The steep west face of Hart Mountain, with its vertical folds cut by narrow canyons, loomed ahead. We drove up the steep gravel road looking for birds and bighorn. On top of the mountain, we could see the yellow-green of young willows marking the course of a little stream. Damp, grassy banks forced the water into a narrow channel. Upstream, in the clear water, we could see the sinuous forms of two trout.
Some people assume cutbanks along Western streams are natural.
Next to it, the land was tawny with late-season grass. Nunn says sage takes over after the original grasses and broader-leafed plants have been hammered by generations of livestock. Some sagebrush is natural. A landscape dominated by it is not. The grassy area suggests how the refuge must have looked before livestock arrived.