Open, fire-adapted mixed conifer forest in unit 15-30 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale. The unit is located within the Buncom Roadless Area, a portion of the proposed Dakubetede Primitive Area. Logging this unit would impact habitat and ecological values while increasing fuel risks. The unit should be canceled and eliminated from the sale.  The Nedsbar Timber Sale is a large BLM timber sale located in the Upper and Little Applegate Valleys. The planning area includes some of the last roadless terrain in the foothills of the Applegate Valley. It is also located in an important connectivity corridor the leads from the Rogue Valley, near the towns of Talent and Ashland, Oregon, across the Applegate Valley to the Siskiyou Crest, and into the wilderness complex of the Marble, Salmon, and Trinity Alps of Northern California. Environmentalists and local citizens in the area have begun working to either stop or significantly alter the project as it is currently proposed. ...

             Applegate Dam and Reservoir           The tale of the proposed hydropower generation facility on the Applegate Dam is one of corporate mergers, joint ventures and acquisitions, and less about actually generating electricity.              Symbiotics LLC originally obtained the license and permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2009, then later Ag Hydro LLC took over the license. Symbiotics and Ag Hydro are now both subsidiaries of Riverbank Power Corporation. Based in Toronto, Canada, Riverbank Power is a developer, constructor and operator of hydropower generation facilities in North and South America, with offices in Toronto, Oregon, Utah, Idaho and Lima, Peru.             After all the efforts of the federal...

View of the fire mosaic from the Happy Camp Fire in the Grider Creek Roadless Area. Numerous salvage logging units proposed in the Westside Fire Recvoery Project can be seen in this photo. All salvage logging in the Grider Creek watershed should be canceled as it is an important wildlife connectivity corridor. The wildfires this past summer on the Klamath River burned in the Marble Mountains Wilderness, Russian Wilderness, Salmon River, Lower Scott River, and along the Klamath River between Happy Camp and Hamburg. In all, 215,371 acres burned in the Mid-Klamath watershed, creating a mosaic of mixed severity fire. The fires burned in a characteristic pattern, including roughly two-thirds low to very low severity fire. Many areas burned in the understory, clearing back fuel beneath a canopy of trees; some areas burned in a mixed pattern, thinning the overstory, while others sustained canopy fire, creating snag fields of fire-scorched timber. The result was the...

Brown’s peony (Paeonia brownii) growing in the Little Grayback Roadless Area in the foothills of the Siskiyou Crest. The Siskiyou Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society is hosting a presentation by Luke Ruediger about the rock garden plants of the Siskiyou Crest. Luke’s talk will focus on flowering plants in the high mountains of the Siskiyou Crest and the Applegate foothills. Tuesday, November 11, 2014  7pm Location UCC/Lidgate Hall at 1801 E. Jackson in Medford (just north of Hedrick Middle School).

Bigelow Lakes in the Grayback Range Luke Ruediger will give a presentation about the Siskiyou Crest as it extends from the Coast Range of northern California to the southern Cascade Mountains near the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Renowned for its biodiversity and the amazing connectivity corridor  this unusual east-west tending mountain range provides, the region also offers miles of backcountry trails and wildland habitats. This lecture is part of The Siskiyou Field Institute’s  Friday Evening Free Lecture Series. Friday, November 14, 2014 6:30 pm Location: Deer Creek Center in Selma, OR For more information, visit thesfi.org or call 541-597-8530