The slopes of the Line Creek Plateau support a number of 

 subalpine and montane forest communities. The eastern foothills 

 at the base of the Line Creek Plateau support good-condition 

 grasslands, sagebrush steppe and limber pine woodlands developed 

 on calcareous soils derived from Madison limestone (Veseth and 

 Montagne 1980) . 



Sixteen species of vascular plants listed as species of 

 special concern by the Montana Natural Heritage Program are known 

 to occur on the Line Creek Plateau. Fourteen of these are found 

 near or above timberline; two more are found in sagebrush steppe 

 in the eastern foothills of the plateau. One species is a 

 candidate for listing as a threatened or endangered species; five 

 others are listed as sensitive by Region One of the U.S. Forest 

 Service. Many areas of the Beartooth Mountains have been 

 explored botanically; nonetheless, four species of plants have 

 been found in Montana only on the Line Creek Plateau or the 

 adjacent Hellroaring Plateau. The earlier snow-release occurring 

 on the Line Creek Plateau may provide conditions more amenable to 

 species that evolved in low-elevation arctic environments 

 suggesting ways in which this easternmost and warmest plateau may 

 be biologically unigue. 



Most of Montana's Beartooth Mountains are included in the 

 Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area and are thus protected from 

 most human-caused disturbances. The area of limestone scarps and 

 desert foothills on the east face of the mountains along Grove 

 and Gold creeks forms the proposed Meeteetse Spires Preserve 

 (Lesica 1988) , a cooperative project of The Nature Conservancy, 

 The Bureau of Land Management and private landowners. The Line 

 Creek Plateau, one of the five largest alpine plateaus of the 

 Beartooth Mountains, lies between Meeteetse Spires Preserve and 

 the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. The Meeteetse Spires area 

 adjoins the Pryor Mountain Desert region, a large area of 

 primarily public land supporting a spectacular array of desert 

 communities and rare plants (DeVelice and Lesica 1993, Kratz 

 1988, Lesica and Achuff 1992, Lesica et al. 1992). On the 

 eastern margin of the Pryor Mountain Desert lies the Bighorn 

 Canyon National Recreation Area and the Bighorn Mountains of 

 Wyoming. Thus, the Line Creek Plateau is the missing link in the 

 chain that connects the Bighorn-Pryor Mountains and the Pryor 

 Mountain Desert with the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and the 

 Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. 



This system of reserves and wildlands captures an 

 unprecedented degree of the habitat diversity present in the 

 Northern Rocky Mountains (Lesica 1991) . The most significant 

 nature reserves are those that encompass the broadest range of 

 environments (Hunter et al. 1988). There are three reason why 

 habitat diversity is important: (1) high species diversity is 

 associated with many different communities and their ecotones, 

 (2) habitat diversity provides conditions necessary for continued 



