), and parsnipflower buckwheat (Eriogonum heracleoides). North-facing draws and higher slopes hold Intermountain Mountain Mahogany Woodland of curl-leaf mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius). Cool draws gather Intermountain Aspen and Conifer Forest and Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), and the highest elevations carry Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest with Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Streamside corridors hold Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland with red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) and Woods' rose (Rosa woodsii), and the moist meadows bloom in summer with sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum), monument plant (Frasera speciosa), western columbine (Aquilegia formosa), and the regionally endemic Bruneau mariposa lily (Calochortus bruneaunis).

The wildlife community follows these vegetation gradients. Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), assessed as near threatened by the IUCN, holds breeding leks in the sagebrush flats. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) range the open steppe, and chukar (Alectoris chukar) and ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) hold territories on the rocky slopes and aspen edges. Lewis's woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis), olive-sided flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), and broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) work the conifer canopy and aspen pockets; northern harrier (Circus hudsonius) and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) hunt across the open country. In the cold headwater streams, Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus henshawi), assessed as vulnerable by the IUCN, persists in spawning and rearing habitat. Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) and Belding's ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi) inhabit the rocky meadows. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A traveler descending into Tom Basin hears wind in quaking aspen and the soft chuckle of ruffed grouse, then crosses through Buttermilk Meadows where sticky geranium, prairie-smoke (Geum triflorum), and corn lily (Veratrum californicum) carpet the moist openings. Climbing toward Buttermilk Summit, the air dries, the aspen falls away, and the open ridge opens onto a long view down Box Canyon to the Quinn River drainage to the north. In the streamside corridor along Buttermilk Creek, mountain bluebells (Mertensia ciliata) line the cold flows, and a watcher pausing on the ridge above can catch a golden eagle traversing the basin below.

The Santa Rosa Range that holds the Buttermilk roadless area has been an inhabited landscape for hundreds of generations. When the first Native Americans entered this region of northern Nevada, the south Santa Rosa Mountains were effectively a peninsula surrounded by the waters of ancient Lake Lahontan, and these earliest peoples left behind Clovis projectile points and Great Basin Crescents created from locally sourced obsidian [4]. For roughly 700 generations Native Americans have been living on this land and utilizing the resources of the Santa Rosa Range and the surrounding valleys [4]. The Quinn River drainage and the Santa Rosa Range remain the traditional homeland of Northern Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock people [4][1]. The local Northern Paiute band was known as Atsakudokwa Tuviwa ga yu, "People of the Red Mountain" [1].

European contact came with the fur trade. Peter Skene Ogden recorded his first (1828-1829) and second (1829-1830) expeditions through the Santa Rosa Range on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company [4]. The first recorded Americans in the area were with the Bonneville trapping expedition led by Joseph Walker in 1833 [4]. The first permanent Anglo settlement was a trading post established in 1853 at the best fording across the Humboldt River — the site that became Winnemucca in 1868 [4]. The fertile bottoms of Paradise Valley were found by prospectors from Star City in 1863, and W.M. Gregg returned to begin a hay ranch; by the end of the following year, twenty ranchers had located there [3]. The Quinn River Camp No. 33 was established by the US Army on August 14, 1865, at the base of the Santa Rosa Range to protect travelers along the Virginia City to Boise, Idaho road; it was named Fort McDermitt for Lt. Col. Charles McDermitt, killed in the area that year [1]. When the military outpost was closed in 1889, the Military Reservation was adapted as the Fort McDermitt Indian Agency [1]. In 1866, Camp Winfield Scott was established near Paradise Valley to protect homesteaders, and was abandoned in 1869 [3].

Federal stewardship of the surrounding range began with the conservation reforms of the early 20th century. The National Forest System was started when the Nation's public land policy moved from the disposition to the conservation era, driven by the need to protect mountainous watershed lands from indiscriminate over-grazing and cutting of timber [7]. The Santa Rosa National Forest was set apart by President William H. Taft on April 1, 1911, by Presidential Proclamation 1120, which reserved tracts of land in Nevada "in part covered with timber" [2][6]. The original Santa Rosa Ranger District 1 was located on 40 acres at the mouth of Rebel Creek Canyon from 1911 to 1922; W.W. Blakeslee was the first Supervisor [5]. The forest was later absorbed into the Humboldt National Forest, which was administratively joined with Toiyabe as the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in 1995 [5]. Buttermilk today is managed within the Santa Rosa Ranger District and is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• Cold Headwater Cutthroat Streams: Buttermilk holds the major-significance headwaters of Round Corral Creek-Martin Creek through Buttermilk Creek, Round Corral Creek, Alkali Creek, Harvey Creek, Deep Creek, and the spring discharges at Recanzone Spring and Buttermilk Springs. The roadless condition preserves the cold, sediment-free flows that Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus henshawi) require for spawning and rearing — the species is federally Threatened and depends on undisturbed upland watersheds for the persistent cold-water habitat that has been lost across most of its native range in the Lahontan Basin.

• Sagebrush Steppe and Sage-Grouse Continuity: Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe covers 54% of the area in unfragmented mosaic with Columbia Plateau Steppe and Grassland and Columbia Plateau Low Sagebrush Steppe. The roadless condition holds together the patch sizes that greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) require for breeding leks and seasonal range, and preserves the connected pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) movement corridors across the basin floor.

• Aspen-Subalpine Climate Refugia and Endemic Plants: The connected elevational gradient through Intermountain Aspen and Conifer Forest, Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest, and Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest provides climate refugia for high-elevation species and habitat for the regionally endemic Bruneau mariposa lily (Calochortus bruneaunis) and Bailey's ivesia (Ivesia baileyi). The roadless condition keeps these communities connected at landscape scale, allowing species to shift upslope as conditions warm without crossing road-induced fragmentation.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation and disruption of Lahontan cutthroat spawning streams: Road construction in mountainous montane terrain cuts across slopes that drain into Buttermilk Creek, Round Corral Creek, Alkali Creek, and the Round Corral Creek-Martin Creek headwaters, exposing erodible soils that deliver chronic fine sediment into spawning gravels. Lahontan cutthroat trout require unembedded, oxygen-rich gravel for spawning and rearing; once cut-and-fill surfaces sediment downstream channels, the spawning substrate is degraded and is difficult to restore on management timescales.

• Sage-grouse habitat fragmentation and cheatgrass invasion: Road corridors carve continuous sagebrush steppe into isolated patches, eliminating the interior conditions sage-grouse require for leks and nesting and introducing edges along which non-native annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) establish from disturbed corridors. Cheatgrass reseeds on disturbed road shoulders and spreads outward, converting fire-resistant sagebrush stands into flammable annual grasslands and triggering fire-cycle changes that sagebrush ecosystems do not recover from on management timescales.

• Loss of aspen and subalpine connectivity: Road benches in aspen and subalpine spruce-fir forest open the canopy of slow-recruiting overstory species and fragment the elevational gradient that supports endemic plants like Bruneau mariposa lily and Bailey's ivesia. The disturbed cut-and-fill surfaces erode chronically, deliver sediment into downslope drainages, and provide colonization sites for invasive species, while the climate-refugia value of intact high-elevation stands is reduced and connectivity for species shifting upslope is broken.

Buttermilk covers 19,373 acres of mountainous montane country in the Santa Rosa Range of northern Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The area is reached through the Santa Rosa Ranger District, with the Lye Creek Campground serving as the principal developed entry point — the only campground within striking distance of the area's interior.

The trail network is short and primitive. The Deep Creek to Box Canyon Trail (#10056) runs 5.9 miles through the principal drainage, and the Slick Rock Trail (#10002) covers 4.0 miles across the high country. Shorter routes — the Road Creek Trail (#10202, 0.5 mi), Buttermilk Trail (#10205, 0.4 mi), Buttermilk Meadow Trail (#10206, 0.4 mi), Indian Creek Spur A (#10208, 0.2 mi), Round Corral Spur (#10207, 0.1 mi), and Motora B (#10204, 0.1 mi) — branch into the named drainages and the meadow basins. All routes are native material and uses are not formally specified; travel is by foot and horseback. Cross-country travel beyond the trails depends on map reading, water awareness, and self-reliance.

Hunting is the principal large-mammal activity. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) range the open steppe and basin floors; greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) holds leks in the sagebrush; ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) and chukar (Alectoris chukar) hold territories along the aspen edges and rocky slopes. All hunting occurs under Nevada Department of Wildlife regulations and tag requirements; the Santa Rosa Ranger District office should be consulted for unit boundaries and current season information.

Anglers can target Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus henshawi) in the cold headwater reaches of Buttermilk Creek, Round Corral Creek, and the Martin Creek drainage, though the species is federally listed and Nevada Department of Wildlife regulations apply specifically to its protection. The cold flows that emerge at Recanzone Spring and Buttermilk Springs sustain the wetted reaches.

Birding focuses on the sagebrush, aspen, and high-elevation species. The Lye Creek Campground hotspot has recorded 77 species; from there birders work uphill into the area itself, where Lewis's woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis), Virginia's warbler (Leiothlypis virginiae), olive-sided flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus), and Cassin's finch (Haemorhous cassinii) work the aspen pockets and conifer edges; sage thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus) and northern yellow warbler (Setophaga aestiva) hold territories in the steppe and streamside corridors; and northern harrier (Circus hudsonius), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) hunt across the open country.

Wildflower observation and photography are most rewarding in early summer in the high meadows of Tom Basin and Buttermilk Meadows. Sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum), monument plant (Frasera speciosa), western columbine (Aquilegia formosa), prairie-smoke (Geum triflorum), arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), and the regionally endemic Bruneau mariposa lily (Calochortus bruneaunis) bloom across the moist openings; corn lily (Veratrum californicum) emerges in the wetter meadows; and northern mule's-ears (Wyethia amplexicaulis) cover the open hillsides.

Backcountry camping in the area itself is dispersed and primitive — Lye Creek Campground provides the only developed facility nearby, and water within the area is limited to the named creeks and springs. Pack-in/pack-out practices are essential. Stock use along the longer Deep Creek to Box Canyon and Slick Rock trails is feasible for experienced parties.

The recreation here depends on the roadless condition. The short native-surface trails, the cross-country travel into Tom Basin and Box Canyon, the unmolested pronghorn and sage-grouse habitat, the cold headwater streams that sustain Lahontan cutthroat trout, and the high-elevation aspen pockets that hold Virginia's warbler all exist because no road network has been pushed through the interior. Adding roads would replace dispersed backcountry travel with motorized access, sediment the cutthroat spawning streams, fragment sage-grouse leks and pronghorn corridors, and reduce a quiet hunting and birding unit to a developed recreation footprint.