North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve, Protected nature area in Oroville, California.

North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve is a protected area near Oroville in northern California, set on a raised basalt plateau shaped by volcanic rock formations, open grasslands, and seasonal waterfalls. After winter rains, shallow rock basins fill with water and form temporary pools that dry up again by spring.

California acquired this land in 1993 to protect a rare system of seasonal rock pools that exists at this scale in very few other places. The funds came from a state conservation program focused on saving habitats at risk.

The reserve protects the Northern Basalt Flow Vernal Pools, a habitat type found in only four localities in California. Among the sensitive species recorded here are Butte County meadowfoam (Limnanthes floccosa ssp. californica), Red Bluff dwarf rush and the California horned lizard. Ravines on the site hold native oaks, madrones, California buckeyes and California bays, and birds range from golden eagle and peregrine falcon to canyon wren and meadowlark.

No pass is required; the reserve is open to the public, but horses and bicycles are prohibited under the 2003 regulations. Access is on foot, and the terrain is a basalt plateau cut by ravines. Winter and spring rains fill the vernal pools and start the waterfalls and wildflower displays, so that is when the ground is wettest.

The reserve holds one of only 4 known sites in California where Northern Basalt Flow Vernal Pools occur, a type of seasonal rock pool that can only form on certain volcanic surfaces. The combination of basalt rock and the local climate creates the precise conditions these pools need, and those conditions rarely come together elsewhere.