Author: Luke Ruediger

The Gap Fire burned at particularly low severity on the Siskiyou Crest near Condrey Mountain and Dry Lake Mountain. The upper reaches of Buckhorn and Middle Creek burned in a natural mixed-severity fire mosaic and should be allowed to recover naturally, maintaining habitat values and connectivity on the Siskiyou Crest. Last summer the Gap Fire burned over 30,000 acres of forest in the Klamath River watershed near the community of Horse Creek. The fire burned at mixed severity from the Klamath River to the Siskiyou Crest near Condrey Mountain. Fire severity was particularly moderate in the high country near the Siskiyou Crest, where the fire burned in a characteristic and healthy mosaic. The fire itself maintained habitat values, restored fire as a natural process, and encouraged natural forest resilience. The Klamath National Forest has responded with a large, post-fire logging project that would log old-growth forest on the Siskiyou Crest and fire effected forests...

The BLM has created defacto designation for OHV routes in the Wellington Butte Roadless Area without public comment, environmental review, or public disclosure of environmental and social impacts. The damage depicted in this photo is directly adjacent to an unauthorized OHV trail proposed for maintenance. The Medford District BLM has recently published a Categorical Exclusion (CE) approving maintenance on 65 miles of unauthorized and unapproved OHV trails in the so-called John’s Peak/Timber Mountain OHV Area. Despite being promoted and publicized by the BLM as an official OHV Area, not a single OHV trail in the area known as the John’s Peak/Timber Mountain OHV Area has ever been legally approved for OHV use. Instead, the BLM has allowed unauthorized OHV use and illegal user-created trails to proliferate throughout the area, creating extreme environmental and social impacts.  For over a decade, the BLM has gone as far as posting illegal routes as open to...

A view across the Pickett West Planning Area and the town of Murphy, Oregon. The BLM has proposed a large timber sale in the mountains around Murphy and many other rural communities including Galice, Merlin, Selma, Applegate and Wilderville. The Pickett West Timber Sale sprawls across a vast 200,000-acre planning area, from Merlin and Galice on the Rogue River, to Wilderville and Selma on Highway 199. Units are located on Deer Creek, Slate Creek, Cheney Creek, above North Applegate Road and surrounding the town of Murphy, Oregon. The Pickett West Timber Sale has the potential to leave a lasting impact on an enormous geographic area. The Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN), Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA) and other conservation partners have been working for the past six months to minimize or eliminate those impacts by encouraging the BLM to amend their plans and consider a Community Alternative that protects wild habitats, maintains important wildlife habitat, reduces fuel...

Public lands grazing is impacting important high-elevation habitat for native pollinators and other wildlife, while creating erosion and water quality issues that have long-lasting impacts. Siskiyou Crest Public Lands Grazing  Have you backpacked on the PCT on the Siskiyou Crest and stopped to filter water from a spring or creek, only to find a big cow pie in the water and the smell of cow urine wafting in the air? Are you a butterfly or native bee enthusiast that cringes every time you see a productive wildflower meadow turned from pollinator paradise into a mowed down feedlot for cows? Are you a hunter that finds more forage and habitat consumed by cows than is available to elk or deer? Or are you birder who watches willow flycatcher habitat disappear on the Siskiyou Crest from cattle impacts in the flycatcher’s sensitive riparian habitat? Now is your chance to have your opinion regarding public lands grazing in the Siskiyou Mountains heard! The...

Image: Alt US National Park Service President Trump is now in the White House signing Executive Orders and taking unilateral actions to destroy the social fabric of our communities and the integrity of our environment. In my lifetime I have never seen a threat that is so widespread and comprehensive. As a community and as a nation we must stand up for freedom, respect and environmental responsibility.  On January 21, 2017, millions of people around the world joined the Women’s March in opposition to the Trump Administration and the Trump agenda. An estimated 8,000-10,000 people from southern Oregon and northern California showed up in sleepy, little Ashland, Oregon to protest Trump, his cabinet, and his agenda. It was the largest gathering of people of any kind in Ashland — ever! Across the continent and across the world people have begun to stand up and speak out against the corporate takeover of our country by Trump and his billionaire cronies.  Trump...