Because of drier conditions, fires have probably always been more common on the eastern slope. Here, additional fires may have been intentionally set to improve ungulate forage and hunting success. In essence, forest maturity was maintained at lower maturity through human intervention. It is also reasonable to expect prehistoric humans to have burned more mature western slopes, though the impact may have been more limited. Because of their importance as a summer elk and deer habitat, it is unreasonable to expect its use in the mountains as well.
Dry meadows are ephemeral.
Plant materials were a major part of the people who lived in the Willamette Valley. These reeds are collected in requisite quantity, length and fineness. Taking up her arrow-like needle, she thrust it though the woof at her feet, under one strand and above another, till it came out on the other side. Holding the web down firmly with the left hand, she picked up the carved smoother with the right and ran it several times over the fiber last woven, the groove along the working edge of this pressing instrument fitting the reed of the matting. When the work seemed to her sufficiently even and flat, she ran her needle back again, the under-strands of the woof now becoming the upper, and she pressed as before.