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Siskiyou Mountain Range

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Westside Project Public Meeting, Information & Videos

Seaid Valley and the Klamath River viewed from the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) on Devils Ridge in the Kangaroo Roadless Area. The fire-effected slopes across the river are targeted for extensive salvage logging in the wild, salmon stronghold of Grider Creek.   This photo depicts a few of the 229 units proposed for logging in the Westside Fire Recovery Project. The proposed salvage units, outlined in red, would devastate this wild and scenic region with large, clear-cut swaths, disrupting natural recovery and impacting innumerable ecological and societal values. The area includes the PCT; steep and unstable soils subject to erosion; Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forest important for spotted owls; a Bald Eagle Management Area, and very important connectivity habitat between the Marble Mountains Wilderness Area and the Red Buttes Wilderness Area. This ecologically important region—and scenic national treasure—should not be logged and converted into highly...

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Klamath River Fire Reports

Mixed Severity Fire in the Happy Camp Fire on the slopes of the Scott River Canyon. The summer of 2014 brought smoke, ash and fire to the Klamath Mountains, including three large wildfires on the Klamath National Forest. Combined, the fires burned over 218,000 acres, leaving their mark on the forests and woodlands of the Klamath, Salmon, and Scott River watersheds. Due to the drought and extreme fire conditions the fires were suppressed with aggressive firefighting tactics that created lasting environmental impacts. The Klamath National Forest has declared these fires catastrophic and the fire effected forests are now being targeted for extreme salvage logging proposals. The agency has offered rhetoric and spin to justify their proposal, claiming that the fires burned in a manner outside the characteristic mosaic of mixed severity fire in the Klamath Mountains. The industry is pushing hard to log large swaths of the fire area, converting natural fire effected stands into...

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Keep the Klamath River Wild!

Westside Fire Recovery Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) Public Comment Period Low-severity fire from the Happy Camp Fire Complex in the Marble Mountain Wilderness at the headwaters of Wooley Creek, one of northern California’s wildest old-growth habitats. This past summer three large fires — the Happy Camp, Whites and Beaver Fires — burned over 218,600 acres in the Klamath River watershed. The Happy Camp and Whites Fires burned in a natural mosaic, including over 70% low to very low severity fire. These fires burned in roadless wildlands, Late Successional Reserves (LSR), botanical areas, logged-over matrix lands, and both the Russian and Marble Mountain Wilderness Areas. The Beaver Fire, on the other hand, burned in forests largely converted to tree plantations, large portions of which are private timber land. Consequently, the fire severity was highest in the Beaver Fire, with 40% of the fire area effected by high severity fire; nearly...

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Videos of Pacific fisher in the Siskiyou Mountains

Game cameras are a good way to capture images of wildlife in order to document their presence and monitor their behavior. We have been setting up game cameras in the Siskiyou Mountains for years, capturing photos or videos of bears, deer, ringtail cats, fox, grouse, lots of mice and other common critters. Two weeks ago we finally got what we’d been working to capture on video for a couple years: Pacific fisher! These three videos were captured at three in the afternoon, so the videos turned out really good with full color, as opposed to nighttime videos that rely on infrared and are in black and white. We captured footage of this fisher in the Elliott Ridge Roadless Area in the Upper Applegate at the foot of the Siskiyou Crest. The camera was set up on a small, seasonal tributary stream in an old-growth forest; just as we suspected, it is prime fisher habitat. Recently we had two deer killed on our property, presumably by a cougar. We took some of the bones from the...

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Nedsbar Update: March, 2015

This stand of large, old, low-elevation forest is the destination of the upcoming hike into the Boaz Mountain Roadless Area and units 33-30 and 34-30 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale. The hike is scheduled for March 28. Please join us! Information on the hike is provided below. The Siskiyou Crest Blog and Klamath Forest Alliance will be hosting numerous hikes and informational events in the coming months to inform and involve the public, as well as build support for the Community Alternative. Please attend the upcoming presentation or public hikes into the Nedsbar Timber Sale. March 19, 6:30pm Applegate Community Grange 3901 Upper Applegate Road The presentation will explore the Nedsbar Timber Sale and the proposed Community Alternative through beautiful photographs, maps, and the knowledge of local residents. Members of the Community Alternative Working Group, Klamath Forest Alliance, Applegate Neighborhood Network, KS Wild, and local residents...

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