Close Bee Camp Road!

View of Red Butte from Bee Camp at the current end of Road 47N80. Road 47N80 is an obstacle to wilderness designation and should be closed to all motorized traffic. 

     The Klamath National Forest (KNF) has announced the development of a road rehabilitation project in the Seiad Creek Watershed, adjacent to the Red Buttes Wilderness and the Kangaroo Roadless Area. The project is being called, "The Seiad Legacy Roads Rehabilitation Project." The goal of the project is to improve water quality by reducing road related sediment sources in the watershed. The KNF has proposed a variety of treatments including culvert removal, road decommissioning, road re-contouring, fill removal, and the construction of water bars. 

    This project is designed around identifying what the KNF has deemed "legacy roads." Legacy roads serve little to no real purpose and degrade numerous important biological and social resources. Although much of this proposed project is commendable there is one key road missing from the list of "legacy" roads: Forest Service Road 47N80, otherwise known as the Bee Camp Road. The Bee Camp Road is long defunct, boulder strewn and barely drivable. It was built to access the chrome mines in Hello Canyon in the 1940's. It is truly a "legacy road," having long outlasted its original purpose.

     
     The Bee Camp Road begins at Cook and Green Pass and heads west into the peridotite barrens surrounding Red Butte. The road is officially closed beyond picturesque Bee Camp, the small rocky basin on the south side of Red Butte. For roughly three miles the road parallels the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), surrounded by roadless wildland on all sides, but if closed at Cook and Green Pass, Bee Camp could also be three miles inside the back country.The road is adjacent to the Cook and Green Pass Botanical Area and the Seiad Baker Cypress Botanical Area; a few Baker cypress trees can even be found along the roadside. The area is designated "back country" by the KNF, and all Forest Sevice management direction in the area emphasizes back country and botanical values, wildlife, late successional reserves, and non-motorized recreation.

     The road represents an obstacle for wilderness designation; it represents a seed source for noxious and non-native weeds; it disrupts the feeling of solitude and isolation in the Red Buttes Wilderness, the Kangaroo Roadless Area, and on the PCT. It also disturbs the abundant wildlife in the area because the road allows access for motorized vehicles, poachers, yahoos, and others who seek to do the place harm. The road is a missing link in what is otherwise a broad chain of wild country at the heart of the Siskiyou Crest, a renowned connectivity corridor for both flora and fauna. The Red Buttes region is the wild central core of the Siskiyou Crest, with the Condrey Mountain Roadless Area to the east and the Siskiyou Wilderness to the west. The Bee Camp Road is the only road still open to vehicular use from Cook and Green Pass to Sundown Gap, a distance of approximately 20 miles.

Public commentary on the old sign which used to be at the intersection of Road 47N80 and Cook and Green Pass Road.  Opinions vary widely and road closure remains a controversial but necessary strategy to preserve our wilderness lands,  clean water, wildlife habitat, and sense of solitude. 

      The Bee Camp Road also represents too much of a good thing: access to wilderness. The road currently penetrates an otherwise roadless landscape allowing access to the heart of the high country. The ease of access to high elevation basins in the Red Buttes Wilderness and Kangaroo Roadless Area could lead to overuse, impacting wilderness values, native vegetation, rare plant species, wildlife usage and behavior, connectivity, and the sense of solitude otherwise so prevalent in the area. A little forethought can go a long way if we act now.

      From now until June 2, 2013 the KNF is accepting public comments regarding the "Seiad Legacy Roads Rehabilitation Project." Please let them know that the Bee Camp Road should be permanently closed to vehicular traffic and officially recognized as a hiking trail, providing a nearly 8 mile loop with the PCT from Cook and Green Pass. The myriad of other management directives effecting the immediate region include an emphasis on non-motorized back country recreation, botanical diversity, the protection of rare plant species, wilderness characteristics, and high water quality. The Bee Camp Road damages all of these values and should be decommissioned in the Seiad Legacy Road Rehabilitation Project.

Provide your public comments to the KNF at the following email address: kcrider@fs.fed.us

 

BALDFACE CREEK: WORTH MORE THAN A NICKEL MINE

     The Cleopatra Mine, a large-scale strip mine proposed on Cleopatra Ridge, deep in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area, has the potential to impact the world renowned fisheries and water quality of both Baldface Creek and the North Fork of the Smith River. The mine project would degrade wilderness quality lands in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area, likely precluding future wilderness designation.
     The area is extremely remote, wild, and inaccessible; yet the McGrew Trail, a long abandoned stage coach route through the area, can provide hikers and backpackers access to the stark peridotite ridges and clear mountain streams of the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area. 
     It is my contention that these places must be loved if they are to be saved. The public who owns this land must know what is truly at stake, so explore Baldface Creek and speak out for its permanent protection! The link below explores the issue and provides a detailed hiking description, guiding readers to the site of the mine and beyond.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/je1ketet84mt2c0/Baldface%20Creek%20hike%20PDF.pdf

Map courtesy of Friends of the Kalmiopsis

BLM Pilot Thompson Timber Sale Update

Public comments have been received and posted by the BLM at the following website. Scroll down toward the bottom of the page and click on the numbered comments under the heading EA REVIEW INPUT. Community comments regarding the Pilot Thompson project identified many areas of concern.

http://www.blm.gov/or/districts/medford/forestrypilot/pilot-projects.php

Middle Applegate Pilot Projects: Monitoring and Information

The Middle Applegate Pilot Project is being touted as a new and innovative approach to forest management, emphasizing forest restoration and the retention of old-growth trees. The project is based on the dry forest restoration principals created by Norm Johnson and Jerry Franklin and claims to focus on reducing fuels, increasing forest resiliency, and treating overly-dense forest stands. The prescription calls for retaining all trees over 150 years of age, yet in the project's initial timber sale (Pilot Joe) old-growth trees were logged along with other trees that, although not over 150 years of age, were not consistent with project objectives, principals, prescriptions and guidelines. The logging of these trees contradicts the claims and analysis in the Environmental Assessment, as well as statements made by BLM officials at public meetings, field trips, and other outreach efforts for the Pilot Joe Timber Sale.
In the midst of this controversy the BLM has proposed stage two of the Middle Applegate Pilot Project, the Pilot Thompson Timber Sale. This time public citizens have initiated a Community Monitoring Report to review and document the trees marked for removal in the Pilot Thompson Timber Sale. The review is still in progress but an initial report can be viewed by clicking on the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a7n3ezf5dcru15e/Pilot%20Thompson%20Community%20Monitoring%20Report.pdf

To view Middle Applegate Pilot: The Myth and The Reality, a photo essay of the impacts at the Pilot Joe Timber Sale and the proposed Pilot Thompson Timber Sale click on the following link:
www.dropbox.com/s/j1tizckl4vbgvi0/Pilot Joe The Myth and The Reality.pdf

Unit 19-4 The yellow marked tree at the center of the photo is marked for retention, the other trees are proposed for removal by the BLM. These fire adapted Douglas fir trees may be over 150 years old.

Fort Complex Fire: Summery of Outcome and Events

The Fort Complex Fire burned within the Red Buttes Wilderness and adjacent roadless areas on both the Klamath and Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest during the summer of 2012. Although the fire burned in a healthy mosaic indicative of mixed severity fire, impacts were sustained due to irresponsible fire suppression tactics. Shortly after the fire, the Klamath National Forest proposed salvage logging within the Kangaroo Roadless Area. This proposal has been canceled due to significant public outcry, yet controversy still surrounds the management of fire in the roadless areas and wilderness areas of the Klamath-Siskiyou. The link below explores these issues in the context of last summer's fire.

Fort Complex Fire: Summary of Outcome and Events

Low severity fire on Fort Goff Creek summer 2012