Above Rose Creek, rolling Palouse wheat fields shimmer golden in the August sun. By fall, only stubble remains, but in the bottomland that forms The Nature Conservancy's Rose Creek Preserve, an array of autumnal colors brings the landscape to life. Yellow-leafed aspen contrast sharply with the reddish-brown foliage of the black hawthorn, while nearby, skeletal stalks of cow parsnip await the leveling blasts of winter wind.

The Rose Creek Preserve is one of the best remaining examples of this rare plant community, which, even prior to grazing and farming, covered less than five percent of Whitman County. On the preserve, black hawthorn grows to a height of 15 feet or more. The understory of cow parsnip grows to a height of six feet, creating a cool sanctuary for wildlife during hot summer months.

George and Bess Hudson, founders of The Nature Conservancy's former Inland Empire Chapter, donated the first Washington preserve to the Conservancy in 1966. When purchased by the Hudsons in 1957, the 22 acres of land had been overgrazed. The couple allowed the land to recover, and today the preserve is recognized as containing one of the best black hawthorn/cow parsnip riparian areas left in the entire Palouse.

At Rose Creek and a few other sites, the relationship between the black hawthorn and quaking aspen is particularly complex. As the aspen grows, it shades out the hawthorn, which dies back to rootstocks, only to re-emerge when the short-lived aspen falls victim to heart rot. Following a dormant period, the aspen sprouts again and the cycle repeats.

Part of the Palouse River drainage, the Rose Creek Preserve is surrounded by a sea of wheat. Rose Creek bisects the preserve, offering life-sustaining water to more than 100 species of birds. In winter, long-eared owls roost in the dense hawthorn thickets as red-tailed hawks hunt the adjoining hills. Some of the less common Eastern Washington birds, such as catbirds and black-chinned hummingbirds, are also attracted to Rose Creek.

The preserve supports more than 250 species of vascular plants and provides food and habitat to mammals ranging in size from shrews and voles to porcupine, coyote and white-tailed deer. All of these animals are suffering from habitat loss and degradation in the Palouse.