North Fork of the Salmon River on July 6, 2015 following severe thunderstorms. The turbidity and sedimentation from this event turned 230 miles of the Klamath River brown and turbid, from Beaver Creek to the mouth of the River near Klamath Glen. (Photo: Scott Harding)            The fires on the Klamath River in 2014 burned on a vast scale across over 200,000 acres in the Klamath, Scott, and Salmon River watersheds. The fires burned in a mixed severity fire mosaic, including many acres of low severity understory fire and some large high severity burn patches. Most of these high severity patches burned during extreme weather conditions, including high winds and temperatures. At other times fires burned intensely when inversion layers lifted and created unstable atmospheric conditions. These high severity burn patches include areas of nearly complete tree mortality, where soils were, at times, scorched, causing them to...

The Dakubetede Roadless Area from upper Birch Creek. The Dakubetede Roadless Area is located in the Little Applegate River watershed on the south-facing slopes of Anderson Butte and the surrounding ridgelines. Local environmentalists have long fought to keep this relatively intact piece of the Applegate Valley foothills wild, unroaded, and mostly undisturbed. In acknowledgement of the area’s unique and important wildland values, the BLM has recently identified 5,099 acres of land within the Dakubetede Roadless Area as “land with wilderness characteristics” (LWC). Located in the rain shadow of the Siskiyou Mountains’ highest summits, and at the eastern-most portion of the range, the area is the driest watershed in Western Oregon. The watershed contains a diverse and unique mixture of Pacific Northwest forest species and high desert species, as well as California oak woodland and chaparral associates. The largest population of western juniper...

The view from Wellington Butte looking southeast to Ruch, Oregon in the Applegate Valley. The Wellington Butte Roadless Area was identified by the BLM as an area containing 5,711 acres of “lands with wilderness characteristics.” Relatively intact, low-elevation habitat such as that found in the foothills of the Applegate Valley is increasingly rare and in desperate need of protection. The Wellington Butte Roadless Area in the Middle Applegate River watershed is a wonderfully diverse and beautiful region. The region hosts a complex mosaic of chaparral, oak woodland, madrone groves, mixed conifer forest, and grasslands. The Wellington Butte Roadless Area has recently been identified in the BLM’s Lands with Wilderness Characteristic Inventory (LWC) as one of the last significant roadless tracts of BLM land in western Oregon. Located directly above Ruch and Applegate, Oregon the region is the backdrop for much of the Middle Applegate Valley. The...

OHV damage in the Dakubetede Roadless Area on Goat Cabin Ridge. I surveyed this area on June 4th, the day after fully funding my Kickstarter campaign. This was the first of many field days for the Applegate Valley OHV Monitoring Project. Thanks to the supporters of my Kickstarter, OHV routes throughout the Applegate Valley will be surveyed for environmental impacts and proposed for closure.  On May 13, I initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Applegate Valley OHV Monitoring Project, a comprehensive monitoring program to document the impacts of OHV use in the Applegate Valley, and advocate for ecological values, non-motorized recreation, wildlife, wildlands, and native plant communities.  On June 3, I reached my funding goal and am now 123% funded. The outpouring of support speaks to the need for OHV monitoring and ecological advocacy. I believe that with these funds I can survey most of the heavily impacted OHV areas in the foothills of the...

Click here to view my Kickstarter Through the Siskiyou Crest Blog I have initiated a Kickstarter Campaign to fund a comprehensive OHV monitoring project in the foothills of the Applegate Valley, called the Applegate Valley OHV Monitoring Project. This project will document the impacts of unmanaged OHV use, publicize the findings, and create a detailed monitoring report to inform the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the local community about the impacts of unauthorized and unmanaged OHV use, as well as identify solutions and management recommendations that will protect ecological and societal values. Unmanaged and unauthorized OHV use is common throughout BLM lands in southwest Oregon, including the Applegate Valley. The Applegate Valley OHV Monitoring Project will focus on the remaining wildland habitats of the Applegate Foothills, including the Dakubetede Roadless Area, the Wellington Butte Roadless Area, the Anderson Butte region, and the John’s...