Author: Luke Ruediger

Klamath Forest Alliance has just released a new Fire Report exploring the fire effects and fire suppression impacts of the 2023 fire season in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains. Our newest report, “2023 Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Report: Lessons in hubris and humility in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains,” examines four major wildfires that burned in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains during the summer and fall of 2023. The report highlights lessons in hubris with devastating outcomes, long-lasting fire suppression impacts and unnecessarily extreme risks to fire suppression crews. Implemented to reduce acres burned at all costs, and maintain their reputation for aggressive, heavily politicized, backcountry fire suppression efforts, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Klamath National Forest regularly damage unique environments, intact wildlands, water quality, recreational opportunities, and other public resources to maintain a landscape-scale fire deficit, and send a...

2024 has been a big year for Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA) as we worked across the wild and remote mountains and streams of the Klamath-Siskiyou region to protect, defend, restore, and rewild the region. For over three decades KFA has stopped public land timber sales, new road construction, post-fire logging projects, and illegal off-road vehicle trails all across the Klamath-Siskiyou. We advocate for the vast, remote watersheds, old-growth forests, and unroaded wildlands spread throughout the region, from the Eel River in California to the Rogue River in Oregon. Supporting activists in both Arcata, California and the Applegate River watershed in Oregon, we cover large portions of Northern California and SW Oregon monitoring public land management activities, advocating for conservation, and opposing projects that would damage the unique biological diversity and ecological integrity that remains in the region. Below are major projects or campaigns we have supported in 2024 and...

Thanks to the work of Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA), other local activists, residents, and conservation organizations with a local, regional and national focus, the secret got out, and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest announced this morning that the Secret Timber Sale on beautiful Briggs Creek, west of Grants Pass, Oregon has been cancelled, along with the impending timber sale auction! This large 53″ diameter legacy trees was marked for removal in the now cancelled Secret Timber Sale. Make no mistake, without the work of KFA activists monitoring the timber sale mark, the Forest Service would have logged these fire-adapted, old-growth trees! It is also important to note that this project was nominated by KFA for review under the National Old-Growth Amendment. In fact, we directly identified a need to review and to cancel the specific logging units that have now become so controversial. Rather than avoiding this controversy, by protecting these old forests, the Forest...

A recent blog post and video by Klamath Forest Alliance, along with the advocacy of residents, conservationists, and elected officials from throughout the region and throughout the country has forced the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest to “extend” the auction date for the Secret Timber Sale until September 19. Meaning unless we effectively organize against this sale, these forests could still be sold to the highest bidder in just six days. Unit 23 of the Secret Timber Sale proposes to break up fire resilient, old-growth groupings found throughout the stand. This photos shows just one of these groupings where an over 40″ diameter tree is marked blue for removal. Although we appreciate this temporary reprieve, the agency has made no guarantee that the old-growth trees currently targeted for removal will be retained or that the old-growth units would be withdrawn from the timber sale. Thus, the mature, old-growth and highly fire resistant forests of Briggs Creek and Secret...

For many years the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has proposed the Upper Briggs Restoration Project on the Wild Rivers Ranger District, and for many years Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA) has opposed the old-growth logging portions of the project. Located on Briggs Creek, a beautiful tributary of the Illinois River, the Upper Briggs Restoration Project was estimated to produce approximately 30 million board feet of timber in over 4,000 acres of commercial logging units. Ironically, after claiming in the original  Environmental Assessment (first scoped in 2016) that “untreated” stands were particularly vulnerable to high-severity fire effects, the entire Briggs Creek watershed burned at 82% low severity during the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire. In fact, nearly all units proposed for logging in the Upper Briggs Restoration Project underburned during the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire, demonstrating significant natural fire resilience, and ability to maintain their old forest...