Protect the Hinkle Lake Botanical Area

The Hinkle Lake Botanical Area hosts some of the Siskiyou Crest’s most spectacular high mountain meadows.

          Hinkle Lake and the Hinkle Lake Botanical Area are located in the Oregon section of the Kangaroo Roadless Area, adjacent to the Red Buttes Wilderness, above Carberry Creek in the Upper Applegate River drainage. The Hinkle Lake Botanical Area is a place of spectacular beauty,set aside for its significant botanical diversity and quality of habitat. The meadow system surrounding Hinkle Lake is one of the largest in the Red Buttes region, and it hosts numerous rare and endemic species. One particularly rare species, known as the Alpine Liverwort (Chilosyphus gemmiparus), is found in only six other locations worldwide. Unfortunately, in the Hinkle Lake Botanical Area, Alpine Liverwort habitat is being severely degraded by illegal Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) use.
          Thirty-three years ago the Forest Service recognized the negative impacts that motor vehicles were having on the meadows around Hinkle Lake. Since
June of 1980 a Forest Order Closure (RSF #106) has been instituted in the Low Gap/Hinkle
Lake area. This officially closed the area to motorized use due to
both resource damage and public safety concerns after a young man was killed on his OHV in
the basin. Forest Service Road 850 was closed by a
locked gate and the section of road entering the basin was officially dropped
from the Forest Transportation System, as well as from Forest Service maps, making all motorized use illegal. At an undisclosed date the gate was
vandalized and vehicle trespass into the area became routine. 

OHV damage at the shoreline of Hinkle Lake

           Ten years later the area was designated as a Botanical Area under the 1990 Land and Resource Management Plan. This designation prohibits OHV use off of National Forest System roads. Botanical Area designation also emphasizes management and public use that is compatible with botanical preservation. Despite clear management
directives and attempts to eliminate OHV travel in the area, the problem
has continued and intensified. Botanical Area Management
Plans mandated in 1990 were
never produced by the Forest Service, thus the impacts to this Botanical Area went unmonitored and undocumented,
and the Forest Order Closure was routinely violated by all classes of motor
vehicles. Severe impacts to wetlands and high mountain meadows have occurred in
violation of the Aquatic Conservation Strategy (ACS) objectives and in
contradiction to Botanical Area management protocol. Furthermore, the area was identified
in the Carberry Creek Watershed Analysis as an area of concern in regard to
“resource damage,” and further identified the “Hinkle Lake meadows and road
system” as a priority for restoration. 
           Despite the agency’s clear land management mandates, the issue of OHV use in the area went unaddressed for over 30 years. Recently, however, a coalition of environmental groups, hiking clubs, and concerned citizens have pushed the Forest Service to enforce this longstanding motor vehicle closure. A more proactive approach by both the public and the agency has begun to turn the tide, yet more needs to be done.