A view from the Illinois River Trail to Pine Flat after the Klondike Fire. The Klondike Fire Along the Illinois River Trail  The Klondike Fire burned along the majority of the Illinois River Trail this summer, deep in the heart of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The fire burned in a natural mixed-severity mosaic through the 2002 Biscuit Fire footprint. The Klondike Fire burned in a diversity of habitats, including closed-canopy mixed conifer forests, serpentine woodlands, chaparral and forests of sun-bleached snags. The fire reduced fuel, recycled nutrition and continued shaping the fire- adapted forests of this wild region.   As part of Klamath Forest Alliance’s Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Reports, we have been out on the ground exploring the Klondike Fire, its fire effects, fire suppression impacts, and trail conditions. Below is a photo essay of the Klondike Fire along the Illinois River Trail. All photos were taken recently from the...

A rainbow below the Siskiyou Crest in the Elliott Creek canyon. 2018 has been a busy year for Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA). We started the year by officially opening our Siskiyou Field Office, based in the Applegate Valley, at the heart of the Siskiyou Mountains.  KFA’s Siskiyou Field Office roams the region monitoring federal land management projects on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the Klamath National Forest and the Medford District BLM. Each year we hike hundreds of miles in steep, rugged terrain monitoring timber sales, OHV trails, grazing allotments and fire suppression impacts in the rain, snow, smoke and heat. We work from southern Oregon’s Wild Rivers Coast and across the Siskiyou Crest to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. KFA also spends countless hours writing public comments, administrative objections, appeals and monitoring reports informed by our on-the-ground monitoring efforts. We attend meetings, field trips, and...

A view across the Natchez Fire from Lookout Mountain in the Siskiyou Wilderness. This summer the Natchez Fire burned in and around the Siskiyou Wilderness Area in the backcountry of the Siskiyou Crest. The fire started on July 15, above Takilma, Oregon at roughly 4,400′ in elevation in the Poker Creek Watershed. The fire eventually burned over the ridgeline and into the rugged watersheds in the South Fork of Indian Creek above Happy Camp, California.  With over 100 fires spread throughout the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in mid-July, the Natchez Fire was not a high priority, and being understaffed, it continued to grow in remote and rugged terrain. The sheer number of fires and the proximity of many wildfires to nearby communities overwhelmed fire suppression crews, forcing them to prioritize.  Fires like the Natchez Fire, burning far from residential properties or communities, dropped to the bottom of the priority list. This meant that although...

Despite having no recorded fire history, most of the 2018 Klamathon Fire burned at low and moderate severity in the Soda Mountain Wilderness and Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.  Controversy has erupted in the region this summer regarding wildfire, smoke and forest management. The media, area land managers, many regional politicians, the timber industry and their allies have all been working overtime to manipulate the public’s fear of wildfire, and in particular, anger about wildfire smoke. Some claim that a combination of aggressive fire suppression, manual fuel treatments, prescribed fire and commercial logging will increase “forest health,” while also reducing wildfire occurrence, wildfire severity and smoke.  As someone who has designed ecological restoration projects, taken part in prescribed fire treatments and performed forest thinning adjacent to homes and communities for twenty years, I can support some of these activities in...

A view across the Klondike Fire from $8 Mountain Road to the Squaw Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area north of the Illinois River. Photo taken September 28, 2018. The Klondike Fire began as a natural lightning ignition in some of the wildest, most inaccessible country on the West Coast. The fire started in the Klondike Creek canyon, deep in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, within the vast Biscuit Fire footprint and in exceptionally rugged terrain. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest aggressively attacked the fire, but could not contain the remote blaze due to a lack of resources, extremely rough and inaccessible country, and very real safety concerns for firefighting personnel.  Cobra lily (Darlingtonia californica) burned in the Klondike  Fire already has new, fresh vegetation. Despite very aggressive fire suppression strategies that created significant environmental impacts and required an enormous investment of taxpayer dollars, the stubborn Klondike...