Author: Luke Ruediger

Old-growth forest in unit 3-11 is targeted for logging in the Pickett West Timber Sale. The stand is an important remnant habitat providing connectivity in a highly altered watershed. Thompson Creek is heavily fragmented by clearcut logging and simplified plantations stands. Unit 3-11 is located adjacent to widespread plantation management and provides a necessary corridor of old forest habitat. The tree with the pink flag around its trunk supports an active Red Tree Vole nest, an important food source for the Northern spotted owl. The Pickett West Timber Sale is perhaps the worst old-growth logging project proposed by the BLM in southern Oregon for many years. The project is proposing to log some of the last remnants of old forest surrounding the communities of Selma, Merlin, Galice, Wilderville, Murphy and North Applegate. The Pickett West Timber Sale also proposes significant logging in tributaries of the Wild and Scenic Rogue River between Grants Pass and Graves...

Unit 35-11 is beautiful and intact old-growth forest providing high quality habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl. The unit should be canceled. Extending from the Wild and Scenic Rogue River to the Applegate Valley and over the ridge to the Deer Creek watershed in Selma, the Pickett West Timber Sale is a massive, old-growth logging project proposed by the Grants Pass BLM. Nearly half the project is proposed in stands over 150 years old and new logging prescriptions ironically called”restoration thinning” would drop canopy cover in many stands to as low as 30%. Over half the overstory canopy would be removed, leaving a few scattered trees in place of what was once a forest.  The new “restoration thinning” prescriptions are designed to convert closed-canopy, old-growth or late-seral forest into “late-seral, open forest.” The result is heavy industrial logging and extensive damage to the habitat of the Northern Spotted Owl, Pacific...

Unit 27-12 is a beautiful and increasingly rare low-elevation, old-growth habitat. The unit has been used for decades as an educational laboratory for students of late-seral and old-growth forest habitats. BLM is proposing to log many large trees and reduce canopy cover to as low as 30% in this magnificent old forest. The unit should be canceled to protect the stand’s old-growth character and naturally fire resilient forest. Orville Camp grew up in the Illinois Valley. His family homesteaded the Deer Creek Valley outside Selma, Oregon, starting in 1909. They made a living in the logging and farming industry. A tributary of Thompson Creek, known as Camp Creek, was named for Orville’s family. Orville moved away in the 1954 after being drafted into the Korean War. He returned in the fall of 1967 to purchase a portion of his family’s homestead on Camp Creek. The 180-acre parcel was ruthlessly clearcut before he acquired the land. Inspired by the research of...

Old-growth forest proposed for logging in unit 26-3. The Pickett West Timber Sale is a massive timber management project proposed by the Grants Pass BLM. The project spans across much of interior southwestern Oregon, from Galice and Graves Creek on the Rogue River, to the lower Applegate Valley, and south to the Deer Creek drainage in Selma, Oregon.  The BLM is proposing to log thousands of acres of old forest in the mountains surrounding the community of Selma, Oregon. The project proposes to convert closed-canopy, old-growth forest into open-canopied, late-seral habitat by reducing canopy cover to as little as 30%. In many places this will require the removal of the majority of dominant overstory trees and the elimination of Northern Spotted Owl habitat.  The BLM has proposed four units in section 26 at the headwaters of Camp Creek and an unnamed drainage to the south, a tributary of Haven Creek. The area supports hundreds of acres of contiguous, intact,...

The Gap Fire burned at characteristic fire severity in the subalpine forests adjacent to Condrey Mountain on the Siskiyou Crest. The area is renowned for its biodiversity and represents a vital connectivity corridor linking the major mountain ranges of the West Coast. The Klamath National Forest (KNF) has released a Draft Record of Decision for the ironically named “Horse Creek Community Protection and Forest Restoration Project.” The project is actually a clearcut, post-fire logging project cloaked in the newest euphemisms of “restoration” and “community protection.” Despite the misleading language, the real motivations become crystal clear when one actually visits the units proposed for clear-cut, post-fire logging.  The Gap Fire of 2016 burned from the banks of the Klamath River to the Siskiyou Crest near Condrey Mountain and Dry Lake Mountain. The fire burned fast and furious the first few days, burning with intensity as it ran...