Presentation: The Red Buttes Wilderness

MT. ASHLAND SKI AREA: STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE, FAILING TO EXPAND

A view into the proposed Mt. Ashland Ski expansion area in the winter of 2011. The lack of a deep snow pack this season has brought the ski resort to the brink of financial collapse, ensuring they won't have the funds to expand anytime soon.

       For many years now the Mt. Ashland Association (MAA), owners of the Mt. Ashland Ski Area, have proposed expanding their operation by building new ski runs and chair lifts in the McDonald Peak Roadless Area and the municipal watershed for the town of Ashland, Oregon. The expansion would include over 70 acres of new ski runs, clear-cut into old-growth forest at the headwaters of Ashland Creek. The area in question includes numerous rare plant species, including Henderson's horkelia (Horkelia hendersonii), the Siskiyou Mountains' only stand of Engelman spruce (Picea engelmannii), and the world's only population of the Mt. Ashland lupine (Lupinus lepidus var. ashlandensis). The forest is also home to the rare Pacific fisher. 

     Serious issues of slope stability, as well as impacts to water quality, connectivity and wilderness quality habitat would follow any development into the wild and fragile Middle Branch of the East Fork of Ashland Creek. With the ski expansion currently approved by the Forest Service and nearly all legal avenues exhausted, the only hope for a wild Mt. Ashland may be for the existing ski resort to either fail to generate the funds needed for expansion, or for the ski resort itself to go out of business, forcing the plans to be dropped all together. A timely natural catastrophe for the MAA could be more effective than all the efforts of environmental activists and organizations combined. If mother nature cooperates by refusing to snow, she could very well save the McDonald Peak Roadless Area from destruction. Unfortunately, the situation leaves me praying for drought and a low snow pack.

     As the Siskiyou Mountains wait for a significant winter snow pack, the high summits of the Siskiyou Crest remain virtually snow-free. Mt. Ashland is the highest summit in the Siskiyou Mountains, at just over 7,500'. As I write this blog post the mountain has a mere 16 inches of snow and the ski resort has yet to open for business due to the lack of snow. It seems possible that the resort will not open at all this season, and it has already surpassed the previous latest season opening of February 17, 1977. The situation has stressed the already marginal ski resort financially. General manager Kim Clark recently made the following comments, regarding the lack of snow on Mt Ashland, to the Ashland Daily Tidings: "It could potentially close the area. Could any business survive a year without income? We continue to watch our reserves dwindle." 

     Bad news for the ski resort is good news for the Siskiyou Mountains. The difficult financial situation demonstrates the resort's precarious existence and the mountain's relatively poor location for a downhill ski resort. Given the financial and climatic realities expansion should be out of the question, especially when the new runs would extend to significantly lower elevations. The Siskiyou Mountains' tendancy for extended drought and minimal winter snow pack has plagued the ski area now for 50 years, leading to three past bankruptcies. Climatic conditions have historically played a major role in the viability of the resort and will continue to do so in the future, especially as we feel the increasingly pronounced impacts of climate change.   

     Within the last couple years it looked as though the ski expansion would move forward. The MAA threatened to begin clear-cutting the new runs and develop the expansion area in a phased approach while they raised funds to implement the project piece by piece; however, this approach would leave the association vulnerable to an over-extension of financial resources, especially given poor winter snow conditions. The worst case scenario predicted by many expansion opponents could very well have come true during this time. The expansion could have been partially implemented, the roadless area heavily impacted, an ancient forest lost, and the ski resort bankrupt, leaving lasting and irreversible impacts to the McDonald Peak Roadless Area, the biodiversity and connectivity of the Siskiyou Crest, and the municipal watershed. Luckily this hasn't happened yet.

     Instead of full-fledged expansion the association implemented a series of "improvements" this summer and fall, including the development of a large number of new parking spaces, re-contouring of the beginner's run, and widening of the existing runs by logging many large, old trees. The project went nearly $200,000 over-budget and the MAA is currently trying to recoup losses with a fund raising campaign based on financial donations.

     The Mt. Ashland Ski Area has also sold over 2,500 season passes for the 2013-2014 ski season, yet have been unable to offer a single day of skiing to date. Each season pass costs $289.00, amounting to over $700,000 in gross revenue. With the mountain remaining closed many season pass holders are asking for a reimbursement of funds. The Ski Area, thus far, has refused to consider that option, instead they have chosen to pray for snow and hope the mountain will open in the near future. With the MAA strapped for cash and the snow simply not materializing it is likely that the proceeds from these season passes will be kept by the MAA, having a detrimental impact on pubic relations. 

     This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Mt. Ashland Ski Area. Now is the time for committed activists to continue their efforts; with the MAA vulnerable we must increase the pressure, advocate for a boycott, reimbursement of season pass proceeds, and question the very wisdom of expansion in light of the financial and climatic realities. Write letters to the editor, contact City of Ashland officials, encourage the Forest Service to re-analyze the ski expansion with the new information now available regarding climate change and the resort's financial instability. Finally, as strange as it may sound, pray for drought, the future of Mt. Ashland may depend on it.  

To read interesting articles about the Mt. Ashland Ski Area's financial difficulties and lack of snow visit the following:

Ashland Daily Tidings article on 3/8/14 

Bend Bulletin article on 2/12/14 

ANNOUNCING THE SECOND PRINTING OF THE SISKIYOU CREST: HIKES, HISTORY & ECOLOGY

I am pleased to announce that the first printing of  The Siskiyou Crest: Hikes, History & Ecology sold out and that the second printing has been completed and is now available for sale.

Luke Ruediger, January 31, 2014

 

Books are available through this blog and at the following retail stores:

Medford, OR
The Northwest Outdoor Store

Ashland, OR
Bloomsbury Books
The Northwest Nature Shop
The Ashland Outdoor Store

Grants Pass, OR
Oregon Books & Games
Aquarius Books & Gifts

Cave Junction, OR
CommuneITea

Eugene, OR
Tsunami Books
Backcountry Gear, Inc.

Crescent City, CA
Jefferson State Books

The Black Salamander — Aneides flavipunctatus

Photo by Luke Ruediger

The Black Salamander is relatively rare in the Siskiyou Mountains. Unlike the restrictive range of the Siskiyou Mountains Salamander (Plethodon stormi), which is centered mainly around the mountains of the Applegate Valley, the Black Salamander (Aneides flavipuntatus) has a range that extends from Sonoma County, CA in the south, up to Jackson and Josephine Counties, OR at the northern end of its range. There is also a disjunct subspecies (Aneides flavipunctatus niger) in the Santa Cruz area. Experts are currently debating a further separation of the species into four subspecies, with the northwest lineage—including the Siskiyou Mountain population—given its own subspecies. Currently there are only 17 documented sites in Oregon, 14 of which are found on federal lands, including the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and the Medford District BLM. 93% (or 13) of the known sites are found within the Applegate River watershed.

The Black Salamander occupies low-elevation, mixed conifer forests, woodlands, grasslands, meadows, and forested riparian sites. The species seems most abundant in mature or old-growth forests; although, especially in interior locations, the species is often associated with intermittent streams, springs, or seeps. The Black Salamander often lives in mossy talus habitat beneath a forest canopy. This is especially important because, like our endemic Siskiyou Mountains Salamander, the Black Salamander is lungless and breaths through its skin, making it very susceptible to changes in micro-climate and canopy conditions.

Threats to the Black Salamander in Oregon appear to be mostly associated with timber harvest due to changes in micro-climate, ground disturbance, and canopy cover. To the south, the species appears to be impacted by habitat conversion from grassland, woodland, mixed hardwood, and mixed conifer forests to vineyards or other forms of agriculture. Other impacts include habitat fragmentation, rock quarry development, climate change, uncharacteristic fire, and exposure to chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, and fire retardants.

Although relatively little know and little understood, the Black Salamander, at the northern edge of its range in the Siskiyou Mountains, is an important portion of the region's biodiversity. The Siskiyou Mountains represent a unique habitat for salamander species, where species often reach either the northern or southern extension of their range. The diversity of habitats and the distinctive blending of habitats allow for many species of both plants and animals to exist within the Siskiyou Mountains at the margin of their range. For millennia the Siskiyou Mountains have been a climate refuge; with the instability of future climatic conditions these mountains may once again shelter a wide variety of species. The protection of wildland habitats and the maintenance of biodiversity in the region will allow the Siskiyou Mountains to continue providing such habitat.

The photos on this post where taken in early December on my property in the Siskiyou Mountains.

 

Photo by Luke Ruediger

Photo by Luke Ruediger

 

Winter Photos of the Siskiyou Crest

Many creeks froze over in the recent cold snap

Little Greyback Roadless Area

View of the Red Buttes Wilderness

"The Octopus Tree," a large canyon live oak in the Applegate foothills

Icicles on moss in the Upper Applegate

Historic Osborne Photos

Bolan Lake from the Bolan Peak Lookout-1934

The historic Osborne photos highlighted on this post are just a few of the many lookout photos taken in the 1930s from Forest Service lookouts all across the Northwest. William Bushnell Osborne, a Forest Service employee and inventor, developed the Osborne Firefinder in 1911 for use at fire lookouts, and in 1932 developed the Osborne Swing Lens Camera. With his Swing Lens Camera he traveled the Northwest photographing the landscape from fire lookouts on National Forest and Park Service lands. 

The photos are an excellent representation of historic forest conditions and patterns in the early part of the 20th century. The photos can be used to not only document and analyze historic conditions, but can also be used to contrast historic conditions from those that exist today. The photos document the influence of fire on the landscape in an era when fire suppression in the Siskiyou Mountains was still fairly ineffective, and landscape change associated with fire suppression was not nearly as evident as it is today. The photos also document the impact of industrial forest management, road building and clear-cut logging, that although mostly non-existant in the 1930s, is very evident today. The photos represent historic conditions across the Siskiyou Crest region in the 1930s.

Applegate foothills from the old Stein Butte Lookout-1934

Looking southeast into the Siskiyou Wilderness from the old Sanger Peak Lookout-1934

View from the old Whisky Peak Lookout-1933

The Red Buttes Wilderness from the old Windy Peak Lookout-1934

The Salmon Salvage Project: post fire logging on the Salmon River

The Salmon River at the mouth of Wooley Creek, a cold water tributary flowing from the Marble Mountains Wilderness.

The Salmon River is one of the most remote and magical portions of the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion. The region's wild beauty is unparalleled. Located between the Marble Mountains, Trinity Alps, and Russian Wilderness Areas, the watershed is the axis of connectivity and diversity in the central Klamath Mountains. The region's wild watersheds, spectacular high country and intact forests create one of the most important wilderness habitats in the west, including over 1 million acres of wilderness and roadless terrain spilling into the Salmon River from all sides.

The Salmon River has been designated a "key" watershed for the endangered salmon in the Klamath River. The Salmon River, a major tributary of the Klamath River, provides a number of intact cold water tributaries that are very important to the region's salmon and steelhead runs. It is also one of California's premier Wild and Scenic rivers, cherished for its water quality, wild beauty, recreational qualities, fisheries, roadless and wilderness habitats, and fire adapted forests.

The Salmon River Complex burned this past summer on both the main stem of the river and on the North Fork of the Salmon River near Sawyers Bar. The fires affected 37,246 acres of fire adapted mixed conifer forest and montane chaparral. The complex actually consisted of two separate fires, both of human ignition along Salmon River Road. The Butler Fire, to the west, burned 22,467 acres while the Salmon River Fire burned 14,779 acres.

Over the course of the last 36 years the Salmon River Fire Area, located above Sawyers Bar, has been affected by three fires: the Hog Fire of 1977, the Yellow Fire of 1987, and this season's Salmon River Complex. Combined, these fires have created a natural fire mosaic of mixed severity fire effects. For instance, the Salmon River Fire burned a total of 14,779 acres, 10,658 acres (or 72%) burned at low severity, 22% at moderate severity, and 5% at high severity. The impact of this fire, although not a natural ignition, was well within the "range of natural variability," not only in regards to fire severity and mosaic, but also fire return interval, which is currently about 12 years. Tree ring research in the Salmon River watershed has estimated an 11-17 year fire return interval in the historic environment.

The Salmon River Fire above Sawyers Bar, CA (Photo Courtesy of Klamath Forest Alliance)

The Salmon River Fire is currently being targeted by the Klamath National Forest (KNF) for salvage logging and extensive "hazard tree removal" within roadless areas, Late Sucessional Reserve (LSR) forest, critical habitat for the Northern spotted owl, and adjacent to both the Marble Mountain Wilderness and the Wild and Scenic Salmon River. The proposal calls for salvage logging 334 acres in forests effected by both moderate and high severity fire.

These 16 units, spread out across the fire area, include stands that consist of 50% tree mortality. The project also calls for the removal of living trees that the agency has deemed as having a "70% probability of mortality." This will provide agency timber managers large levels of leeway in identifying both stands that were impacted by "uncharactertistic fire effects" as well as identifying individual trees for removal that survived the 2013 fires. The problem with these timber sale marking guidelines and stand identification techniques is that according to the fire severity mapping on this fire, only 8% of the fire area was affected by high severity fire; such impacts are well within the natural range of variability for this forest type and thus no areas can be described as sustaining "uncharacteristic fire effects." The burn mosaic was natural and productive, creating diversity, complexity and fire adapted forest patterns; small areas of high severity fire are not "uncharacteristic." Salvage logging the fire's few high severity patches will only limit the forest's ability to regenerate naturally and impact biodiversity. Likewise, the logging of live trees that survived the Salmon River Fire will only skew the fire mosaic towards higher levels of mortality than would otherwise be evident. The fire was, in effect, a large landscape-scale restoration treatment that encouraged healthy fuel conditions and is in no need of restoration through silivicultural means.

A view of salvage logging units near Kelly Gulch. The agency has identified stands affected by moderate severity fire and suffering only 50% mortality as timber sale units. (Photo Courtesy of Klamath Forest Alliance)

The agency is also proposing extensive "hazard tree removal" along 33 miles of roads in the Salmon River watershed, including currently low standard roads that receive very little use. Commercially viable trees felled in hazard tree treatments will be yarded and logged for timber. Hazard Tree logging will effect 1,538 acres of habitat, 978 acres of which is critical habitat for the Northern spotted owl.
The proposal also includes the reopening of two currently overgrown and impassable road segments, one of which appears to include "new" road construction. The agency will also create five new landings, scraped into the steep, unstable hillside throughout the project area.

Salmon Salvage Project unit and road "reconstruction" site. (Photo Courtesy of Klamath Forest Alliance)

Rehabilitation work could occur within the firelines created during the Salmon River Fire, including 8 miles of handline and 5 miles of dozerline. These areas could be water-barred, the slash burned, and access by OHVs adequately blocked. Likewise, the agency should consider a strategy of prescribed fire, prescribed natural fire, and appropriate fire suppression techniques that will encourage fire adapted landscapes, natural fuel conditions, and fire safety for the residents of the Salmon River. The agency could work with local residents and non-profits such as the Orleans Fire Safe Council, the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council, the Salmon River Restoration Council, and the Klamath Forest Alliance to conduct prescribed fires to reduce fuels on both federal lands directly adjacent to rural residences and communities, as well as on private lands where human values and homes are likely to be threatened in future wildfires. Back country salvage logging (the plan currently does not require slash clean up or removal) and plantation-like tree planting will not address community protection concerns, fuel risks, or facilitate a natural recovery within the fire area. In fact, the units proposed are not strategically located to provide community protection, but identified based on economic feasibility.

Please contact the Klamath National Forest and ask them to:

1) Cancel the Salmon Salvage Project and start a new planning process that focuses on prescribed fire, prescribed natural fire, and community protection concerns.
2) Cancel all proposed salvage logging units in riparian reserves, LSR forest, sensitive soil types such as decomposed granite, and within critical habitat for the Northern spotted owl.
3) Cancel "hazard tree removal" on secondary roads.
4) Cancel the proposed "temporary road" reconstruction and any new road construction needed.
5) Eliminate the need for the creation of 5 new landing pads on steep, sensitive soil types throughout the project area.
6) Address and mitigate the impacts of fireline construction and fire suppression activities within the fire area utilizing both active and passive forms of restoration.
7) Create a fire management plan for the Salmon River Watershed that will outline and define acceptable fire suppression activities throughout the Salmon River area. The agency could identify community protection concerns, ingress and egress for fire evacuation, minimal impact suppression tactics and options, appropriate fire suppression techniques for LSR forests, inventoried roadless areas, wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, botanical areas, etc. The agency could also analyze past suppression activities, back burning, and fireline locations to identify concerns, successful actions, inappropriate actions, and ways of improving firefighting effectiveness and community safety while minimizing fire suppression impacts to sensitive areas and resources.

Written comments are due by December 26, 2013 and can be submitted through the following avenues:

Fax:
(530) 468-1290

Mail:
District Ranger Dave Hays
ATTN: Travis Coughlin
Salmon/Scott River Ranger District Office
11263 N. Hwy 3
Fort Jones, CA
96032

Email:
comments-pacificsouthwest-klamath-salmon-river@fs.fed.us

For more project information contact interdisciplinary team leader Travis Coughlin at (530) 468-1261 or TCoughlin02@fs.fed.us