Art exhibit showcases Washington’s shrub-steppe ecosystem

Driving through central Washington might look like scrubland from the highway. Now, an art exhibit in Tieton is highlighting the landscape’s beauty.

A sculpture of a pygmy rabbit by Janet Beuge. The piece is on display at the Boxx Gallery through Sept. 29. (Courtesy of Cowiche Canyon Conservancy)

“When you get up close to it, there’s this incredible tapestry of wildlife that inhabits the shrub-steppe and needs the shrub-steppe to survive,” said Celisa Hopkins, the executive director of Cowiche Canyon Conservancy.

The conservancy is helping put on the show at the Boxx Gallery. The show runs through this Sunday. The gallery is open on Fridays from 1 to 5 p.m. and on the weekend from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Images of the Shrub-Steppe” is the eighth annual juried art exhibit that features paintings, sculptures, photography and collage. 

“Art is and has been a way that people connect with nature and share their experience of the wonder of the natural world,” Hopkins said.

“The Promise of Spring” by artist Gayle Scholl. The painting is featured in the “Images of Shrub-Steppe” juried art exhibition. (Courtesy of Cowiche Canyon Conservancy)

Viewers can connect to the natural world while contemplating a sculpture of a pygmy rabbit or an impressionistic painting of “The Promise of Spring,” by artist Gayle Scholl.

“Whether it’s a specific flower or an animal that lives on the landscape, I think that gives people a different window that we may not see when we’re out walking alone on a trail,” Hopkins said.

This weekend, a talk by Zach Schierl will cover two lava flows that met in Tieton and formed the shrub-steppe landscape.

“The focus will be on the two main lava flows that underlie the valley: the Columbia River Basalts and the Tieton Andesite, which form the backdrop for some of my favorite images from the Yakima area,” Schierl wrote on his website.

Two of Schierl’s photographs are featured in the exhibit.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed photographing this unique and wide-open landscape (especially during spring wildflower season!) since we moved to Yakima in 2019,” he wrote.

Hopkins said she hopes the art will bring people closer to the threatened landscape around them.

The arid shrub-steppe ecosystem is one of the most diverse landscapes in Washington — and it’s in trouble, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Washington’s “sagebrush sea” has been fragmented by agriculture and development.

Less than 20% of shrub-steppe habitat is left in the Columbia Basin, Hopkins said. It’s home to sage grouse and burrowing owls. 

“For the survival of the species that rely on the shrub-steppe, they need connected tracts of land and the ability to migrate from one space to the other as climate conditions change,” she said.