Summer Solstice on the Siskiyou Crest

The view west from the summit of Observation Peak

Recently my wife and I took a backpacking trip across the eastern Siskiyou Crest for summer solstice and a spectacular full moon. This was the first full moon to land on summer solstice since 1948, and it was perhaps the only time in my lifetime that I will experience the longest summer day and a big, round, full moon.

From the summit of Observation Peak, in a windswept clearing of paintbrush, buckwheat and low, creeping sage, we watched the sun sink to the west, into the rugged blue ridges of the Siskiyou Mountains, casting long shadows into the deep canyons below. Simultaneously, the low and massive full moon rose to the east over the broad ridges of the southern Cascade Mountains, reflecting moonlight on the snow-capped summit of Mt. Shasta — white glaciers were bathed in the light of the full moon and the final fleeting streaks of summer solstice sunlight.

The rare and endemic Jaynes Canyon Buckwheat (Eriogonum diclinum) blooming on Big Ridge in the Condrey Mountain Roadless Area.

From our vantage point on Observation Peak we could see the connection between land and sea, sun and moon, the ancient, eroded Siskiyou and the youthful volcanic features of the Cascade Mountains. The connectivity the Siskiyou provides can be seen as the ridges unfolded before us, connecting the major ranges of the Pacific Northwest. The connectivity can also be seen in the vegetation as little sagebrush and balsamroot mingle with mountain hemlock, huckleberry, and Shasta red fir. Plants from all the cardinal directions converge on these slopes, creating a biological tapestry of exceptional diversity. Endemic species such as splithair paintbrush, Henderson's horkelia and other rarities were blooming at our feet, yet they can be found nowhere outside this unusual mountain range.

Each summit on the eastern Siskiyou Crest has it own geologic history and bedrock, with its own corresponding plant communities and distinctive character. No mountain range on the west coast supports such a rich, undisturbed flora. These mountains have long harbored disjunct plant populations, remnants of former climatic regimes isolated within the varied habitats of the Siskiyou and its transitional nature. 

Looking north from the PCT to Wagner Butte and the McDonald Peak Roadless Area.

We hiked for over 50 miles from Mt. Ashland to lower Elliott Creek across the Siskiyou Crest. The high country was vibrant with fresh melting snow and the first round of summer flowers blooming on the ridges and in high mountain meadows. Although spring has turned to summer in the lower Siskiyou foothills, where the gulches are running low, flowers are setting seed, and grasses have turned golden on sun baked slopes, the high mountains along the Siskiyou Crest have just begun their summer display. They have shed their white, winter shawl, which fills the creeks and springs with cold, flowing water and nourishes the flora for the benefit of birds, pollinators and other wildlife dependent on the Siskiyou's diverse plant communities.

The Pacific Crest Trail traverses the eastern Siskiyou Crest through forests, meadows, glades, rock outcrops and open ridgelines. The trail connects botanical areas and roadless wildlands just as the Siskiyou Crest connects the Cascades Mountains to the Coast Range. In the 50 miles from Cook and Green Pass to Mt. Ashland, the trail enters six roadless areas, five botanical areas and the Condrey Mountain Blue Schist Geologic Area. The conservation values of the Siskiyou Crest are simply not matched with adequate protection or appropriate management. In fact, many of these values are currently threatened by inappropriate off-road vehicle use, public land grazing, industrial logging, mining, proposed ski resort expansion and other forms of misuse.

From the Big Red Mountain Roadless Area looking west across the Siskiyou Crest.

In the era of climate change and industrialization, the connectivity the Siskiyou Moutains provide will allow genetic and biologic diversity to flow freely across the landscape. This flow of diversity will likely be vital to natural climate adaptation and dispersal. The key to protecting diversity in the era of climate change may be in protecting the connectivity of our last wild landscapes and undisturbed habitats. The Siskiyou Mountains are a monumental landscape and should be preserved in perpetuity. A large protected area should be designated on the border of California and Oregon, extending from the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument to Redwood National Park. The connectivity these mountains provide is priceless, the diversity unparalleled, and the wildness still tangible. If we protect the Siskiyou Crest these important values will remain, if we do not, they may be lost forever. 

Take a trip along the Siskiyou Crest on the PCT and get to know the region more intimately. You'll be glad you did! I recommend the route from Mt. Ashland to Cook and Green Pass, or if you have a little more time, all the way down to Seiad Valley and the Klamath River via Devils Ridge. 

Looking down Silver Fork Glade and the Observation Peak Roadless Area to Dutchman's Peak.

Looking west from the PCT near Alex Hole, across the Condrey Mountain Roadless Area.

Wildfire & Redrock: The Buckskin Fire Report

Far from catastrophic, the Buckskin Fire burned at predominately low severity in the Baldface Creek watershed, a wild tributary of the North Fork Smith River in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area. 

        Each summer fires burn in the wildlands of the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains and across the west. Each summer long-term impacts to old-growth forests, native plant communities, roadless areas, wilderness areas, endangered species habitat and salmon bearing streams are sustained. Often fire suppression activities leave more lasting impacts then the fires themselves. These activities take place with no environmental oversight, analysis, or public input. Fire suppression actions are the least regulated federal land management activity and include very little opportunity for public oversight, analysis or input.  Fire suppression is also big business; hundreds of millions of public dollars are spent every summer fighting forest fires, yet government transparency and accountability surrounding fire suppression activities is the exception not the norm. Fire managers routinely spend vast sums of public money and implement damaging fire suppression actions with little to no analysis of the appropriateness or effectiveness of such actions.

        The Klamath Forest Alliance has been tracking these impacts since 2012 in the Klamath-Siskiyou Fire Reports. The fire reports document fire suppression impacts, make policy and fire management recommendations, and analyze the patterns of fire severity on the landscape. Our newest project, the Buckskin Fire Report: Wildfire and Redrock: An Analysis of Fire Effects, Fire Suppression Impacts, and Management Implications, was published this week and will be used to encourage important policy debate about the current state of fire suppression and its impacts.

           

Low severity fire in the Baldface Creek Canyon.

A year ago this month, on June 11, 2015, the Buckskin Fire was lit by lightening in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area. The fire burned in remote and inaccessible terrain near Baldface Creek, one of the most pristine streams in southern Oregon. Baldface Creek is a key salmon stronghold in the Smith River watershed, it has wilderness quality habitat and is one of the most botanically diverse watersheds in the state. The fire was ignited six to eight miles from the nearest home in an area burned by the 2002 Biscuit Fire. Many of the areas burned by the Biscuit Fire had simply not built sufficient fuel since the blaze to burn with intensity. The effects of natural fuel reduction associated with the Biscuit Fire were evident throughout the Buckskin Fire, reducing fire severity and rate of fire spread. Despite widespread concern in land management circles that fires in the vast fire footprint of the Biscuit Fire would burn at high severity, the fire burned at mostly low severity due to a cool, coastal inversion layer and a lack of fire available fuel.

            The Siskiyou National Forest Forest Plan mandated Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics (MIST) within the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area; unfortunately, MIST was not initially implemented and great damage was done to important natural resource values. The Buckskin Fire burned slow and cool through the forests of Baldface Creek, naturally maintaining fuel loads and plant communities. The fire was doing great work far from any nearby community. The fire was surrounded by “natural barriers” of serpentine rock, sparse vegetation and fuel-starved slopes, still nearly unburnable due to the effects of the Biscuit Fire over a decade earlier.

           

Large diameter snags were felled in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless
Area. Fireline built to fight the Buckskin Fire can be seen in the
background.

The Buckskin Fire burned actively for only four days and natural fire spread had reached a near complete halt by June 17, 2015. With the fire smoldering itself out in a remote wilderness canyon, fire suppression crews set about building bulldozed fireline, impacting numerous rare plant species, cutting hundreds of old-growth snags and intentionally igniting large backburns that accounted for half the total acres burned by the Buckskin Fire. These impacts were sustained within the largest unprotected wildland in the state of Oregon: the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area. The impact of discretionary fire suppression activities to the area’s wilderness character was severe, especially along trail #1124, a hiking trail that leads into the heart of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. Significant portions of fire line were bulldozed into the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area on trail #1124, turning a popular wilderness trail into a freshly bulldozed fireline surrounded by a series of stump fields, large helicopter pads, and “safety zones” cleared of trees and snags and scraped of all vegetation with the blade of heavy machinery. A rare population of Tracy’s lupine (Lupinus tracyii) was potentially eliminated due to fireline creation.

           

A large "safety zone" built in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area adjacent to trail #1124 near Buckskin Peak. The safety zone was created by felling many trees and snags and clearing the site of all vegetation with a bulldozer. The photograph depicts the site following "fire suppression rehabilitation."

              With fire season looming and the inevitable wildfires primed by summer drought all throughout the west, the question remains: What has been learned from the past? Will we send bulldozers and fire suppression crews into our last remaining wildlands, doing great harm to important natural resource values? Will discretionary fire suppression impacts continue leaving long-lasting impacts as we fight to “protect” our forests from important natural processes that have shaped their structure and composition for millennia? Wildfire, by and large, is not catastrophic, yet the impact of fighting wildfire can be.

            Many in the fire management community and environmental movement are advocating for a more responsible approach to protecting communities and managing wildland fire. The current militaristic approach to fire suppression is creating significant collateral damage. Innovative fire suppression strategies should be required in order to minimize long-term impacts, sustain important natural resource values, and maximize the number of acres safely burned at characteristic fire severities. In remote places like the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area, a fire management strategy relying on Wildland Fire Use (i.e. monitoring and managing wildfire for resource benefit if conditions allow) is necessary and realistic given the rugged and inaccessible nature of the landscape and its distance from homes and other infrastructure.

A section of fireline built along trail #1124 in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area.  Numerous miles of hiking trail across the summit of Buckskin Peak were subjected to extensive tree and snag felling, dozerline creation, and intentionally lit backburns. 

Mixed severity fire in old-growth sugar pine stands near the Frantz Meadow Trail.

For more information check out the Buckskin Fire Report & Executive Summary: 

Buckskin Fire Report

Thru-Hike Photo Essay

Josh Weber and Luke Ruediger hiking the Applegate Ridge Trail.

This last week Josh Weber and I, board members of the Applegate Trails Association (ATA), hiked across the ridges of the Applegate Valley from Ashland, Oregon to Grants Pass, Oregon. We traced the route of the proposed Jack-Ash Trail and the Applegate Ridge Trail. The mostly trail-less journey took us through wild forest, oak woodland, grassy ridgetop balds, chaparral, and through numerous small and unroaded sections of BLM land in the Applegate watershed. These trails provide a glimpse into the beauty and connectivity these unroaded wildlands provide. The further we hiked, the more clear the vision became.

Together these trails will provide an incentive to protect these small, unroaded wildlands that link together, creating a broad corridor across the Applegate/Rogue River Divide. Each wildland flows into the next, creating a spectacular low elevation, long distance trail system that could benefit the many surrounding communities in SW Oregon. As the recreation economy steadily increases, the project would complement the quality of life these communities enjoy and provide sustainable economic opportunities to local residents. The benefits of this trail system are intergenerational and will be most drastically felt in the future as the Rogue Valley grows and expands. Isolation, solitude and untamed wild spaces will become more meaningful as the urban environment grows. Likewise, for the wildlife of our region, these unroaded areas are essential to maintain viable wildlife populations. They are also a stronghold for intact native habitats, maintaining our world-renowned plant biodiversity.

Two areas along this proposed trail corridor are currently inventoried as Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWC) by the BLM; however, the BLM is proposing to ax this designation in their new Resource Management Plan (RMP), opening the areas to logging and road building. Currently many other wild places exist along the proposed trail corridor, but are not acknowledged with LWC designation or any form of protection. Together these wild places must be preserved for our region's wildlife, biodiversity, and quality of life, as well as for future generations to enjoy.


Below are images from our hike on the Jack-Ash and Applegate Ridge Trails:

Jack-Ash Trail

Day 1: Ashland Watershed to Wagner Butte

 The large sloping glades on the eastern face of Wagner Butte. 

 Our filmmaker, Tim Lewis, hiking through heavy snow to get footage on Wagner Butte. (Photo: Chant Thomas)

Day 2: Wagner Butte to Anderson Butte

The large bald on the southern face of Bald Mountain.

 

Sea blush (Plectritis sp.) blooming on Point Mountain

Grassy slopes and large black oak near Section Line Gap

Applegate Ridge Trail

Day 3: Anderson Butte to Forest Creek

Bishop Creek Ridge on the East Applegate Ridge Trail

Bishop Creek Ridge looking west to Mt. Isabelle and Wellington Butte

 Day 4: Forest Creek to Old Blue Mountain

Looking south into Ruch, Oregon from the Applegate Ridge Trail. This section of trail and the surrounding wildlands have been proposed as an addition to the Wellington Butte Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWC).

 

The Wellington Butte LWC on the divide between Long Gulch and China Gulch. 

Day 5: Old Blue Mountain to Miners Creek
 

Old-growth fir on upper Slagle Creek, above the Felton Memorial Trail.

 

From Bald Hill looking south into Slagle Creek and the Williams Valley.

 Day 6: Miners Creek to Cathedral Hills

The view northwest into Grants Pass from what we called "Snail Butte."

 

Board Shanty Creek near the end of the Applegate Ridge Trail. 

 
Please consider supporting the Applegate Trails Association as they work to build the Applegate Ridge Trail. 

Applegate Valley Wildlands Threatened by BLM's Proposed RMP

A view from the beautiful upland prairie near the summit of Wellington Butte in the Wellington Lands With Wilderness Characteristics (LWC). 

The BLM recently released its Proposed Resource Managment Plan (PRMP). The plan is a template for public land management throughout BLM lands in Western Oregon. Like its former incarnation, the WOPR, the PRMP proposes to drastically increase timber production. The increased logging would include an emphasis on clear-cut logging in the moist forests of the Coast Range and Cascade Mountains, and heavy thinning in dry forests in the Siskiyous and southwestern Oregon. Heavily influenced by the timber industry and Association for O&C Counties, the PRMP will maximize timber production throughout the state, while significantly impacting other important natural resources and local communities.

In southern Oregon's Applegate Valley the BLM is proposing to manage large portions of the dry, eastern portions of the Applegate watershed for timber production. The proposed timber production will increase fuel hazards, impact forest health and further degrade northern spotted owl habitat already compromised by recent BLM logging. Numerous areas loved by local residents and heavily utilized for recreation will be managed for increased timber production in the PRMP. The impacts will be severe and should be opposed by all who love these important BLM lands.

Most troubling to members of the Applegate Valley community is the proposed logging and roadbuildiing in the Dakubetede and Wellington Butte Roadless Areas. These areas were inventoried by the BLM in 2013 and identified as "Lands with Wilderness Characteristics" (LWC). The Dakubetede LWC and Wellington LWC were designated by the BLM to recognize significant intact ecosystems and opportunities for solitude in unroaded wildlands. Both areas are loved by the adjacent communities in the Applegate Valley. Due to the wild nature of these areas, yet the relative accessibility, they are also heavily utilized for non-motorized and quiet recreation. 

A view from Goat Cabin Ridge across the Dakubetede LWC. The vast majority of the Dakubetede LWC consists of grasslands, chaparral, and oak woodland — this is not timber country.

In the PRMP, the BLM has proposed to include 1,995 forested acres within the boundaries of these LWCs as part of the "harvest land base." This 1,995 acres represents 18% of the 10,811 unroaded acres in the Dakubetede and Wellington LWCs. Both areas are dominated by non-forest plant communities, including hardwood forests, shrublands, oak woodland, and sweeping upland prairie.

Although much of this forested acreage is remote, arid and relatively unproductive, in terms of timber, the BLM has decided that this small amount of forested habitat is too much to pass up, and they are using this as justification to remove LWC designation in both areas. This will open our cherished wildlands to logging, roadbuilding, and OHV use. According to the PRMP, "management actions [i.e. logging] would degrade wilderness characteristics over time, and eventually, wilderness characteristics will be lost."

This loss of wilderness characteristics will turn our currently remote, unroaded and intact wildland habitats into stump fields, marred by roads and OHV trails. This degradation of important habitat will impact the scenic values of the Applegate Valley, diminish our quality of life and the quality of recreational opportunities these areas provide. Both the Dakubetede and Wellington LWCs are heavily utilized by local Rogue Valley and Applegate Valley residents for recreation and solitude.

The very popular State Scenic Trail, the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, traverses the Dakubetede LWC, cutting through the heart of the wildlands. The proposed Jack-Ash Trail, which would connect the towns of Jacksonville, Oregon and Ashland, Oregon, will run through the Dakubetede LWC's northern boundary. The trail will provide an important, accessible, non-motorized trail within a short drive from local population centers. Local residents and tourists alike will utilize this beautiful trail system. It has quickly become a regional hotspot for recreation and a refuge from the growing urban areas around Medford and Ashland. 

Birch Creek is located at the center of the Dakubetede LWC.

Just as BLM's approval of the Jack-Ash Trail is beginning — with small sections proposed to be built this fall — the BLM is threatening to remove the area's LWC protections, degrade its wilderness quality, and log one of its scenic highlights on Bald Mountain in the Nedsbar Timber Sale. The Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, Jack-Ash Trail and Dakubetede LWC are under threat and must be protected. The hard work of our community should not be squandered building trails through stump fields.

In the Dakubetede only 499 acres of scattered and extremely dry forest can be found within a matrix of brush, oak, and beautiful grassland. The timber is isolated in small pockets and has never been logged. To remove this timber the area would either need to be helicopter logged — which is likely to be uneconomical — or a vast road system would have to be built across the currently roadless slopes, bulldozing a path from one small, isolated forest stand to the next. The results would be disastrous, unsustainable and the economic benefit not worth the impacts. In fact, the economic benefit of this region is the ecosystem services it provides, the scenic vistas, wildlife habitat, rare plant habitats, and the unparalleled recreation it provides. Today, non-motorized outdoor recreation provides 2.1 billion dollars to the economy of Oregon.

A complex mixture of upland prairie, oak woodland, chaparral and conifer forest in the Wellington LWC.

The Wellington LWC lies northwest of Ruch, Oregon. The area is covered in chaparral, oak woodland, large upland prairies and two isolated canyons with groves of old-growth timber that survived the great fires of the 1930s. These fires burned in the brushy hills between Grants Pass, Oregon and Jacksonville, Oregon, burning large swaths of the landscape. The mosaic of vegetation recovering from those fires in the area is complex, varied and highly diverse.

The Applegate Trails Assoication has proposed a 40-mile, long distance trail that would traverse this long, brushy ridge between Grants Pass and Jacksonville. The Applegate Ridge Trail would connect the two towns, traverse the Wellington LWC and connect with the Jack-Ash Trail to create an 80-mile, non-motorized trail between Ashland, Oregon and Grants Pass, Oregon. The idea is visionary and would provide a connection between communities and our local wildlands  It will also provide important habitat for wildlife and solitude for humans — an escape from the busy, urban world in the valleys below.

Scattered old timber can be found in the drainages and on north slopes in the Wellington LWC.

Unfortunatley, the scattered 1,500 acres of timber in the Wellington LWC is too much for the BLM to resist. Instead of protecting this important island of intact habitat, the BLM has identified the forests of the Wellington LWC for commercial logging and associated road building. According to the BLM, after excluding the forested acreage,"Identified lands with wilderness characteristics within the Dakubetede and Wellington units would drop below the 5,000 acre minimum size requirement under the proposed RMP, and therefore the entire units would not be allocated to the District Defined Reserve-Lands with Wilderness Characteristics."

Low-elevation wildland habitat is increasingly rare, and wildland habitat in close proximity to our growing urban communities is increasingly important to those who live in the region. Together the timber in both the Dakubetede and Wellington LWC constitutes 1/10 of 1% of the proposed "harvest land base" in the PRMP. Surely this small sliver of the harvest land base could be sacrificed for the benefit of the whole.

The Dakubetede and Wellington LWCs are too important to lose, but they are also a small portion of what we will lose if BLM approves the PRMP. Please contact your local state representatives, senators, congressman and BLM officials. Write letters to the editor, organize an event, or if you commented on the original DEIS for this project, consider writing an official protest letter. The future of our wildlands in southern Oregon, as well as our forests across the state of Oregon are at risk.

A view across Long Gulch in the Wellington LWC.

To write an official protest letter of the BLM's PRMP follow these instructions. Official protest letters must be submitted before May 15th. Time is running out!

Also consider supporting the Applegate Trails Association Kickstarter, so we can highlight the beauty and recreational benefits of the Applegate Ridge Trail, as well as the Dakubetede and Wellington LWCs. ATA board members intend to thru-hike the Jack-Ash and Applegate Ridge Trails this spring and make a documentary film advocating for the trails and the wildlands that surround them. The time is ripe to highlight their beauty and the benefits they provide to the local communities in the Applegate and Rogue Valleys.

Support the Applegate Trails Association Kickstarter Film

A view from the Applegate Ridge Trail into the Wellington Butte Roadless Area.

The Applegate Trails Association (ATA) is a non-motorized trail organization dedicated to creating and preserving non-motorized trails in the Applegate Valley, while encouraging respect for our natural environment. Having started five years ago today, on April 23, 2011, the group has become a strong local voice promoting non-motorized recreation and advocating for protection of the Wellington Butte Roadless Area. In 2013 the BLM designated the Wellington Butte Roadless Area as "Lands with Wilderness Characteristics." This designation can largely be attributed to ATA's unrelenting advocacy for the Wellington Butte Roadless Area. 

ATA's largest project is the creation of the Applegate Ridge Trail (ART). The ART is a 40-mile-long, non-motorized trail proposed to extend from Jacksonville, Oregon to Grants Pass, Oregon. Numerous miles of the trail would skirt the edge of the Wellington Butte Roadless Area. On Sterling Creek Road, the ART would join the Jack-Ash Trail. The Jack-Ash Trail would extend across the foothills of the Little Applegate Valley, across the arid face of Anderson Butte, through the Dakubetede Roadless Area and over the 7,253 foot summit of Wagner Butte, and into downtown Ashland, Oregon.

Currently the trails exist only in theory. Although some existing trails would be incorporated into the route, much of the "trail" is currently undefined and non-existent. 

This spring two ATA board members (Josh Weber and myself) intend to be the first to thru-hike both trails from downtown Ashland to Grants Pass, Oregon. We will turn the adventure into a documentary film, promoting the trail, documenting its beauty and the many benefits it will bring to surrounding communities. We are raising funds to hire a professional filmmaker to create a high quality documentary film promoting and supporting the ART. We have initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the project.

In celebration of Earth Day and ATA's 5th birthday, please consider supporting this project. For more information or to make a donation follow this link: ATA Thru-Hike Kickstarter

A view into the Dakubetede Roadless Area and the Little Applegate River Canyon from the proposed Jack-Ash Trail.

O'Lickety Timber Sale: Illegal BLM Logging and the Continuing Loss of Northern Spotted Owl Habitat in the Applegate Valley

Extensive blowdown in unit 61-1 of the O'Lickety Timber Sale. Canopy reduction was drastic in many logged units in the O'Lickety Timber Sale, leaving the remaining trees more susceptible to mortality associated with blowdown, drought stress and beetle infestations.

The BLM's O'Lickety Timber Sale was logged by the Murphy Company in November of 2013. The BLM's Environmental Assessment (EA) for the sale claimed all logging units would "treat and maintain" northern spotted owl habitat, meaning existing habitat designations would not be compromised by logging treatments. Analysis in the BLM's EA and United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) consultation was based on a presumption that "treat and maintain" prescription parameters would be met. Unfortunately, the prescriptions and tree removal mark approved by the BLM failed to meet the requirements identified to "maintain" northern spotted owl habitat conditions, and instead the habitat was downgraded or entirely removed. 

The O'Lickety Timber Sale was one of four consecutive BLM timber sales in the Little Applegate Valley that illegally over-cut spotted owl habitat between 2008-2014. Every unit logged in the O'Lickety Timber Sale and Lick Stew Stewardship Project eliminated or downgraded northern spotted owl habitat conditions, and all but one unit was over-cut in the Bald Lick Timber Sale. This includes units that were cable yarded and tractor logged.

The BLM's resource management plan requires the retention of 16-25 large trees per acre on all forest lands south of Grants Pass, Oregon. In numerous units this retention target was not met.

Unit 35-32 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale represents high quality spotted owl Nesting, Roosting, Foraging (NRF) habitat. The unit is proposed for logging to 40% canopy and includes trees up to 42" in diameter marked for removal.

Unit 64-1 of the O'Lickety Timber Sale was northern spotted owl Nesting, Roosting, Foraging (NRF) habitat, within 0.5 mile of an owl nesting site, and within the home range of two more occupied owl sites. The unit was proposed by the BLM as a "treat and maintain" prescription, but instead, the owl habitat was either downgraded or eliminated by BLM logging treatments. Continuing canopy loss from blowdown is further diminishing habitat values in unit 64-1.

The BLM manages two separate classifications of suitable northern spotted owl habitat: Nesting, Roosting, Foraging (NRF) habitat and dispersal habitat. 

NRF habitat is generally the most suitable habitat on the landscape with sufficient habitat complexity, canopy cover, large diameter trees, and prey populations. These areas support all habitat needs for the northern spotted owl, including nesting, roosting, foraging and dispersal. The minimum canopy cover required to maintain NRF habitat is 60%. Other habitat elements include large snags, coarse woody debris and a multi-layered canopy. 

Dispersal habitat provides for connectivity or "dispersal" across the landscape, allowing northern spotted owls to travel from suitable habitat to suitable habitat, providing the owl some degree of protection and some foraging opportunity. The minimum requirements for dispersal habitat include conifer stands with an average diameter of approximately 11 inches and 40%-60% canopy cover. Some dispersal units were over-cut to as low as 28% canopy cover in the O'Lickety Timber Sale, eliminating suitable northern spotted owl habitat on the stand level for many years to come. 

Blowdown in unit 61-1 of the O'Lickety Timber Sale. This unit was dispersal habitat, but the habitat was removed during implementation of the O'Lickety Timber Sale. Further reductions to canopy cover are occurring due to blowdown associated with heavy canopy reduction in the timber sale.

The BLM has taken responsibility for the over-cutting, saying it was a product of inappropriate tree marking, insufficient review of stand conditions, and inadequate coordination between silvicultural staff, wildlife biologists, and BLM timber marking crews. The end result was hundreds of acres of degraded habitat in the following four sales. 

• Wagner-Anderson Timber Sale: This sale was bought by Boise Cascade, but it was subcontracted to Estremado Logging, a company based out of Gold Hill, OR.
• Bald Lick Timber Sale: Bought and logged by Estremado Logging from Gold Hill, Oregon.
• O'Lickety Timber Sale: Bought and logged by Murphy Company, corporate headquarters are in Eugene, OR.
• Lick Stew Stewardship Project: Logged by Lomakatsi Ecological Services, Ashland, OR (the for-profit wing of the Lomakatsi Restoration Project).

The results of the Wagner-Anderson Timber Sale. Take note of the number of broken-topped snags from blowdown and the continuing mortality from drought stress and beetle infestations. Post-harvest mortality in unit 17-1 of the Wagner-Anderson Timber Sale has been significant. 

2015 Medford BLM Post-Harvest Monitoring Report

The BLM discovered that spotted owl habitat had been over-cut and illegally downgraded in July of 2014. Additionally, community members concerned about habitat conservation also brought to light occurrences of over-cutting. In response the BLM began a district-wide monitoring effort and recently released a report that worked to "determine if there was systemic failure in project implementation across the district or if the implementation failures found in the four projects were isolated cases." The report also explores the "potential implications with the district's spotted owl habitat baseline and the need for reinititation of past consultations." 

The report shows that between 25%-51% of NRF habitat proposed for "treat and maintain" logging prescriptions since 2008, was either illegally downgraded or removed. This includes timber sales extending from the western Cascade Mountains, to the dry forests of the Siskiyou, and the hills north and west of Grants Pass, Oregon on Medford District BLM lands. Unfortunately, this report arbitrarily excludes the four Applegate timber sales that triggered the monitoring efforts in the first place; thus, the actual extent of illegal northern spotted owl habitat downgrades on the district is significantly higher than is being reported by the BLM. In the report, the BLM claims that only 13 units across the district were found to have been over-cut, yet 38 units were over-cut in the Bald Lick, Lick Stew and O'Lickety Timber Sales alone.

Unit 97A of the Bald Lick Timber Sale. The unit was considered both NRF and dispersal habitat, the habitat was eliminated by BLM logging. Canopy gaps are expanding and canopy cover diminishing, as large pine trees have fallen in winter storms. The heavy canopy reductions that downgraded owl habitat also made the stand susceptible to blowdown. The newly exposed trees with poor height-to-crown ratios are falling in winter storms and under heavy snowloads.

The BLM's monitoring report has concluded that implementation failures were not systemic across the district; however, many critics point to the downgrading or removal of 25%-50% of all harvested NRF habitat as a clear pattern of implementation failure. The report identifies over a dozen units across the district — including all resource areas and 11 separate timber sales — that exceeded the approved northern spotted owl impacts. Even excluding the four Applegate sales, the problem was documented to have been widespread.

Over 75% of the acres harvested since 2008 have not been monitored for compliance with Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultation effects. How many more acres have been downgraded or eliminated that were not surveyed for this report? What is the true spotted owl baseline?

Blowdown in unit 64-1 of the O'Lickety Timber Sale.

Since logging was completed on the O'lickety Timber Sale, stand conditions have continued to deteriorate. Canopies already compromised have been made susceptible to blowdown, drought stess and increased beetle infestations. In numerous units a significant number of trees can be found up-rooted, and many trees, especially pine trees with poor height-to-crown ratios, have snapped off under the weight of wet, heavy, El Nino snowloads. The result has been a continued decline of canopy cover in units already overcut by the BLM during the O'Lickety Timber Sale. Large tree retention targets of 16-25 trees per acre were already not being met in several units, and as large trees fall or break under heavy snow, the deficiency becomes more pronounced. The over-cutting of O'lickety has undermined the resilience of the effected forest stands. This condition is known as "accelerated overstory mortality," which can be triggered by the over-cutting of forest stands. The effect is a continuing loss of canopy, habitat complexity, and large tree retention, along with an increase in ground fuels. 

Canopy conditions in uncut, late-seral NRF habitat in the Little Applegate watershed. The photograph was taken in unit 35-32 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale, a unit proposed to be logged to 40% canopy closure. Unit 35-32 should be canceled to protect late-seral and northern spotted owl habitat values. 

Canopy conditions in unit 64-1 of the O'Lickety Timber Sale. The unit used to be considered NRF habitat. The unit was badly over-cut and is now suffering from severe blowdown. The combined effect has been the removal of northern spotted owl habitat and a loss of forest resilience. Impacts to the long-term trajectory of this stand and many others in the O'Lickety Timber Sale have been severe.  

The continued loss of canopy in O'Lickety Timber Sale units will drastically increase fire hazards in the long term. The combined effects of soil disturbance from yarding operations and increased sunlight from canopy loss will trigger a significant increase in woody understory vegetation, including regenerating conifers, hardwoods and brush species. The many blowdown trees will also contribute pulses of fine fuels to the forest floor. Fuel loading and fuel laddering will increase; wind speeds and ambient temperatures will also increase; while fuel moisture decreases due to the exposed, post-logging conditions. These conditions can lead to high levels of fire severity in future wildland fires and extend fire seasons. 

Fire resilience has been drastically effected as large, fire-resistant trees are logged or continue to blowdown. The condition will create dense, even-age stands regenerating from logging disturbances and canopy loss. These stands are highly susceptible to high severity fire.

Increased fuel loading from blowdown in unit 61-1, O'Lickety Timber Sale.

The recent BLM monitoring report also identifies numerous units suffering from significant blowdown. Nearly all these units are located on the Ashland Resource Area and were also over-cut during project implementation. It appears that a pattern is developing that correlates heavy canopy reduction and northern spotted owl habitat impacts to blowdown and continued habitat degradation. This pattern is especially troubling given the claims by the BLM and USFWS, that short-term impacts to northern spotted owl habitat from commercial logging will be offset by long-term gains. They also often claim that canopy conditions will close over the course of the next twenty years due to increased vigor in the remaining trees. This conclusion is questionable when blowdown, drought stress, mechanical damage, and other impacts associated with logging operations create a self-reinforcing pattern of canopy loss, mortality, habitat degradation, heavy fuel loading and structural simplification. 

It is possible that the O'Lickety and Bald Lick timber sales generated unanticipated "take" (i.e. kill) of northern spotted owls. Consultation on these sales should be re-initiated by USFWS and current conditions reevaluated to identify areas that may have suffered further habitat downgrades due to accelerated mortality and significant winter blowdown. 

Portions of the Bald Lick, Wagner-Anderson and O'Lickety Timber Sales are clearly experiencing accelerated overstory mortality. This is leading to further undocumented reductions in northern spotted owl habitat. These continuing losses in northern spotted owl habitat are currently not accounted for in the northern spotted owl habitat baseline that informs the analysis of impacts and consultation of pending timber sales like Nedsbar. 

Unfortunately, despite the recent illegal BLM logging and its unintended consequences on northern spotted owl habitat conditions in the Little Applegate watershed, the agency has recently identified numerous units in the Nedsbar Timber Sale that will be downgraded from NRF to dispersal habitat, or downgraded from dispersal to non-habitat, further impacting an already compromised northern spotted owl habitat baseline. Unfortunately, rather than demonstrate that the Medford District BLM can "treat and maintain" habitat in their timber sale program, the agency has decided to do the opposite and continue degrading owl habitat in the area. The agency is focused on providing large volumes of timber to the industry, not restoring, preserving or protecting the owl or fire resilient forests.

For more information or to read the 2015 Medford BLM Post Harvest Monitoring Report.
 

Blowdown and canopy loss in unit 64-2 of the O'Lickety Timber Sale.