Author: Luke Ruediger

The view south from Bald Mountain and across the Little Applegate River watershed from the proposed Jack-Ash Trail. This area is one of the scenic highlights of this proposed long distance hiking trail that would connect the communities of Ashland and Jacksonville, Oregon. The BLM has proposed to log directly adjacent to the proposed Jack-Ash Trail on Bald Mountain. All logging units on Bald Mountain should be canceled. These forests provide a larger contribution to our quality of life and economy as standing forests than they do logged off and sent to the mill.  The Bald Mountain area is a wild and beautiful region located at the headwaters of the Little Applegate River. The mountain supports a distinct variety of plant communities, including open and grassy balds, shrub fields, rock outcrops, old-growth forest, late seral forest and small sections of oak woodland. The mountain is also an important connectivity corridor, connecting the high elevation McDonald Peak...

Looking southeast across the Buncom Roadless Area to unit 14-30. The unit would be logged to 40% canopy cover. The unit boundaries are outlined in red in the photo above. The proposed new road is depicted in blue. One of the two new helicopter landings is located at the light blue triangle near the center of the photo.  The Buncom Roadless Area is a small, rugged wildland on the ridgeline dividing the Upper Applegate and Little Applegate Valleys. Although small in size, the region dominates the skyline of the Little Applegate Valley from its confluence with the Applegate River to above Buncom and the Upper Applegate Valley up to Star Ranger Station. Cloaked in chaparral, oak woodland, stands of live oak and isolated conifer forests, the roadless area provides relatively undisturbed low elevation habitat, a highly scenic natural setting for many rural residential properties, and habitat connectivity between the Little and Upper Applegate Valleys.  I recently...

Some of the most beautiful oak woodland in the Applegate Valley is located in fuel reduction unit F-30 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale. On a gentle, east-facing slope, directly above the farms and pasture land at the confluence of Yale Creek and the Little Applegate River, is a beautiful series of dry meadows surrounded by massive, wide-branching white oak. This isolated oak habitat is one of the most intact oak woodlands in the Applegate Valley, including many old-growth oak trees. The stand supports a mixture of stand structures and types, including oak woodland, oak savanna, and closed oak forest. In many cases, these three major stand types are scattered about in a random mosaic among small thickets of buckbrush or manzanita, open-grown pine, and broad, grassy meadows.  This magical piece of the Applegate Valley foothills is also identified as fuel reduction unit F-30 in the Nedsbar Timber Sale; in fact, it is the largest unit proposed in the timber sale, despite being...

The eastern slope of Cinnabar Ridge in the Little Applegate Valley The proposed commercial logging units on Cinnabar Ridge are outlined in red. Unit 25-30 is highlighted in this blog. Units 26-30, 23-32, 23-32, and 23-30 are not marked by the BLM. As soon as these units are marked I will be reviewing the mark. I recently reviewed the tree removal mark for the Nedsbar Timber Sale, including units on Cinnabar Ridge. Cinnabar Ridge is the long ridgeline dividing the Upper Applegate Valley from the Little Applegate Valley. The east slope of the ridgeline drains into Grouse Creek in the Little Applegate Valley, while the west slope drains into Murphy Gulch, Boaz Gulch, Neds Gulch and Mill Gulch in the Upper Applegate Valley. The west face of the slope is arid, rocky and dominated by oak and chaparral plant communities, with large stands of conifer trees on north-facing slopes and isolated conifer “stringers” running down the face of the ridge. The...

Rally in support of public land, social justice, and the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Ashland, Oregon, on January 23, 2016. More than seventy people came out on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Ashland, Oregon yesterday to show support for the people of Harney County, Oregon, where an armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is about to enter its fourth week. The lives of many people in Harney County have been severely disrupted as this armed occupation of public land drags on. The rally was organized by Oregon Action — their mission: “Led by people of color, immigrants and refugees, rural communities, and people experiencing poverty, we work across Oregon to build a unified intercultural movement for justice.” With a strong social justice message, Oregon Action organized the rally with multiple speakers who each touched on the far-reaching impacts the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge is having on the people of Harney...