Author: siskiyou-admin

East Fork Illinois River canyon and the snowy peaks of the Siskiyou Wilderness after the 2020 Slater Fire. Photo credit: Deer Creek Photography As described in my previous blog post, the Slater Fire began east of Happy Camp, California on the evening of September 7, 2020. Pushed by unusually strong easterly winds and historically low humidity levels, the fire burned quickly to the west, tragically burning through the community of Happy Camp and up Indian Creek to the Siskiyou Crest. For the first 24-36 hours the fire burned over 100,000 acres and ripped over the Siskiyou Crest near Bolan Lake. Large swaths of forest on Indian Creek in the Klamath National Forest burned at high severity during this extreme weather event. Relatively large swaths also burned in the headwaters of Althouse Creek and Sucker Creek, near Bolan Lake and Bolan Mountain, as well as in upper Dunn Creek above Takilma, Oregon on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Since the Slater Fire, the Rogue...

The Rogue River between Agness and Illahe in the Shasta Agness Planning Area. At the confluence of the Illinois River and the mighty Rogue River, below some of the wildest river canyons on the West Coast, lies beautiful Agness, Oregon. Just downstream of the Wild Rogue Wilderness Area, Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area, North Kalmiopsis Roadless Area, and the Shasta Costa Roadless Area, the mountains, rivers and streams of the region are important for connectivity between the Western Siskiyou Mountains and the Coast Range. The forests surrounding Agness have also been designated as a large Late Successional Reserve (LSR) to protect, maintain and encourage the development of habitat for the Northern spotted owl and other species requiring late successional or old-growth forests. A view across Foster Creek and the large LSR forest proposed for logging in the Shasta Agness Project. The area contains an unusual mosaic of coastal mixed conifer forest, including large stands of old-growth...