What You'll Find at Lake Abert

Brisk air and dark shadows cast over the lake while the sun makes its daily journey up Abert Rim. Western meadowlarks sing and distant chukar calls echo through the air. Coyotes stride across dry lakebed and juvenile birds drink from fresh water streams while a northern harrier glides above. An entire ecosystem rises for another day.

This scene is an early morning routine on the north end of Lake Abert — Oregon’s only hypersaline lake, and one of just three hypersaline lakes in the U.S. Located in south-central Oregon, just east of the town of Paisley, an abundance and diversity of waterbirds, waterfowl and shorebirds utilize this saline wonderland before their journey south of the equator. Lake Abert provides a crucial pitstop for migratory birds that traverse the Pacific Flyway — a major north-south flyway for migratory birds, extending from Alaska to Patagonia. Every year, migratory birds travel some or all of this distance following food sources, heading to breeding grounds or seeking overwintering sites. They replenish their energy at Lake Abert by feasting on the alkali flies and brine shrimp that are adapted to live in this hypersaline environment.

Lake Abert was my introduction to Oregon’s high desert. Born and raised in Arizona, I’m familiar with the Sonoran Desert, sagebrush, juniper and ponderosa pine landscapes. I’m especially familiar with the surprising diversity and abundance a desert can cultivate. When I moved to Oregon this past summer, the high desert, specifically Lake Abert, quickly became a point of familiarity in an otherwise unfamiliar region.

Driving out to Lake Abert for the first time, I camped overnight and basked in the beauty of Abert Rim before I would spend the following morning completely absorbed by the Pacific Flyway migrants that occupied the lake. The quiet and astounding first hours of the day revealed the autonomy of this community, how each species communes, takes and gives to this unique ecological system. Sights included shores scattered with American avocet, black-necked stilt, gulls and smaller shorebirds, distant flocks of diving eared grebe, mesmerizing phalarope murmurations and other fantastic behavioral observations.

More than 80 species of waterbirds have been observed at Lake Abert during migration along the Pacific Flyway. When conditions are optimal and brine shrimp and alkali fly populations are thriving, Lake Abert can support hundreds of thousands of birds, whose arrival at the lake coincides with peak invertebrate populations. These abundant food sources, in addition to the shallow shoreline, unobstructed sight lines to avoid predation and freshwater springs around the lake for bathing and drinking, combine to create an ideal seasonal habitat for birds. Only the Great Salt Lake surpasses Lake Abert in importance to migratory species.

I’d come back to Lake Abert routinely throughout that spring and summer. Being a beginner birder, I never imagined seeing so many striking birds, in such high quantities, so soon. Other notable sights here included a waddling badger on the side of the road, a stoic great blue heron, my first western tanager sighting and a coyote in a barking spat with a Canada goose. This diversity of life beyond the birds that thrive here further instilled what a special ecosystem lay before me.

As I spent more time here, I came to find that while this is an indispensable ecosystem appreciated for its wonders, its future is at risk. Lake Abert’s ecosystem depends on consistent and reliable fresh water to support the food web that feeds the abundant life at the lake. However, a myriad of factors have reduced water flow into the lake, upsetting the balance of its salinity or drying up the lake altogether. In 2014, the lake went dry for the first time since the 1930s, shrinking to 5% of its maximum size. Salt concentrations exceeded 15%, surpassing the threshold at which brine shrimp and alkali flies can survive, to the detriment of tens of thousands of migratory birds. Low lake levels persisted for several years, finally appearing to recover in 2017, only for the cycle to repeat itself again in the last decade.

Part of the problem is due to poor water management, which organizations like the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) have stepped in to mediate. In 2023, ONDA improved conservation and management of Lake Abert when its advocacy encouraged Oregon’s legislature to take action on the issue. In the year ahead, the organization will continue working with tribes, ranchers, conservation groups, elected officials, scientists and other community partners to restore Lake Abert and protect migratory bird habitat, and to ensure conservation is at the center of conversation. ONDA has a number of opportunities for the community to get involved in important conservation and stewardship actions throughout the high desert region.

As another day ends at Lake Abert and I feel the night bring on the cold, I’m met with gratitude and immense awe for this ecosystem that prevails despite its challenges. This is an ecosystem that’s special and unique to this region, that I associate the wonders and vitality of the sagebrush steppe. Lake Abert allowed me to find a refuge and familiarity in a foreign landscape, much like it does for the wildlife that pass through its saline shores.

—Liliya Giroux was a 2024 summer Hillis Intern at Oregon Natural Desert Association, where she supported the long-term monitoring efforts of migratory birds that depend on Lake Abert by conducting weekly bird counts, recording the abundance and diversity of Pacific Flyway migrants that utilize the lake before their journey south of the equator

This article appears in The Source Weekly February 20, 2025.