Plants and Wildlife
Badger and Candy Mountains feature a wide variety of wildlife, including the plants below. We are working on improving this section of our website. If you believe you have information or photos you can contribute, please contact our webmaster at webmaster@friendsofbadger.org.
Flora & Fauna on Trails
Canyon Trail
The entire route is open dryland grasses and a few shrubs. In the spring, there are numerous wild flowers including balsam root, phlox, and wild mustard.
Sagebrush Trail
The trail starts out in open grasses before entering thick old sagebrush. Spring flowers include balsamroot and phlox.
Langdon Trail
Kestrels, nightjars, magpies, maybe a chukkar or quail, horned lark. Beetles, bull snakes, ground squirrel, coyote. Piper’s Daisy, Balsam Root, Giant and Purple Sage, Rabbit Brush, Yellow Bells (fritillaria), biscuitroot (lomatia), penstemon, lupine, buckwheats, phlox, winterfat and numerous others.
Skyline Trail
The trail travels through sagebrush at both ends transitioning to dryland native grasses in the middle. There are numerous balsamroot and some purple sagebrush in the spring.
Badger Flats Trail
The trail passes through native dryland grasses and sagebrush.
Candy Mountain Trails
The wildlife and plants on Candy Mountain are very similar to those found Badger Mountain. Birds you might see include kestrels, nightjars, magpies, chukkars, quail, and horned larks. Other animals are bull snakes, ground squirrels, coyote, lizards, and beetles. Plants include Piper’s Daisy, Balsam Root, Giant and Purple Sage, Rabbit Brush, Winterfat, Yellow Bells (fritillaria), Biscuitroot (lomatia), penstemon, lupine, buckwheats, phlox, and numerous others.
Flowers on Badger and Candy Mountains
Bigseed biscuitroot, large fuited lomatium (Lomatium macrocarpum), blooms in spring
Fiddleneck tarweed (Amsinckia lycopsoides), blooms April-May
Nineleaf biscuitroot (Lomatium triternatum), blooms early spring
Hairy seed fleabane, purple cushion fleabane (Erigeron poliospermus), blooms April-May
Sagebrush mariposa lily (Calochortus macrocarpus), blooms late May-June
Slender hawksbeard (Crepis atrabarba), blooms in May
Trumpet bluebells, small bluebells, long bluebells (Mertensia longiflora), blooms in early spring
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), blooms June-August
Carey’s balsomroot (Balsamorphiza careyana), blooms in late spring
Linear leaf daisy (Erigeron linearis), blooms April-May
Piper’s daisy (Erigeron piperianus), blooms April-May
Robinson’s onion (Allium robinsonii), blooms April-May
Shaggy daisy, shaggy fleabane (Erigeron pumilus), blooms April-May
Columbia milkvetch, sprawling rattle-weed, crouching locoweed (Astargalus succumbens), blooms late spring
Upland larkspur, twoloved larkspur (Delphinium nuttallii), blooms mid-spring
Yellowbells (Fritillaria pudica), blooms early spring
Douglas’ brodiaea (Brodiaea douglasii)
Long-leaf phlox (Phlox longifolia), blooms early spring
Prairie star (Lithophragma glabrum), blooms early spring
Rosy balsamroot (Balsamorphiza rosea), blooms mid-spring
Silky lupine (Lupinus sericeus), blooms spring
Threadleaf phacelia (Phacelia linearis), blooms April-May
Pursh’s milk-vetch, woolypod milkvetch (Astragalus purshii), blooms early spring
The plant photos are credited to Max Conner and Keith Abel
Controlling the Noxious Weeds
Our board member David Beach is leading noxious weed removal activities on Candy Mountain. This work is on-going and a continual effort to improve the environment on the mountain. If you would like more information on what’s being done and when volunteers might be needed click the contact button below.