Author: Luke Ruediger

The Burnt Peak Fire backed down the slopes of the Collings-Kinney Roadless Area into the Upper Applegate Valley. I recently hiked the Burnt Peak Fire in the foothills of the Applegate Valley. The fire burned mostly within the Collings-Kinney Roadless Area in a rugged knot of mountains colonized by dense conifer forest, chaparral, live oak woodlands and deciduous oak habitats. The fire burned to the banks of Kinney and Palmer Creeks in the Upper Applegate Valley. The Burnt Peak Fire started on August 14, 2017 high on the slopes of Burnt Peak, a summit of scrub brush and forest dividing Carberry Creek from the Upper Applegate Valley. Despite burning in the heat of summer and through heavy fuel, the fire backed down the slopes of Kinney and Palmer Creek, at mixed severity. Heavy smoke inversions and moderate weather conditions kept the fire cool in most of the fire area. The majority of the fire burned in the understory of mixed conifer forest dominated by Douglas fir,...

A view into the headwaters of O’Brien Creek from Grayback Mountain. Both sides of O’Brien Creek Meadows and the forested ridge to the right underburned in the Creedence Fire, leaving a rich, green forest canopy. The Creedence Fire began with a strike of lightning on August 14, 2017 and burned in the back-country surrounding Grayback Mountain and the Kangaroo Roadless Area. Two fires were ignited, one on the lower slope of Bigelow Creek, and another high on the ridge near O’Brien Creek Meadows in the Grayback Mountain Botanical Area, at the headwaters of Carberry Creek. The two fires later merged to become the Creedence Fire, the westernmost fire in the Miller Complex. Grayback Mountain is one of the Applegate Valley’s most iconic and well-loved landscapes, rising to 7,048′ above Thompson Creek, Carberry Creek and the Williams Valley. The forests, meadows, and wilderness-quality landscapes surrounding Grayback Mountain are cherished by...

A view across the Wallow Fire in the North Fork of the Salmon River from the Pacific Crest Trail in the Marble Mountain Wilderness. Since 2012 the Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Reports have been documenting the effects of wildfires occurring throughout the Klamath-Siskiyou region. We ground-truth and document fire suppression actions and their environmental impacts. We are the only organization getting out on the ground and into the heart of the fires, writing detailed reports about how they burned and how fire suppression actions are impacting the wild places we love. Our 2017 field season is in full swing. This week we hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) from Etna Summit and down into the North Fork of the Salmon River into the Wallow Fire, part of the Salmon August Complex. The Wallow Fire burned primarily in the Marble Mountains Wilderness and its surrounding roadless areas. The video below demonstrates the fire effects as seen from the PCT in between Etna Summit and...

These vibrant post-fire landscapes will no longer be subjected to clear-cut, post-fire logging as proposed in the Horse Creek Project. Following the Gap Fire on the Klamath River, the Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA), Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN), Siskiyou Crest Blog and other conservation partners joined together in opposition to post-fire logging on the Siskiyou Crest. The Klamath National Forest (KNF) had proposed post-fire logging on the slopes of the Siskiyou Crest near Condrey Mountain and Dry Lake Mountain.  The proposed logging units were located in upper Buckhorn and Middle Creek adjacent to the Condrey Mountain Blue Schist Geologic Area, the Condrey Mountain Roadless Area and the Pacific Crest Trail. KFA and EPIC responded by publishing the Gap Fire Report, documenting the cumulative impact of fire suppression activities in the Gap Fire. KFA and ANN also played a vital role by monitoring the proposed post-fire logging units. We were the only...

The Cook Fire smoldering in the old-growth forests of the Kangaroo Roadless Area on August 16, two days after ignition. Wildfires have been burning all across our region. In the Klamath Mountains, south of the Klamath River, fires are burning in the Marble Mountains, up the Salmon River, along the Klamath River, in the Siskiyou Wilderness and in the mountains above Happy Camp and Seiad Valley, California. The Chetco Bar Fire has been burning all summer in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and along the Chetco River. In the southern Cascade Mountains from the North Umpqua, the Rogue Umpqua Divide, and on to Crater Lake fires are burning. On August 14, 2017 a large thunderstorm drifted into the canyons of the Upper Applegate River. Hung up on the steep ridges, the storm poured rain while thunder and lightening crashed throughout the maze of canyons and peaks surrounding the Siskiyou Crest.  Twenty-four small fires were lit that evening as lightening touched down into...