Proposed logging along the PCT at Cook and Green Pass. The hiker at the right-hand side of the photograph is hiking the PCT, and the Klamath National Forest is proposing to log directly into the trail corridor. Trees marked blue would be logged. The Klamath National Forest has proposed a large, post-fire logging project in the 2017 Abney Fire footprint. The project would log over 1,200 acres of fire-affected forest in the region surrounding Cook and Green Pass. The project also proposes post-fire logging directly adjacent to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and along the Bee Camp Road (47N80) in the Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Area.  Cook and Green Pass is the gateway to the Red Buttes Wilderness Area, the Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Area and the Condrey Mountain Roadless Area, it is also located within a major connectivity corridor necessary for the dispersal of wildlife and native vegetation in the region — connecting the Marble Mountains and Klamath River...

The Abney Fire burned through large portions of the Condrey Mountain and Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Areas on the Siskiyou Crest in 2017. Miller Complex Fire Report The Klamath Forest Alliance has released the Miller Complex Fire Report, a detailed exploration of the Miller Complex Fire, its ecological implications, fire severity, and fire suppression impacts.  The Miller Complex began on August 13, 2017 with a spectacular thunderstorm. Lightning crashed down throughout the Upper Applegate watershed, igniting 27 fires from the high country on the Siskiyou Crest to the low-elevation foothills of the Upper Applegate Valley. Four major blazes burned throughout the summer, including the Burnt Peak Fire, Creedence Fire, Abney Fire and Knox Fire.  The fires burned in a healthy, mixed-severity fire mosaic, rejuvenating fire dependent plant communities, maintaining many late successional habitats, reducing fuel and restoring the process of fire to over 36,000...

The Wild and Scenic Chetco River watershed is being targeted by the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest for post-fire, clearcut logging. This beautiful watershed deserves better. It is up to us to protect the clean, clear waters of the Chetco River. Please comment on the project now! The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has released its Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Project. The proposal includes 4,090 acres of post-fire logging, most of which will be implemented as vast clearcuts on steep, unstable slopes. Although you may have heard that the project will log only previously logged plantation stands, this claim is far from the truth. Of the 4,090 acres proposed for logging and replanting, 2,222 acres, or 54% of the proposed logging and artificial reforestation, is located within unmanaged stands (i.e forests that have never been logged). These unmanaged stands contain a variety of habitats and structural conditions, but many of them...

Upper Horse Creek, the Condrey Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area, Johnny O’Neil Late Successional Reserve, and the Abney Fire viewed from the Siskiyou Crest. The burned forest at the center of this photograph is proposed for clearcut logging by the Klamath National Forest. The 2017 Abney Fire burned for over two months in both the Applegate River and Klamath River watersheds. The fire burned nearly 40,000 acres on both sides of the Siskiyou Crest, including some of the wildest country in the Siskiyou Mountains. The Abney Fire burned in a characteristic, mixed-severity fire mosaic, creating diversity and habitat heterogeneity on the landscape scale. After the smoke cleared, the Klamath National Forest (KNF) did what they do following almost every fire season—they proposed to clearcut vast swaths of fire-affected forest in sensitive land management allocations. This year’s damaging proposal is located high on the slopes of the Siskiyou Crest and adjacent to...

Quail Prairie Creek is a beautiful tributary stream in the South Fork Chetco River watershed. The stream contains large swaths of old forest, unique geologic diversity and high water quality. These values are threatened by post-fire logging proposed by the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Recently Klamath Forest Alliance and the Siskiyou Crest Blog visited the Chetco Bar Fire area to explore the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest’s proposed Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Project. The Forest Service has proposed 13,626 acres of post-fire, clearcut logging and plantation development in the lower Chetco River watershed.  Much of the project proposes to log fire-affected, old-growth forests and intact native ecosystems. Because the project is currently proposed in “matrix” land designated for logging in the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, some have assumed that the proposed logging treatments are located in previously logged plantation stands — this is...