Unit 13-1 of the Pickett West Timber Sale is an isolated stand of old-growth forest in heavily logged and fragmented Cheney Creek, a major tributary in the Lower Applegate River Watershed. The BLM claims the general stand age within the unit is 150 years old, although individual trees in the stand are likely far older. The stand is currently categorized as nesting, roosting and foraging (NRF) habitat for the northern spotted owl, but BLM intends to log the stand to 40% canopy cover, downgrading owl habitat by dropping the canopy cover threshold to the low end of dispersal habitat. Unit 13-1 should be canceled. The Trump administration has initiated massive rollbacks of environmental regulations that protect clean water, clean air, climate protection, wildlands, and endangered species. Trump’s environmental deregulation is also pushing public land managers to increase logging and industrial resource extraction on our public lands, including the forests of...

The forested slope in the foreground is the Snail Gulch unit of the Pickett West Timber Sale. The Pickett-West Timber Sale is a sprawling proposal by the Grants Pass BLM. The planning area extends across southwestern Oregon, from Merlin and Galice on the Rogue River, to Selma and Deer Creek in the Illinois River area. The sale also extends into the Applegate Valley near Wilderville, Murphy and North Applegate Road. The project would log thousands of acres, build miles of new road, and increase fuel hazards by removing large, fire-resistant trees, dramatically reducing canopy cover and encouraging dense shrubby understory fuel. Although the Grants Pass BLM claims to be implementing this project under the Applegate Adaptive Management Area — a land-use designation intended to facilitate community collaboration, innovative land management, and a more transparent planning process — the BLM has refused to collaborate with Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN), other local...

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...