herbaceous sword fern and stinging nettle. In contemporary times, clearing of forests for housing development has left about half of the Boring Lava region still forested. As a result, water quality has decreased due to higher sedimentation and turbidity, and flooding has gotten worse over time. Streams within the area are of either first or second order, with moderate to low flows and average gradients between 10 and 12 percent. Cool and clear, many sustain macroinvertebrates, and a smaller number support amphibians and fish. The Riparian zones in the Lava Field area host diverse species, and they are influenced by uplands that serve as migration connections for birds, mammals, reptiles, and some amphibians. Gravel bars extend to the west from Rocky Butte, creating barriers for a lowland marsh. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service provided a list of potentially threatened or endangered species in the Boring Lava area, calling them "sensitive" species. Among plant species, they determined the following species to be sensitive: white top aster, golden Indian paintbrush, tall bugbane, pale larkspur, peacock larkspur, Willamette daisy, water howellia, Bradshaw's lomatium, Kincaid's lupine, Howell's montia, Nelson's checkermallow, and Oregon sullivantia. For animal and marine life, northwestern pond turtles, Willow flycatchers, long-eared myotises, fringed myotises, long-legged myotises, Yuma myotises, Pacific western big-eared bats, and northern red-legged frogs have been identified as species of concern; pileated woodpeckers, bald eagles, cutthroat trout, and coho salmon are also considered sensitive. Human history Mowitch Illihee, 'home of the deer', was the traditional hunting grounds for indigenous peoples. At the summit of Rocky Butte, a rotating airway beacon was erected in 1929; though the beacon is still lit, it was officially decommissioned in the late 1960s. During the 1930s, employees of the Works Progress Administration constructed a park at the summit, at an elevation of about . Called Joseph Wood Hill Park, it was built on Rocky Butte when Rocky Butte was known as Wiberg Butte. Rock from Rocky Butte's eastern slopes was used for the Multnomah County jail building, and some were later used for renovation of the Historic Columbia River Highway. There is a communications tower on the southern end of the volcano. The Rocky Butte jail, completed in 1947, served as the major facility for male prisoners in Multnomah County, with a courtyard and recreation field. According to Rubin (1973), the Rocky Butte jail housed 320 inmates, but Houston, Gibbons, and Jones