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Harney Lake is a shallow alkali lake basin located in southeast Oregon, United States, approximately south of the city of Burns. The lake lies within the boundary of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and is the lowest point in the Blitzen Valley drainage.
Despite a history of 9,000 years of human inhabitation on Harney Lake by the Northern Paiute primarily as nomadic wintering camps, little sign of modern human habitation is evident on Harney Lake. The nearest residents live in the community of Narrows.
As typical to other alkali lake beds in the western United States, minimal aquatic life is found in Harney Lake. A species of inland brine shrimp is the only form of life in Harney Lake. Despite its limited food supply, the lake is part of an important inland marsh ecosystem for migratory birds in the arid southeast Oregon desert.
The redband is a unique subspecies adapted to the Malheur Lake Basin ecosystem. In these closed High Desert basins, redband trout have evolved to survive in environments with vast extremes of both water flow and temperature. They are one of only eight separate desert basin populations of interior native redband trout. The Malheur Lakes redband comprises 10 population groups in the closed interior basin of Harney and Malheur lakes. Historically, all streams were interconnected and these fish moved to the lakes and among population segments.Behnke, R. J. 1992. Native Trout of Western North America. American Fisheries Society Monograph 6. Bethesda, MD.
While not an officially designated threatened or endangered species, the Redband Trout is recognized as important resource, and this law sets aside land in Oregon for protection and research of Redband Trout. The Cooperative Management and Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106–399) Malheur Lake Basin Redband - The Ecological Angler
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