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...

Rough and Ready Creek flows into the Illinois Valley from the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area. The watershed was included in the 20-year Mineral Withdrawal. Today was a good day for southern Oregon and its wild places. Two major victories in the struggle to protect our last wild, intact landscapes were realized today. It is a victory for the land, for our communities and for the future. Today, President Obama designated a nearly 48,000-acre expansion to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument east of Ashland, Oregon. The BLM also announced a 20-year Mineral Withdrawal in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area on Baldface Creek and Rough and Ready Creek, west of O’Brien, Oregon. The withdrawal also protects Hunter Creek and the North Fork of the Pistol River in coastal southwestern Oregon. The Mineral Withdrawal totals 95,805 acres on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, including some of the region’s most pristine streams and fisheries. It also includes 5,216...

Old-growth forest proposed for logging in the Pickett West Timber Sale on lower Cheney Creek. The Klamath Forest Alliance and Applegate Neighborhood Network have continued our monitoring effort for the Pickett West Timber Sale. We began on the Applegate Valley portions of the timber sale, surveying units around North Applegate and Murphy. Recently we visited a few units accessed from Cheney Creek Road, Southside Road, and Highway 238 near Murphy. Cheney Creek Unit I visited one small Pickett West unit on Cheney Creek on road 37-7-13.1. The unit lies directly adjacent to unit 13-7 of the recently cut Cheney-Slate Timber Sale. The proposed unit is located on a steep, densely wooded northwest-facing slope, directly above the mainstem of Cheney Creek, an important steelhead and coho salmon stream in the Lower Applegate River watershed near Wilderville. Lush and productive forest proposed for logging in the Pickett West Timber Sale. The forest is lush, dense and...

The Gap Fire burned around the meadows near Buckhorn Spring on the Siskiyou Crest. Click here to read the Gap Fire Report The Gap Fire burned between August 27 and September 17, 2016, in the Horse Creek watershed north of the Klamath River. The fire began with intensity, burning under extreme conditions as it approached the small rural community of Horse Creek. Being funneled down the Horse Creek canyon by strong winds and plume-driven runs, the fire tragically burned nine homes on the evening of August 28 — more details about this are included in the report. By September 1, weather conditions had moderated and the fire burned at low- to moderate-severity as it approached the Siskiyou Crest near Condrey Mountain and Dry Lake Mountain in upper Buckhorn Creek and Middle Creek. The Gap Fire brought many benefits to the forests and ecosystems of the Siskiyou Crest: it reduced fuels, recycled nutrients and enhanced wildlife habitat. It also naturally thinned forests, opened...