Friends,
Another good plant book is Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia
by Parish, Coupe, and Loyd. It's part of the great series on BC plants
from BC Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing.

The GAP reports are probably the best single source for basin-wide
terrestrial vertebrate distributions. Site-by-site, they miss a few
things, but the habitat information is also a great starting place.

Invertebrates probably aren't more abundant on the east side than the
west side, but they sure seem more conspicuous. Beyond the obvious
butterflies and dragonflies, bees, beetles, ants, and moths seem to be
everywhere. 1000 species of bees have been documented for the Columbia
Basin! We need to look under rocks too. Eleven species of gastropods
(snails and company) that appear to be limited to the Basin.

Between what we do know about sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, WA ground
squirrels, and others and what we don't know about sage sparrows,
Merriam's shrew, and invertebrates, shrub-steppe is a really cool place
with lots of opportunity for discovery.

Lest anyone think there's no controversy, there's an on-going, heated
discussion about shrub steppe, shrub-steppe, or shrubsteppe.

John Fleckenstein, zoologist
Natural Heritage Program
Dpt. Nat. Resources