Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Reports: More Fires, More Fire Reports and a New Website

The 2018 Taylor Creek Fire as seen from the headwaters of Pickett Creek. KFA will be exploring this fire as part of a new Klondike and Taylor Fire Report.

www.klamathsiskiyoufirereports.org

Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA) would like to announce our new website highlighting the Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Reports. Our Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Reports track local wildfires, document their fire effects, and the environmental impacts associated with fire suppression activities. 

Since 2012, we have conducted detailed analysis and on-the-ground monitoring of ten separate fires throughout the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains. We have utilized case studies in the Klamath River Watershed, the Wild and Scenic Rogue River, the Kalmiopsis region, in the Applegate Valley and on the Siskiyou Crest. All our fire reports can now be found in one place at: klamathsiskiyoufirereports.org

Our reports document a pattern of damaging fire suppression activities and beneficial wildfire effects on public lands throughout the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains. We are the only regional environmental organization with a program specifically focused on the reform of fire suppression policy and the reduction of environmental impacts associated with backcountry firefighting. 

Large dozerlines were cleared in the Soda Mountain Wilderness during the 2018 Klamathon Fire. KFA will be highlighting the egregious impacts of fire suppression in the Klamathon Fire with the upcoming Klamathon Fire Report.

Fire suppression has quickly become one of the largest threats to our wilderness and roadless landscapes. Even protected areas such as Wilderness Areas, National Monuments, National Parks and all manner of Forest Service or BLM land can be subjected to damaging industrial fire suppression activities. 

Each summer our wildlands and conservation areas are being bulldozed, blown up with fireline explosives, doused in toxic firefighting chemicals, "snagged" along roads and firelines, backburned, and degraded through fire suppression activities.

The 2018 fire season has been particularly active in southwestern Oregon with fires burning throughout the region. These fires have burned through some of our most cherished wildlands, including the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, Siskiyou Wilderness, Soda Mountain Wilderness and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Fires have also burned in recreation areas west of Grants Pass, Oregon on the Rogue River, Illinois River, Taylor Creek, and Briggs Creek. 

Low-severity fire burned through large portions of the Soda Mountain Wilderness and Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in the 2018 Klamathon Fire.

While these fires have burned mainly remote, backcountry areas, they have also burned into or adjacent to rural communities. Portions of the fires burning adjacent to communities and in the most remote backcountry have been managed under the same aggressive, full suppression response, leading to severe fire suppression impacts in some of our most intact, protected landscapes. 

For example, the BLM bulldozed 20 miles of dozerline in the Soda Mountain Wilderness and at least an additional 20 miles in other sensitive portions of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, including along the Pacific Crest Trail. Forest Service Botanical Areas on the Siskiyou Crest were also bulldozed during the Hendrix Fire, and fire managers have approved dozerlines in wilderness areas more during this summer's fire season than in the last twelve years in Oregon and Washington combined.   

Beneficial mixed-severity fire effects in the Taylor Creek Fire.

The impacts of backcountry fire suppression have intensified this summer in the Siskiyou Mountains. The Klamath Forest Alliance intends to continue our important and visionary work tracking local wildfires, documenting fire suppression impacts and advocating for the reform of fire suppression policy.

The Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Reports will be exploring the following regional wildfires as soon as the smoke clears. 

• Klamathon Fire in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monunment and Soda Mountain Wilderness. 
• Klondike & Taylor Creek Fire in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and surrounding watersheds.
• Hendrix Fire on the north slopes of the Siskiyou Crest in the Little Applegate Watershed.
• Natchez Fire in the Siskiyou Wilderness and surrounding watersheds above Takilma, Oregon and Happy Camp, California.  

 Please consider supporting our work with a tax-deductible donation! Now more than ever, the Siskiyou Mountains need fire savvy activists, with the courage to advocate for wilderness, wildfire and the reform of fire suppression policy. KFA is ready to address these impacts!

Donate to KFA and our Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Reports

For more information: klamathsiskiyoufirereports.org