Oregon holds the northern heart of the western gray squirrel’s range, and 1,898 records across 23 counties show the state carrying that role well. The heaviest counts run through Benton, Lane, and Deschutes counties, tying the map to two distinct landscapes, the oak country of the Willamette Valley and the pine forests of the eastern Cascades.
Oaks in the valley, pines on the dry side
The largest tree squirrel in the Pacific states lives wherever big trees and big crops of nuts and cones come together. In western Oregon that means Oregon white oak savanna and mixed woodland, while east of the crest it works ponderosa pine forest, with Deschutes National Forest alone accounting for 100 records. Acorns and pine seeds anchor the diet, but the squirrel also digs up truffles and other underground fungi, moving their spores around the forest floor as it goes.
Out and about in every month
Unlike the ground squirrels it shares eastern Oregon with, the western gray squirrel does not hibernate, and reports show animals active in every month of the year. Counts climb through winter to a March peak, when breeding activity and travel between food caches make squirrels more conspicuous. It spends much of that year high in the canopy, resting in bulky leaf nests built against a trunk or in the fork of large limbs.
Status in Oregon
NatureServe ranks the western gray squirrel S4, Apparently Secure, in Oregon, and the species is native to the state. Its main local pressure is a modern one: introduced eastern gray squirrels have spread through parts of the Willamette Valley and compete with it in the oak woodlands both species favor.
Full species profile
