NRHP Reference # 94000267 Added to NRHP 11 April 1994 | Area 3 ha Nearest city Milford | |
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Architectural style Other, Forest Service standard plan | ||
The Desert Biosphere Reserve and Experimental Range is a biosphere reserve and experimental range in the western reaches of the U.S. state of Utah. The experimental range was established in 1933 when 87 square miles (230 km2) of public lands were designated "as an agricultural range experiment station" by President Herbert Hoover.
The range is maintained by the U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station. It was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1976. It is located in the northwest of Pine Valley, a valley section in southwest Millard County, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Milford; the north section of the reserve covers the southern half of the Tunnel Springs Mountains. It protects a landscape typical of the Great Basin, with its typical geography of north-south aligned mountain ranges separated by desert basins. Vegetation is typical of the Great Basin shrub steppe, with shadscale saltbush (Atriplex confertifolia) and sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) scrublands predominant. The reserve also includes areas of Single-leaf Pinyon (Pinus monophylla)-juniper woodland and pasture land.