Videos of Pacific fisher in the Siskiyou Mountains

Game cameras are a good way to capture images of wildlife in order to document their presence and monitor their behavior. We have been setting up game cameras in the Siskiyou Mountains for years, capturing photos or videos of bears, deer, ringtail cats, fox, grouse, lots of mice and other common critters.

Two weeks ago we finally got what we'd been working to capture on video for a couple years: Pacific fisher! These three videos were captured at three in the afternoon, so the videos turned out really good with full color, as opposed to nighttime videos that rely on infrared and are in black and white.

We captured footage of this fisher in the Elliott Ridge Roadless Area in the Upper Applegate at the foot of the Siskiyou Crest. The camera was set up on a small, seasonal tributary stream in an old-growth forest; just as we suspected, it is prime fisher habitat. Recently we had two deer killed on our property, presumably by a cougar. We took some of the bones from the deer kill for the camera and the fisher obviously was pleased to scavenge the bones. This particular fisher appears to be a male because of its large size. Notice the tail wagging in one of the videos. Fishers have long, active tails, which is the reason people have often called them fisher cats.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may soon list the Pacific fisher as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Endangered species protection for the Pacific fisher would protect the species and its old forest habitats in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains. The Siskiyou Mountains support one of the largest remaining populations of the Pacific fisher and should be listed as "critical habitat." Documentation of where fishers live, hunt and disperse is necessary to help this species recover from population decline. Citizens, scientists, and wildlife managers can all contribute to this information through monitoring, observation and research. Someday, hopefully, fishers will once again inhabit their original range on the West Coast of North America. From the wilds of the Klamath-Siskiyou, this species may come back from the brink of extinction. These videos speak for themselves — the Pacific fisher is a beautiful species!

Nedsbar Update: March, 2015

This stand of large, old, low-elevation forest is the destination of the upcoming hike into the Boaz Mountain Roadless Area and units 33-30 and 34-30 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale. The hike is scheduled for March 28. Please join us! Information on the hike is provided below.

The Siskiyou Crest Blog and Klamath Forest Alliance will be hosting numerous hikes and informational events in the coming months to inform and involve the public, as well as build support for the Community Alternative. Please attend the upcoming presentation or public hikes into the Nedsbar Timber Sale.

Nedsbar Community Presentation

March 19, 6:30pm

Applegate Community Grange

3901 Upper Applegate Road

The presentation will explore the Nedsbar Timber Sale and the proposed Community Alternative through beautiful photographs, maps, and the knowledge of local residents. Members of the Community Alternative Working Group, Klamath Forest Alliance, Applegate Neighborhood Network, KS Wild, and local residents involved in the Nedsbar Campaign will be present to answer questions and provide information on the Community Alternative and the proposed BLM logging treatments. 

Nedsbar Public Hike: Boaz Mountain Units

March 28, 2015

10:00am

Meet at the Applegate Community Grange

3901 Upper Applegate Road

A view across the Upper Applegate Valley from the slopes of Boaz Mountain, on the route of the upcoming public hike into the Boaz Mountain Roadless Area, and timber sale units 33-30 and 34-30 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale.

The hike will explore the Boaz Mountain Roadless Area on the west-facing slopes above Eastside Road. The hike will include spectacular views across the Upper Applegate Valley, sunlit oak woodlands, spring wildflowers, and the beautiful uncut forest proposed for logging in units 33-30 and 34-30. The hike is off-trail and roughly 3 miles round-trip. The terrain is variable; some areas can be steep. Bring a rain jacket, sturdy shoes, water, trekking poles if needed, and a lunch.

 

 

Watch this video taken in unit 33-30 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale, the destination of the upcoming public hike.

Jefferson Exchange Interview

Recently the Nedsbar Timber Sale and Community Alternative were highlighted on the Jefferson Exchange, a radio program on Jefferson Public Radio. To hear the interview with Luke Ruediger please follow the link below. 

http://ijpr.org/post/tweaking-blm-version-timber-sale

Nedsbar Timber Sale Community Alternative (CA) Documents 

The Siskiyou Crest Blog is pleased to provide the public all documents to the Nedsbar Community Alternative. Links are provided for each document listed below. These documents were submitted to the BLM by the Nedsbar Community Alternative Working Group on March 6, 2015. The BLM will analyze these documents as part of their Environmental Analysis (EA) for the timber sale. The BLM currently states that the EA will be completed in May.

  

For complete details please read the full Community Alternative available at this link.

Community Alternative Prescription

Community Alternative Map

Community Alternative Deferred Units

Community Alternative Unit Spreadsheet

PROGRESS: BLM Drops Units in the Nedsbar Timber Sale!

Unit 28-22B was originally proposed for heavy regeneration logging. The Nedsbar Community Monitoring Project and KFA identified the unit as one of the most intact, fire-adapted stands in the Little Applegate foothills. As the community learned about this egregious timber sale unit, they responded with dismay and many attended a public hike led in January. The good news is that the BLM recently dropped commercial logging proposals in the unit. Having this unit dropped from the sale is a major victory towards protecting the Little Applegate Valley from the Nedsbar Timber Sale, however, more still needs to be done. Many more units need to be canceled to protect old, late-seral forests, wildlife habitat, and roadless areas.

The BLM recently released a new Nedsbar Timber Sale map depicting the BLM's "preferred alternative" for their Environmental Analysis (EA), Alternative 4. Alternative 4 is the most timber heavy alternative that will be reviewed in EA. It represents the worst case scenario for the Applegate region, if it is is chosen for implementation. The alternative was developed to maximize timber output to appease (and possibly exceed) the mandates of the Swanson-Superior lawsuit that is currently under appeal. Implementation of Alternative 4 would mean numerous miles of new roads would be built, some in roadless habitats. It would also mean that large areas of the Little and Upper Applegate Valleys would be logged with no upper diameter limit and to canopy closure levels that would impact habitat values, viewsheds, with a result of increased fuel hazards.

The new map released by the BLM shows that we have been making progress. Numerous units containing large, old trees, high quality, late-seral forest habitat, and minimal fuel loads were either removed from commercial entry, or changed to fuel reduction units where no large trees will be felled. The dropping of these units also means miles of new road construction and heavy road renovation would also be canceled. The dropping of these units constitutes a victory, but there is more still to do, roadless units that must be dropped, new roads that must not be built, and prescriptions that must be amended to make them more ecologically appropriate and benign. The Community Alternative for the Nedsbar Timber Sale would achieve these conservation goals while reducing fuels and producing a sustainable and appropriate level of timber harvest in the dry, marginal forests of the Applegate foothills.

Below I have highlighted Nedsbar Timber Sale units that have been recently canceled or significantly altered due to public input, the efforts of the Community Monitoring Program, and the efforts of many others in the Applegate and Rogue Valley communities.

Unit 28-22 A, B, & C

Unit 28-22 has been dropped and will not be commercially logged. The unit supports healthy, fire-adapted forests that underburned in 1987.

Unit 28-22 is found on the long, dry ridgeline dividing Yale Creek from the Little Applegate River. The unit is found within the Wildland Urban Interface of Little Applegate Road, adjacent to private residential homes on lower Yale Creek Road.

Unit 28-22 B was one of three units proposed for structural retention regeneration harvest, meaning only 30% canopy closure and 16-25 large trees per acres would be retained after implementation of logging treatments. The stand underburned in 1987 and supports highly fire-resilient characteristics. The stand also supports all the characteristics of old-growth forest with large, old trees, snags, large downed wood, complex stand structure, diverse branching structure, high canopies, and a multi-layered canopy of hardwoods and conifer species. The stand is a model for resilient, healthy stand conditions in the low elevation foothills of the Applegate Valley.

The Siskiyou Crest Blog and KFA recently led a public hike into this unit and the feeling was unanimous that the unit should not be logged.

According to the new map provided by the BLM, the unit prescription has been changed in Alternative 4 to fuel reduction and no commercial logging will take place in unit 28-22 A, B, & C. In Alternative 3 the unit has been entirely canceled. The new road proposed to access the units for logging will also be canceled in both Alternatives 3 and 4.

To view my original blog post on unit 28-22 click on the following link: original post
To view a post on the recent public hike to 28-22, click on the following link: public hike post

Unit 33-20

Unit 33-20 has been dropped and will not be commercially logged. The stand supports a diverse forest of late-seral pine and fir with small oak openings. This unit also underburned in 1987, creating a healthy, fire-adapted habitat. The BLM is now proposing this unit to be a fuel reduction unit.

Unit 33-20 lies due east of unit 28-22 on the same long, dry ridgeline dividing Yale Creek from the Little Applegate River. Found on the north face of the ridge, the unit supports a diverse late-seral forest with old ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and oak openings. The unit underburned in 1987, maintaining highly fire-resilient stand conditions.

According to the new map provided by the BLM, unit prescription has been changed from commercial thinning to fuel reduction in both alternative 3 and 4, meaning that no commercial logging would take place in this relatively intact stand. Significant road renovation would have been necessary to log this unit. This road renovation will not be necessary under fuel reduction prescriptions, reducing impacts to the area's primitive character.

To view my original blog post on unit 33-20 click on the following link: original post

Unit 36-25

Unit 36-25 is found at the headwaters of Lick Gulch and supports nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for the northern spotted owl. The unit has been canceled.

Unit 36-25 is found at the headwaters of Lick Gulch and supports groves of large, old Douglas fir. The unit has been selectively logged, but many dominant, old trees remain. The unit contains nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for the northern spotted owl. It is also adjacent to an owl nesting core. The area provides important connectivity habitat to and from these important habitats for the northern spotted owl. The unit was originally proposed for commercial logging and has recently been canceled.

Unit 25-24

Unit 25-24 has been canceled and the diverse, variable stand supporting large old trees will not be commercially logged. The unit was identified by the Nedsbar Community Monitoring Program as a unit of concern and was highlighted on The Siskiyou Crest blog. Information gathered by the monitoring program was also used in an official memo submitted to the BLM by KS Wild, Oregon Wild, Klamath Forest Alliance and others.  The unit has been canceled!

Unit 25-24 is found in the Little Applegate River Canyon and is located within the Dakubetede Roadless Area. The stand supports old-growth trees and extremely variable, diverse stand conditions. The unit is adjacent to some of the most intact old-growth in the Little Applegate Canyon and provides important connectivity and dispersal habitat. The stand was originally proposed for commercial logging, but was recently dropped in the new reiterations of both Alternative 3 and 4.

To view the original photo essay follow this link: Nedsbar photo essay

Still more to do...
Although we have made significant progress many questionable units remain. These include units in roadless areas, units supporting high quality northern spotted owl habitat, units with large, old-growth trees and late-seral stands, units with minimal fuel loads, and units that require extensive road construction. KFA and the Siskiyou Crest Blog are committed to continuing the campaign to Stop Nedsbar as currently proposed and to promoting the Community Alternative to the Nedsbar Timber Sale. We intend to now focus our energy on these remaining units of concern.

If our work is to continue we will need the support of the community. To support this work consider helping to organize around the Nedsbar Timber Sale, or fund our work with a tax-deductible donation. To make a donation visit the KFA website and specify "Nedsbar." For those of you who have recently donated to KFA, please check to see if your donation was received. We had a technical problem on our website and some recent donations within the past two months may have been returned. We now have this problem fixed. We are sorry for any inconvenience; please consider continuing to fund our important work.

Klamath Forest Alliance

PO Box 21
Orleans, CA 95556
www.klamathforestalliance.org 

Nedsbar Public Hike: The Dakubetede Roadless Area

Local residents hiking the proposed new road into the Dakubetede Roadless Area through beautiful white oak woodland.

The Klamath Forest Alliance and Siskiyou Crest Blog led a public hike into units 26-20 and 27-20 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale today. Twenty-five residents from the Rogue and Applegate Valleys attended the hike into the Dakubetede Roadless Area, following the route of a proposed new road the BLM intends to build to facilitate logging in the Nedsbar Timber Sale. 

We began by hiking a decommissioned road to two units in the previously logged O'Lickety Timber Sale, units 57 and 54. These two units were drastically over-cut, which downgraded dispersal habitat for the northern spotted owl to habitat that is no longer suitable for any of the owl's habitat needs. 

Community members discussing the negative outcome of the recent O'Lickety Timber Sale.

The group then hiked the proposed new road through oak woodland in the Dakubetede Roadless Area to unit 26-20 of the proposed Nedsbar Timber Sale, then up the proposed road to unit 27-20. The proposed road leads to a beautiful grassy knob overlooking Lick Gulch.

Taking a break at the top of the proposed new road in a stand of old-growth black oak trees.

The group then hiked into Nedsbar Timber Sale units on the north slope, hiking stands of pine and fir, including areas with large, old trees. The community was in agreement that units 26-20 and 27-20, as well as the proposed new road that would be built to facilitate logging, should all be canceled and dropped from the sale.

Exploring a stand of old-growth trees in unit 27-20 of the Nedsbar Timber Sale.

The hike provided an opportunity for local residents to explore their backyard and see what is at stake in the Nedsbar Timber Sale. It also provided documentary filmmaker, Dean Hawn, an opportunity to see firsthand, the forests proposed for logging in the Nedsbar Timber Sale. Dean is filming a documentary called The Paper Trail, which will explore issues surrounding timber management in Oregon, including the Nedsbar Timber Sale. Today's hike allowed him to hear how community members feel about how their local public lands should be managed. 

Stay tuned for info on the next public hike scheduled for March 28, 2015. Also, don't miss the Nedsbar Timber Sale Presentation at the Applegate Community Grange on March 19th, starting at 6:30pm.

Dean Hawn filming community discussion for his documentary film titled The Paper Trail. The film will be exploring timber management in Oregon while highlighting the Nedsbar Timber Sale.

Nedsbar Timber Sale Presentation March 19, 2015

Unit 25-23 in the Nedsbar Timber Sale

Presentation

Nedsbar Timber Sale

March 19, 2015 6:30pm

Applegate Community Grange

3901 Upper Applegate Road

The Nedsbar Timber Sale is a large proposed timber sale on BLM lands in the Little Applegate and Upper Applegate Valleys. The timber sale would include building new roads and logging large, old trees that will likely increase fire hazards adjacent to our homes and communities.

Please come to this free presentation and learn about what is happening on the BLM lands in your backyard and what you can do about it. The presentation will include a history of what has led to this timber sale and where the logging units are in relation to homes and properties within the valley. Beautiful photos of the Nedsbar Timber Sale units, views of the units from the valley floor, and photos of the greater region will be shown in a Powerpoint presentation. 

Speakers will present information about the impacts of the BLM's proposed timber sale and the benefits of the Community Alternative developed by local residents and environmentalists. Over 300 people have already signed on in support of the Community Alternative! Learn how you can sign on in support of the Community Alternative and get involved in grassroots efforts to protect the Applegate Valley from inappropriate BLM logging at the Nedsbar Timber Sale presentation.

 

This sums up the sentiment of many in the Applegate Valley.

The presentation is brought to you by the Klamath Forest Alliance and the Siskiyou Crest Blog. Please support our work; it can only continue with your support. Consider making a donation to the Klamath Forest Alliance and specify "Nedsbar" when making donations. You can donate online or by mail.

Klamath Forest Alliance

PO Box 21

Orleans, CA 95556

      www.klamathforestalliance.org

Nesbar Timber Sale Public Hike February, 28 2015

Unit 27-20 in the Nedsbar Timber Sale, the destination of the upcoming public hike sponsored by Klamath Forest Alliance and the Siskiyou Crest Blog.

The Klamath Forest Alliance and the Siskiyou Crest Blog will be organizing public hikes into the Nedsbar Timber Sale this spring. We plan to lead one hike per month into wild forests proposed for logging in the Nedsbar Timber Sale. 

The first hike will be on February 28, 2015. We will be meeting at 10:00AM at the intersection of Yale Creek Road and Little Applegate Road, near the long row of mailboxes. 

The hike will explore a wild portion of the Dakubetede Roadless Area; we will follow the route of a proposed new road the BLM intends to construct in lower Lick Gulch to facilitate logging in the Nedsbar Timber Sale. The proposed road winds through beautiful oak woodland across currently unroaded slopes to the ridgeline dividing Lick Gulch from the Little Applegate River.  The proposed road would lead to Nedsbar units 26-20 and 27-20, the destination for the day. The hike is off-trail and roughly 4 miles roundtrip. The terrain is variable; some areas can be steep. Bring a rain jacket, sturdy shoes, water, trekking poles if needed, and a lunch. To view my recent post about units 26-20 and 27-20 follow this link: Community Monitoring Project: Nedsbar Timber Sale units 26-20 and 27-20

Please stay tuned for a complete schedule of Nedsbar Timber Sale hikes this spring!

Units 27-20 and 26-20 are located in the Dakubetede Roadless Area on a beautiful ridgeline dividing the Little Applegate River and Lick Gulch. The route of the hike will follow the black line in this map, which is a proposed new road development.

The Nedsbar Community Alternative

Nedsbar Community Monitoring Program volunteers in unit 28-10A on the western face of Bald Mountain. This unit, and numerous other proposed logging units in the Nedsbar Timber Sale that support old, fire-resilient forests, would be dropped in the Community Alternative.

Throughout the last few months, the Siskiyou Crest Blog, Klamath Forest Alliance, and local Applegate Valley non-profits and community organizations have organized the Nedsbar Community Monitoring Program (NCMP). The goal of this effort was to walk and evaluate all 93 units in the proposed Nedsbar Timber Sale, to not only educate the public, but also to inform the proposed Community Alternative to the Nedsbar Timber Sale. The Community Alternative has been developed by a committed group of local Applegate Valley residents —known as the Community Alternative Working Group—to address what many in the community see as the timber sale's numerous design flaws and unbalanced prescriptions. The Community Alternative is now being circulated throughout the local area for community members to sign on in support.

The Community Alternative has been created to address the critical fire protection needs of local residents, forest health concerns, and the habitat needs of local wildlife species, as well as generate positive results for the region's rural economy, including organic farms, vineyards, tourism, visitor amenities, real estate, and outdoor recreation. The local economy is driven by scenic values and the region's high quality of life.

The Community Alternative proposes to log and conduct fuel reduction treatments in strategic locations throughout the BLM's Nedsbar Planning Area. Treatments are proposed in forest habitats the have been degraded by logging, road development and fire suppression, rather than in roadless or intact forest ecosystems. The Community Alternative would maximize social and ecological needs, while producing a reasonable and sustainable supply of timber. 

The Community Alternative Working Group has released the document for public review. Please read the Community Alternative here.

If you would like to "sign" the Community Alternative please send an email to nedsbarca@gmail.com (as in Nedsbar Community Alternative) authorizing us to add your name. Be sure to include your full name and the town or area you live in. You may include your full address, or at least the road you live on, if you like. Or you can sign on here using Google Forms.

 

 Stay tuned for monthly public hikes planned into Nedsbar Timber Sale units and a public presentation sponsored by the Klamath Forest Alliance and the Siskiyou Crest Blog, sharing the findings of the Nedsbar Community Monitoring Program. See you there!

Below is a letter sent out yesterday by the Nedsbar Community Alternative Working Group.

_______________________________________________________________

February 4, 2015

Dear neighbors and friends in the Applegate and Rogue Valleys,

As many of you know, in 2014, the Medford BLM proposed a large timber sale for the Applegate Valley.  It covers much of the BLM lands south of the Little Applegate Road, up onto the ridgeline between Wagner and Anderson Butte, and on BLM land east of Upper Applegate Road.  At BLM’s request, a small group of concerned landowners have been working for several months to craft a Community Alternative (CA). The results of our efforts are in the attached "Community Alternative for the Proposed Nedsbar Timber Sale."

The CA reflects the drafting group's best efforts to fashion a timber management model that addresses the conditions and needs of our area while allowing for responsible timber harvest. Not surprisingly, advocating for forest management practices that improve forest health and reduce (or at least do not exacerbate) fire hazards in our dangerously dry forests is a very high priority that is reflected throughout the Community Alternative.

Now it's your turn to help us demonstrate broad support for this community-based proposal. We hope everyone receiving this email will want to "sign" the Community Alternative by granting us permission to list your name as a signatory. Our plan is to submit the CA with the list of signers early next week (Monday, February 9), so please let us know as soon as you can whether you will sign on.

As the BLM provides the requested documentation (i.e. critical habitat information) necessary to complete our finalized prescriptions and unit selection, we will be making our recommendations available to the community. We are currently under a BLM deadline to submit the body of our proposal containing the principles and guidelines that will inform our unit selection and prescription development.

If you would like to "sign" the Community Alternative please send an email to nedsbarca@gmail.com (as in Nedsbar Community Alternative) authorizing us to add your name. Be sure to include your full name and the town or area you live in. You may include your full address, or at least the road you live on, if you like.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read the Community Alternative. We hope you will join us in presenting a better alternative for the Nedsbar timber sale.  We apologize for duplicate postings; we want to reach as many people as possible. 


The Community Alternative Working Group:

Marion Hadden
Hope Robertson
Luke Ruediger
Peter Salant
Chant Thomas
Priscilla Weaver

Unit R-27 is a riparian thinning unit proposed to be logged and tractor yarded by the BLM within the Riparian Reserve of Ned's Gulch, a small stream feeding into the mainstem of the Applegate River in the Upper Applegate Valley. The Community Alternative would not propose any logging within Riparian Reserves and would reduce heavy logging in areas such as the Little Applegate River Canyon, to ensure sedimentation from logging operations does not impact our rivers, streams or fisheries. 

What we don't want! A photographic example of what the Community Alternative is trying to prevent. This is unit 70-1 in the BLM's recent O'Lickety Timber Sale located on the slopes above the Little Applegate River.

What we don't want! Another photographic example of what the Community Alternative is trying to prevent. This is also unit 70-1 in the BLM's recent O'Lickety Timber Sale located on the slopes above the Little Applegate River.

Summary of the Community Alternative

The driving force for the proposed Nedsbar Timber sale is the Swanson decision (“Court Order”) issued in 2013 by a federal judge in Washington D.C.  It requires the BLM to “sell or offer to sell” a specific number of board feet of timber within the BLM’s Medford and Roseburg districts. The Nedsbar Sale is one of a series of timber sales that must be offered if the Court Order is upheld on appeal. 
  

Our community supports a timber sale that will help meet a portion of the volume required by the Court Order.  However, the specific areas proposed for management at this time and the prescriptions must be appropriate for this project area. Primary considerations in the Little and Upper Applegate Valleys are: 1) a robust and growing agricultural and recreational economy, 2) the dry forestlands with their high fire hazards, 3) the steep topography, and 4) the special environmental characteristics of the Nedsbar area.

Goals of the Community Alternative:

a.  A level of combined economic, legal, environmental, social and scientific/technical viability that is equal to or greater than either BLM Alternative 3 (BLM A3) or BLM Alternative 4 (BLM A4).

b. Reduction of fire hazards and fuel loads and building long-term forest resilience.

c.  Production of a sustainable level of commercial forest products.

d. Protection and enhancement of the economic values of the affected geographic area, including burgeoning commercial agricultural activities, regional property values, tourism, and recreation.

e.  Enhancement of watershed health and of forest vigor.

f.  Preservation of the unique habitat connectivity corridor extending from the Rogue Valley into the Nedsbar Planning Area, up the Applegate River, the surrounding ridges to the Siskiyou Crest and well into California.

g. Collaboration among the BLM, local residents and other agencies to achieve a successful timber sale offering without legal challenges.

h. Achieving the goals of the Applegate AMA described in the Northwest Forest Plan and Medford BLM Resource Management Plan.

Stands like this one in unit 27-33 would be thinned in the Community Alternative. If implemented correctly, the Community Alternative would create positive ecological impacts, reduce fuel loads and facilitate timber production.

The Community Alternative would create a 20" upper diameter limit for tree removal. The tree in this photo is 20" in diameter, providing a visual of what size tree would be the largest removed under general prescription guidelines in the Community Alternative.