Low ground cover includes arrowleaf balsamroot, spiny phlox, common yarrow, longleaf hawksbeard, ragged robin, bitterroot, and nineleaf biscuitroot.

Other small bird species include black-capped chickadees, mountain chickadee, pine siskins, lesser goldfinches, American goldfinches, canyon wrens, rock wrens, cliff swallows, barn swallows, western meadowlark, mountain bluebirds, sage thrashers, American robins, mourning doves, and Brewers blackbirds.

[6][8] Small mammals found on the Powell Buttes include American badger, striped skunks, western spotted skunks, common raccoons, black-tailed jackrabbits, mountain cottontails, California ground squirrels, Belding's ground squirrels, Ord's kangaroo rat, and deer mice.

[10] In 1989, the Bureau of Land Management established a 520-acre (210 ha) Research Natural Area along the south side of the mountain including the southwest and southeast slopes.

[6] A large destination resort by Pahlisch Homes, called the Hidden Canyon, was planned for development on the buttes but never saw completion because of land impact issues related to wildlife, among other reasons.

The Powell Butte agricultural research farm acted as a center for potato variety development and hay production.

In 2010, an outbreak of the potato cyst nematode Globodera ellingtonae caused the farm to shut down, with major research activity moving to a different site in the city of Klamath Falls.