ASA spent the last five years opposing the IVM Project, which would have logged up to 20,000 acres of forest and built up to 90 miles of new road throughout the Medford District BLM. We also opposed the first two timber sales, Penn Butte and Late Mungers, in the larger IVM Project. These sales targeted both mature and old-growth forests above the communities of Williams and Murphy in the western Applegate Valley with significant industrial logging, large tree removal and canopy reduction.

ASA worked to monitor the timber sale units, document the timber sale tree removal mark, and identify a broad range of potential project impacts that would not be compliant with the proper management of fire risks or with the management of Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forest set aside to protect old forest habitat for the northern spotted owl. We held protests and rallies, spoke out in the media about the IVM and Late Mungers Projects, led field trips, conducted public presentations, and participated in the limited BLM planning process.

After exhausting all other avenues, in August 2023 Applegate Siskiyou Alliance filed suit against the BLM, claiming the IVM Project violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) by authorizing timber harvest activities in Late Successional Reserve forests and Recreation Management Areas that were inconsistent with management direction provided by the BLM’s 2016 Resource Management Plan. Additionally, the suit claimed that the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to conduct proper project level analysis and public involvement processes.

Our day in court occurred in April of 2024, and a month later, in May 2024, Judge Mark D. Clarke from the Oregon District Court in Medford provided the initial judgement, ruling on behalf of the environmental litigants, including ASA, in his Findings and Recommendation. He found the BLM had violated NEPA and FLPMA by violating standards for management and habitat protection in Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forests, by failing to consider the increase in fire risks associated with old forest logging and canopy reduction, and by failing to implement proper public involvement and scientific analysis.

This decision was then sent to US District Judge Ann Aiken, and after almost a year of waiting, on March 31, 2025, US District Judge Ann Aiken adopted the initial Findings and Recommendation of Magistrate Judge Clarke, affirming the claims of numerous environmental organizations, including Applegate Siskiyou Alliance, KS Wild and others who challenged the Medford District BLM’s massive Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) Project, along with the Late Mungers and Penn Butte timber sales.

The IVM Project proposed heavy commercial logging in Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forests set aside to protect habitat for the northern spotted owl across southwestern Oregon. Judge Clarke found, and Judge Aiken affirmed, that Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forests were designated for the “purpose of habitat protection,” and the IVM Project “would render this direction superfluous,” by authorizing timber harvest that would preclude or delay the development of northern spotted owl habitat for more than 20 years. According to the Findings and Recommendation, the IVM unlawfully “authorizes commercial logging of large diameter trees in areas of Oregon’s forest that have historically been preserved.”

In this case, the BLM claimed that the clear guidelines in the 2016 Resource Management Plan that limit logging operations in LSR forest only apply when they intend them to, yet Judge Clarke found “the BLM’s interpretation is plainly inconsistent with the 2016 RMP.” He also found that “sacrificing habitats for commercial logging” in LSR forest, as proposed in the IVM Project, is a violation of the BLM’s overarching 2016 Resource Management Plan (RMP).

The order also confirms that the BLM was attempting to circumvent the public involvement and scientific analysis process required under NEPA by failing to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), by failing to take a “hard look” at the site-specific project level impacts, and by inappropriately “tiering” projects without adequate public involvement or analysis. 

Finally, the court also found that BLM failed to adequately consider the negative impact large tree logging and heavy canopy reduction can have on future fire risks by replacing large, fire resistant trees with dense, even-aged brush and young tree regeneration, and by altering microclimate conditions.

In fact, Judge Clarke states in his Findings and Recommendation that, “by simply electing its chosen alternative without fully exploring the conflicting research on the issue through a formal EIS, BLM effectively reduces its findings to only the positive outcomes, while discounting the coinciding negative possibility that treatments would exacerbate forest fires. Plaintiffs have adequately presented evidence that casts serious doubt upon the reasonableness of BLM’s conclusions and therefore raised a substantial dispute sufficient to show the Program is highly controversial. Preparation of an EIS was required in this context.”

The IVM Project was a major threat to the forests of southwestern Oregon. We are grateful that the courts upheld the law, held the agency to account, and protected our watersheds from unlawful BLM logging. We are also grateful for all who helped achieve this result for the forests of our region, including residents, activists, and organizations throughout the Applegate Valley and southwestern Oregon.

Finally, we are grateful to the University of Colorado Law School Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Clinic who has represented ASA in this case for years now. We most certainly could not have achieved these results without Professor Sarah Matsumoto and the many students that helped develop this case, collaborated on writing briefs, and argued our case in court. THANK YOU!

For the past few months, through heavy rain and deep snow, the Medford District BLM has been logging the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale in the Upper Applegate Valley above Eastside Road, and for the past few months Applegate Siskiyou Alliance has been documenting extreme environmental impacts.

We have repeatedly notified the Medford District BLM that violations of both the Categorical Exclusion and Decision Record that authorized this project are occurring and significant environmental impacts that exceed those considered in the limited environmental analysis are taking place. Since December 2024, we have repeatedly asked the BLM to implement their own Project Design Features (PDFs) surrounding wet weather logging, yarding, hauling and road construction on this timber sale. These PDFs are intended specifically to avoid damage to streams, soils, water quality and Riparian Reserves, by limiting certain yarding, hauling and ground disturbing activities during the wet weather season.

Unfortunately, the BLM has simply refused to implement these PDFs, even after repeated requests to stop the wet weather activities and comply with NEPA authorizations. Instead, the BLM moved forward with these activities through multiple severe atmospheric rivers and heavy precipitation events between December 2024 and March 2025.

The BLM’s irresponsible behavior and clearcut logging prescriptions culminated recently into a large landslide and debris flow that occurred on March 16, 2025 in unit 27-5 of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale. The landslide and debris flow is clearly associated with the wet weather and clearcut logging activities implemented in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale by the Mineral Creek Logging company.

Logged in January and February 2025, unit 27-5 of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale was predominantly mature Douglas fir forest before being logged and the forest had sustained little mortality in recent flatheaded fir borer mortality events. Yet, BLM retained only 5.3 trees per acre in unit 27-5 with most of the retention occurring in a draw in the eastern half of the unit, while most of the western portion was a large clearcut with only a few isolated trees and snags remaining.

Logging off whole groves of mature, living conifer forest on exceptionally steep, potentially erosive slopes, the adjacent hardwood trees, woody shrubs, and understory vegetation were also removed through collateral impacts, the soil was heavily disturbed and skyline yarding scars cut deep grooves into the steep mountainous terrain. These yarding scars create unnatural erosion gullies that alter the slopes hydrology, accumulate runoff and can channelize debris flows like they did in unit 27-5. .

The landslide cut loose both above and below road 39-3-27.2 tearing down the steep clearcut slope and facilitating a debris flow of thick mud and logging debris which ran down the slope, jumped onto the road, and spilled down a seasonal tributary of Neds Gulch. Likely thousands of cubic feet of mud and logging debris either flowed down the slope or was deposited directly into the stream filling the riparian corridor.

The BLM blames the landslide on a steep, poorly built road cut that failed and triggered the proceeding blow out. Yet, this assumption fails to consider the vast stump field through which the land slid, the wasteland of disturbed soil, yarding scars, logging slash and unmerchantable waste wood left over from log processing. The impacts of logging, yarding, log hauling, and log processing and the destabilization they created were at least strong contributing factors to this devastating landslide and debris flow, if not the sole factor. These slopes have withstood rainstorms, rain on snow events, atmospheric rivers and floods for thousands of years, and just happened to blow out, mere months after clearcut logging occurred? We find this to be far more than a coincidence, and instead a cause and effect relationship.

Please contact the Medford District BLM and ask them to withdraw the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale due to significant environmental effects that exceed those authorized and due to repeated violations of wet weather logging restrictions and Project Design Features identified in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale Prospectus and the 2016 Resource Management Plan. Below are contacts for BLM officials:

Elizabeth Burghard, Medford District BLM District Manager: eburghar@blm.gov

Lauren Brown, Medford District BLM, Ashland Resource Area Manager: lpbrown@blm.gov

Please also contact your elected officials and encourage them to support conservation organizations and local residents by requesting that the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale and all recently approved “salvage” timber sales in the Applegate Valley be withdrawn including the Forest Creek Salvage Timber Sale, the SOS Project, and SOS Project 1.

Below are links to contact forms:

https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/email-ron

https://www.merkley.senate.gov/connect/contact/

These projects are using recent beetle mortality in the area to instead target living, green trees with clearcut logging practices that have no place on federal lands. The significant impacts sustained in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale demonstrate that the BLM’s “solution” of clearcutting living, green forests under a guise of “salvage” logging is creating much more dramatic and last impacts than the beetle mortality that occurred in 2022 and 2023. The real threat to these watersheds is BLM “salvage” logging, not habitat producing beetle mortality patches that are already regenerating, with a diversity of native species.

The Cedar Flat Timber Sale was first proposed in June 2024 by the Medford District BLM, Grants Pass Resource Area. The timber sale was located in the upper Williams Creek watershed in Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forest set aside specifically to protect, maintain and recruit habitat for the northern spotted owl, support habitat connectivity, and recover owl populations that are currently heading towards extinction. The project immediately raised concern at ASA and we went out to take a look.

Surveying the proposed units we found numerous mature and old-growth forests targeted for industrial logging in this old forest reserve, and after publicizing our findings, pressing the Medford District BLM, and opposing the project, the agency suddenly withdrew the Cedar Flat Timber Sale in the fall of 2024; however, they also announced that the project would reevaluated and reconsidered in early 2025.

Recently the Cedar Flat Timber Sale showed up in the Medford District BLM’s 2025 Timber Sale Plan as an estimated 300-acre timber sale producing approximately four million board feet of timber, and sure enough, just a few days ago, the agency announced the newest iteration of the Cedar Flat Timber Sale and have once again released a scoping notice and initial information on the proposed timber sale in the upper Williams Creek watershed.

This new Cedar Flat timber sale is proposed in the same geographic area as the last one, including units at the headwaters of Glade Fork, on Rock Creek, West Fork Williams Creek, Lone Creek, Tree Branch Creek, Goodwin Creek, Bear Wallow Creek, and small portions of Mungers Creek. The project proposes 2,588 acres of “proposed treatment areas,” including commercial timber sale units in both LSR forest and Riparian Reserves set aside to protect water quality, fisheries habitat, and habitat connectivity along streams and stream corridors.

Like the original Cedar Flat Timber Sale, this iteration includes heavy commercial logging and “group selection” logging, a form of staggered clearcut logging that removes whole stands of mature forest and regenerates young, even-aged shrubs, hardwoods and small conifer trees with little habitat value, no biological legacies, and dramatically increased fire risks. Logging would remove trees up to 40″ diameter in moist sites and 36″ diameter in dry sites, create group selection openings up to 4 acres in size, and reduce canopy cover to as low as 30%. Some alternatives in the proposal would also build new roads, doing further damage to the area’s last intact forest habitats.

Although we remain concerned by the number of mature and old-growth logging units still proposed in the Cedar Flat Timber Sale, we are also pleased to report that our collective advocacy led to numerous controversial mature and old-growth logging units being canceled, and some progress has already been made. This progress includes the cancellation of units in old-growth forests below Sugarloaf Peak at the headwaters of Rock Creek and along the Grayback Mountain Trail, at the headwaters of Glade Creek, and at the headwaters of West Fork Williams Creek.

Still included in the timber sale are mature and old growth logging units at the headwaters of Bear Wallow Creek below Holocomb Peak, at the headwaters of West Fork Williams Creek, and on Little Sugarloaf Peak that must be opposed. These units propose logging some of the last old forests remaining in the West Fork Williams Creek watershed that are the foundation for the area’s LSR forest habitat.

The BLM is accepting public comment on this project until February 20, 2025. Please speak up for the forests of Williams Creek and comment on the Cedar Flat Forest Management Project and Timber Sale. We need you to speak up for these old forests and help us stop the mature and old forest logging in the Cedar Flat Timber Sale.

Talking Points:

-Ask the BLM to withdraw all mature, primary, late successional, and old-growth forest logging from the Cedar Flat Timber Sale, including the old forests proposed for logging at the headwaters of Bear Wallow Creek, West Fork Williams Creek, and on Little Sugarloaf Peak.

-Ask BLM to maintain all northern spotted owl habitat designations, trees over 20″ diameter, canopy coverage of 60% or more and stands over 70 years of age that remain on the landscape.

-Ask BLM to build no new logging roads in the Cedar Flat Timber Sale. Road density is already extreme in the planning area. Roads in this area are spreading Port Orford-cedar Root Rot and damaging water quality.

-Ask BLM to analyze the impact of proposed logging activities on carbon storage, climate resilience, mature and old forest habitat, northern spotted owl habitats, Pacific fisher habitats, and other rare, unique or sensitive species in the upcoming EA.

-Tell BLM that all action alternatives must protect the mature, primary, late successional and old-growth habitats remaining in the planning area and work with young stands to recruit and restore LSR function and complex forest habitats.

-Ask BLM to analyze the impact of proposed logging on water quality, watershed values, and anadromous fisheries. The Williams Creek watershed is one of the most important low gradient streams and coho salmon watersheds in the Applegate River watershed. In addition, the Applegate River watershed contains only 12% of the Rogue River basin, but supports 1/3 of the coho salmon spawning in the Rogue River watershed. All action alternatives must protect threatened populations of coho salmon and the water quality on which they rely.

-Tell the BLM that the intensity of logging proposed will impact watershed values, fisheries, and old forest habitats, as well as late successional species such as the northern spotted owl, Pacific fisher, red tree vole, Humboldt marten and others.

-Ask BLM not to set back northern spotted owl recovery objectives by precluding or delaying northern spotted owl habitat development for more than 20 years in LSR forest habitat, as the current proposal does.

Comments will be accepted until Feburary 20, 2025.

For more information on this project and to provide comments follow this link: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2036044/510

The Medford District BLM has begun logging the so-called Boaz “Salvage” Timber Sale in the Applegate Valley by clearcutting living, green, viable stands of forest. Asking the public to suspend their disbelief, the BLM is simply declaring living stands “dead and dying,” yet in many of these stands the only signs of imminent mortality are the BLM’s timber sale boundary markers and the tree removal mark.

As we write this blog the BLM is clearcutting whole stands, retaining on average 3.3 trees per acre and making a mockery of truth, honesty, and accountability in the process. Applegate Siskiyou Alliance has opposed this timber sale since the BLM proposed to auction the sale to the timber industry without formal authorization. We have also ground-truthed all the units in the timber sale and found most of them to contain living, green, viable trees and stands. In fact, most have been only minimally impacted by the recent beetle mortality event. We also found a few stands that did contain significant tree mortality, where BLM will log nearly every tree that survived the beetle outbreak — logging the trees that have the genetics and are located in portions of the landscape that helped them survive the outbreak. These are the very trees we need to retain on the landscape for climate resiliency into the future.

Below we will expose the BLM lies one by one, showing how this dishonest and purposefully misleading narrative is affecting our environment and how the BLM is clearcutting our beloved forests.

Lie #1: The trees targeted for logging are dead and dying.

The BLM claims the trees in the Boaz “Salvage” Timber Sale are “dead and dying,” but the majority of the timber sale is located in living, green stands of trees and forests with little recent fir borer beetle mortality. According to the BLM’s authorization documents, a tree deemed “dead and dying” must be determined to be “likely to die within a few years.”

Yet, ASA hired professional certified forester, Kenneth Baldwin who issued a report that directly contradicts the BLM’s analysis, and found that the majority of the trees and stands proposed for logging are not dead and not dying, but are instead, living viable stands of trees.

“In summary my field survey of the thirteen units in the Boaz Mortality Salvage Sale, I conclude that most of the live Douglas-firs are not “severely damaged” nor “likely to die within a few years” and therefore do not meet the CX definition of dying trees. These trees are incorrectly designated for cutting in the units,” said Baldwin.

Additionally, satellite and infrared imagery shows that BLM is targeting living stands of trees with clearcut logging, which will only increase mortality and forest loss in our area.

We cannot allow the BLM to continue deceiving the public, implementing clearcut logging that degrades habitat, increases fire risks, impacts that area’s high scenic qualities, and logs living, green stands of trees under the guise of “salvage” logging. In the era of misinformation and “fake news,” we must hold the BLM accountable and demand that federal land management agencies provide honest, truthful analysis. We are also calling on our elected officials to confront the misinformation of the BLM, demand that the agency serve the public interest, protect our climate, and shut down this rogue agency that lies to promote its timber-first agenda, disregards all public concerns, and is actively working to take the public out of public land management.

The forests in the Boaz Timber Sale are not “dead and dying,” they are being killed by the BLM for the benefit of the industry and to the detriment of both the land and nearby communities.

BLM IS THE THREAT TO NATIVE FORESTS, NOT NATIVE BEETLES!

Lie #2: The BLM claims it is conducting “salvage” logging focused on the removal of dead and dying trees.

As identified above, very little of the Boaz Timber Sale contains “dead and dying” stands or trees, and the timber sale instead targets mostly living, green, viable stands of forest for clearcut logging. Additionally, even in stands that did support significant recent mortality, the BLM is proposing to log off many of the trees that survived the recent beetle mortality outbreaks. By logging living stands and living trees, BLM is undermining the resilience of our forests to future drought and beetle outbreaks and logging off trees that contain either genetic or situational resilience.

The Boaz Salvage Timber Sale is creating extensive forest loss that only compounds the mortality that did occur during the 2022-2023 mortality outbreak, releasing extensive carbon into the atmosphere fueling climate change, degrading habitat, and increasing fire risks. BLM is blatantly lying about the mortality in these stands, the impacts of the logging, and the health of the forests in question. The Boaz “Salvage” Timber Sale is not salvage logging and instead is clearcut logging and deforestation of green, living forests.

Lie #3: The flat headed fir borer outbreak is continuing unabated.

The BLM claims that flat headed fir borer mortality of 2022-2023 is ongoing and has continued unabated. Yet, all one needs to do is look around the watershed, go for a hike, or take a drive through the Applegate Valley. The tree mortality that occurred in response to droughts and heat domes in 2022 and 2023 has subsided and returned to background levels. Additionally, the abundant rain this fall and winter will most certainly reduce tree mortality even further. Flatheaded fir borer outbreaks are eruptive and responsive to climactic conditions, including prolonged drought, extreme heat, and a lack of winter cold. They are also naturally moderated by more favorable climactic conditions, as we are experiencing this year.

Once again, the BLM is lying to promote their timber-first agenda. They are refusing to publish information showing the level of mortality in 2024, and are operating off false assumptions, not based in fact. The flatheaded fir borer mortality outbreak has collapsed and BLM’s claims that trees are still dying en mass is inconsistent with the facts on the ground.

Lie #4: The recent beetle mortality will increase fire risks.

Past studies exploring the relationship of beetle mortality and fire behavior have also shown no direct correlation between increased fire severity and bark beetle mortality. This includes studies conducted in the Pacific Northwest (Meigs, 2016), the Rockies (DellaSala, 2016), in California (Bond, 2009), and in Oregon (Donato, 2006). Studies across the West have actually shown a decrease in fire severity associated with bark beetle mortality and an associated “dampening” of fire behavior (Meigs, 2016; Harvey et al. 2014; Donato, 2013). In fact, beetle mortality across a range of forest types has not been shown to influence the occurrence or increase the risk of fire, relative to unaffected stands (Bond, 2009; Kulakowski & Jarvis, 2011; Black et al. 2013; Harvey et al. 2013; Hart, 2015).

BLM is manipulating and cherry-picking their science, ignoring a massive body of science that contradicts their claims and once again lying to the public. The majority of scientific studies show that beetle mortality does not increase fire risks, yet BLM refuses to accept the best available science and instead promotes a false agenda meant to increase timber production on BLM lands and continue deforestation in southwest Oregon.

Lie #5: BLM logging will reduce fire risks

As identified above, the science demonstrates that beetle mortality events do not increase fire risks and may, in fact, reduce them; however, BLM refuses to objectively study the science and embrace these facts. Instead the agency is claiming that clearcut logging in the Boaz Timber Sale (to 3.3 trees per acre) will reduce fire risks. Ironically, this contradicts their own analysis in their Clean Slate and Griffin Halfmoon Timber Sales that admitted that extensive canopy reduction and large tree removal at this scale creates increased fire risks, increased fire severity, increased rates of spread, and generally more intense fires.

Additionally, the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale Prospectus, utilized by the BLM to outline timber sale activities for potential timber industry purchasers states that all units in the timber sale will be “treated” with lop and scatter slash abatement, which means all limbs, tops, logging slash and unmerchantable material will be left on the forest floor, dramatically increasing fire risks, understory fuel loading, and fire-available fuel in logged stands.

To claim to be reducing fire risks while implementing clearcut logging, artificially replanting conifers to create even-aged and highly flammable timber plantations, and leaving all logging slash on the forest floor is disingenuous, misleading, and untrue. Once again, the BLM lying about the effects of this project which will dramatically increase fire risks for the forests and surrounding rural communities in the Applegate Valley.

As Los Angeles recovers from devastating wildfires, the Medford District BLM is turning living, green forests into clearcuts that will turn into dense brush above the rural communities of the Applegate, creating highly flammable areas as residents work hard to make their own properties fire resilient.

Lie #6: The stands proposed for logging do not include Northern spotted owl and Siskiyou Mountains Salamander habitat.

The BLM claims that the stands proposed for logging are “dead and dying,” and therefore do not support northern spotted owl habitat; however, many of the stands proposed for logging include very little tree mortality and were identified in previous logging proposals as suitable habitat for the northern spotted owl (nesting roosting, foraging, and/or dispersal habitat). Given the lack of significant mortality in these stands, claiming that they no longer contain living forest canopy, large diameter trees, multi-aged stand structure and other constituent elements of northern spotted owl habitat is absolutely untrue.

Nothing has changed in these stands and they remain northern spotted owl habitats. Other locations in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale have been identified as Siskiyou Mountains salamander High Priority Habitats, where an existing 2007 Conservation Agreement precludes the BLM from removing too much canopy, operating heavy equipment, or significantly altering the habitat for this rare species; however, BLM’s Boaz Timber Sale will clearcut these habitats in violation of the Conservation Agreement damaging important Siskiyou Mountains salamander habitats.

Take Action!

Lies must be exposed with truth and the Medford District BLM’s dishonest salvage logging agenda must be stopped. They are currently logging the living, green forests of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale and have proposed their massive SOS Project that will continue the public deception and log shows across up to 15,000 acres every five years. In the era of misinformation, we believe the public and our elected officials, must demand truth and honesty in government. The BLM has proven themselves to be dishonest and unworthy of managing our public lands. Lying to the public and undermining the public interest is unacceptable, but it is routine on the Medford District BLM, who has become a rogue agency, in need of significant reform.

Contact the following BLM and elected officials, and let them know you demand truthful analysis, honest projects that reduce, rather than increase fire risks, and the protection of our environment, our climate and the beautiful forests of southwestern Oregon. No more clearcut logging on BLM lands! Ask the BLM to withdraw the SOS Project and the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale and demand that elected officials take action now, before more living, carbon rich forests are clearcut under BLM’s misinformation campaign.

BLM District Manager Elizabeth Burghard: eburghar@blm.gov

Ashland Resource Area Manager, Lauren Brown: lpbrown@blm.gov

Senator Wyden: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/email-ron

Senator Jeff Merkley: https://www.merkley.senate.gov/connect/contact/

Representative Pam Marsh: Rep.PamMarsh@oregonlegislature.gov

Representative Jeff Golden: Sen.JeffGolden@oregonlegislature.gov

2024: A Year In Review

For many years Applegate Siskiyou Alliance has worked to protect our public lands from the immediate threats facing our region. Day in and day out, we monitor public land management activities and advocate for the protection of our beloved wildlands. Our work includes thousands of hours on the ground reviewing federal land management projects, writing detailed public comments and objections, and if necessary, preparing for litigation. It also includes organizing local communities, leading public campaigns, hosting educational opportunities, leading hikes, engaging elected officials, and increasing awareness for both the threats to this spectacular region and its incredible biological values.

Throughout the Applegate and Siskiyou Crest region, we have become a strong, grassroots voice for public land conservation, and we are working to support a vision for the future that sustains wild landscapes, maintains biodiversity, and increases habitat connectivity.

In 2024, we built our capacity, stopped multiple timber sales, secured numerous illegal off-road vehicle closures, began campaigns to stop newly emerging threats, built the Tallowbox Trail, and organized the highly successful Siskiyou Crest Conifer Field Trip Series. Below are a few of our campaigns and other major projects undertaken by Applegate Siskiyou Alliance in 2024.

Protecting Habitat

IVM/Late Mungers Timber Sale

For the past four years, we have been working to oppose the BLM’s massive IVM Project which would have logged up to 20,000 acres and built up to 90 miles of new road per decade on Medford District BLM lands throughout southwestern Oregon. To make matters worse, this proposal focused on logging Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forests designated to protect old forest habitat for the northern spotted owl. The BLM also proposed to begin implementation of this damaging timber sale program in the Williams area with the Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales.

In 2023, we filed suit against this project, challenging the entire IVM Project and both the Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales, and in April of 2024, after a year of legal filings and preparation, we successfully took BLM to court along with conservation allies.

A month later, Magistrate Judge Clarke released his findings and recommendations declaring the IVM Project unlawful. Finding that the agency was “sacrificing habitat for timber production,” Judge Clarke found that the IVM Project was inconsistent with the public involvement and scientific analysis requirements in NEPA and violated standards that limit logging in LSR forests.

After four years of consistent effort and advocacy, we saved thousands of acres of forests across SW Oregon by challenging the IVM Project, and along with our conservation allies, saved the Williams Creek watershed from the Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales.

Cedar Flat Timber Sale

In June 2024, the Medford District BLM, Grants Pass Resource Area proposed the 3,222-acre Cedar Flat Timber Sale on the flank of Grayback Mountain, along the Grayback Mountain Trail, in the upper Williams Creek watershed and on the eastern slope of Holcomb Peak. The project targeted some of the last old-growth forests remaining in the Williams Creek watershed with heavy industrial logging prescriptions, including large tree logging to 36″ diameter, removal of significant canopy cover, and group selection clearcut logging.

Applegate Siskiyou Alliance responded by immediately monitoring all of the timber sale units across the entire timber sale area, and we publicized our findings on the Applegate Siskiyou Alliance blog. By fall of 2024, the BLM had canceled the Cedar Flat Timber Sale; however, we expect the agency to repackage, and propose the timber sale again some time in the New Year, and we have begun advocating to remove all mature, old-growth and primary forest habitats from any potential timber sale proposed in the future. We will continue working in 2025, to protect the forests of upper Williams Creek and in the former Cedar Flat Timber Sale area.

Siskiyou Mountain Fuel Break Project

In the fall of 2023, the Forest Service proposed a massive fuel break project targeting multiple beloved hiking trails and some of the most intact wildlands in the Siskiyou Crest region. The project included fuel breaks along the Stein Butte/Elliott Ridge Trail in the Elliott Ridge Roadless Area, along the Sevenmile Ridge Trail in the Big Red Mountain Roadless Area, and along the Split Rock Trail in the McDonald Peak Inventoried Roadless Areas, as well as what they are calling the O’Brien Creek Fuel Break, along the road systems connecting Star Gulch to Carberry Creek (1010 Road) and O’Brien Ceek Road (1005 Road).

ASA provided detailed comments, conducted extensive field work and met with Forest Service officials about this project, including field trips. Throughout the process we expressed our concerns with fuel break development in such intact roadless watersheds, and this past summer the Forest Service withdrew the most controversial portions of this project. The agency approved only non-commercial thinning on the O’Brien Creek Fuel Break, which follows existing roads rather than damaging roadless watersheds. This was a victory for the wildlands of the Applegate, but the Forest Service has now proposed the Yellowjacket Project which encompasses most of the Forest Service lands from the Little Applegate River to Applegate Dam.

Yellowjacket Project

The Yellowjacket Project sprawls across much of the Forest Service land in the Applegate, extending from the headwaters of the Little Applegate River to Applegate Dam. This project includes numerous important wildlands we would like to see permanently protected and would allow for both commercial and non-commercial thinning. Very little information has been released about this project so far, but we have been out on the ground with the Forest Service looking at potential “treatment areas” in the southwestern portion of the project area.

We are hopeful that the Forest Service will propose a reasonable and environmentally balanced project and we will continue encouraging them to do so. We will advocate for the protection and retention of mature, late successional and old-growth forests, roadless areas, biodiversity, and wildlife habitat. We also see very little, if any, benefit from commercial logging within this planning area.

ASA will be tracking this project in 2025 and working to ensure that project activities are sufficiently focused on the protection and restoration of important biological values and wildland habitats.

BLM “Salvage” Logging

This past spring the Medford District BLM clearcut large swaths of habitat, including both dead standing and living, green trees in the Lickety Split Salvage Timber Sale in the upper portions of the Little Applegate River. ASA worked to document and publicize the environmental impacts of these clearcuts, while generating both local and national media stories that highlighted our concerns with the BLM’s damaging approach.

This past summer the BLM also approved the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale on Cinnabar Ridge despite insufficient and inaccurate scientific analysis and a total lack of public involvement. The project proposes to log 250 acres of mostly living, green forest that was unaffected by the recent beetle mortality event. Additionally, in stands with significant mortality, the BLM proposes to log the majority of the living, resilient trees. The proposal calls for logging stands to 3.3 trees per acre, on average, across the entire timber sale, and will have devastating consequences for the forests at the lower end of both the Little Applegate and Upper Applegate Valleys.

In October ASA led a field trip for local residents to see the Boaz Timber Sale units. We led a caravan of cars and used walkie talkies between the cars to point out the timber sale units as we drove up the Boaz Gulch Road. Field trip participants got to see that the majority of the timber sale units in the Boaz Timber Sale are living, green trees, and not “dead and dying” as the BLM claims.

Finally, just this past month the BLM proposed the SOS Project — a massive, programmatic project that would allow up to 15,000 acres of logging and 20 miles of new road construction every five years. This project would allow heavy industrial logging, significant canopy removal, and virtual clearcut logging in stands that sustained as little as 10% mortality (i.e. if 10% of a stand is dead, it can be clearcut!). The project includes an over 840,000-acre planning area and a proposed 254,000-acre potential treatment area. If approved, the BLM could log anywhere it chooses within this vast landscape without adequate scientific review or public involvement opportunities.

ASA will be opposing these damaging, dishonest, and inappropriate logging operations throughout the Applegate and beyond. We have been visiting proposed units, including units directly adjacent to two of ASA’s board member’s properties.

Off-Road Vehicle Closures

For over a decade ASA has taken the lead in monitoring illegal off-road vehicle activity in the Applegate River watershed and across the Siskiyou Crest. We have been documenting the impact of illegal or inappropriate off-road vehicle use in our Siskiyou Crest OHV Monitoring Reports, and have been advocating for more effective protections. On Forest Service lands, we have focused heavily on protecting Botanical Areas from off-road vehicle abuse and have engaged both the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Klamath National Forest.

After over a decade of hard work, our detailed off-road vehicle monitoring reports, and our consistent, non-stop advocacy has begun to bear fruit! In the past few years, and in response to our advocacy, the Forest Service has approved multiple projects across the Siskiyou Crest closing illegal off-road vehicle tracks, and we are actively encouraging the Forest Service to do more to protect the vital botanical values, the scenic wildlands of the Siskiyou Crest, and the backcountry values of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

The Klamath National Forest closed numerous damaging off-road tracks near Bearground Spring and along the PCT, not far from the Condrey Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area. This past summer both the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Klamath National Forest worked to secure an important closure at the Klamath Meridan Overlook, a recreation site near the PCT in the Mt. Ashland/Siskiyou Peak Botanical Area. This project consisted of building pole fencing to block access to an illegal off-road vehicle route and dispersed vehicle campsite that has been impacting the Botanical Area, killing off native vegetation, compacting soils, and degrading scenic values. This illegal motorized route has now been physically closed and ASA will keep monitoring to ensure it stays that way!

We have also worked for many years to encourage other closures along the PCT in the Siskiyou Crest region, including the physical closure of illegal off-road vehicle routes that were crossing Sheep Camp Springs and the PCT, degrading habitat values at a key PCT campsite and water source. Off-road vehicle users had turned an important PCT backcountry camp into a large parking area, but this summer, the Forest Service physically closed the illegal route with a boulder closure that will begin the process of restoration for Sheep Camp Springs.

Additionally, a physical closure has been built using large boulders to block off illegal off-road vehicle routes crossing the PCT and impacting Mud Springs, a beautiful wet meadow and sphagnum bog at the headwaters of Dog Fork Elliott Creek. Located at the edge of the Condrey Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area, this wet meadow system contains numerous rare byrophytes, unusual plant communities, and provides an important water source and campsite for PCT hikers.

The Forest Service has also approved a significant new off-road vehicle closure on Big Red Mountain. We have been promoting this closure for many years due to the damage it has caused to bunchgrass meadows and serpentine rock gardens with rare plants in the Big Red Mountain Botanical Area

We are pleased the Forest Service has begun addressing these issues and will continue our monitoring efforts to support these closures and others in the region. Out goal is see the closure of all illegal off-road vehicle routes on the Siskiyou Crest, and we will continue advocating for these closures in 2025.

Building pride in place

Siskiyou Crest Conifer Field Trip Series

This past summer ASA led an exciting series of field trips to visit all 25 conifers found in the Siskiyou Crest region. These hikes and field trips led us to some of the wildest habitats in our area and into some of the region’s most spectacular backcountry. They also included some of the best botanists and ecologists in the region.

The series was an enormous success with 118 field trip participants on eight trips, including trips to Little Grayback/Acorn Women Peak, Left Fork Sucker Creek, Anderson Butte, Sundew Lake, Whisky Peak, Big Red Mountain, Dutchman Peak, Tamarack Meadows, Miller Lake and Mt. Ashland. Thanks to all who participated! We had a great time, enjoyed some incredible scenery, and some exceptional biodiversity. Huge gratitude goes to all our guest ecologists and botanists that accompanied us on our trips. This includes Wayne Rolle, Romain Cooper, Richard Callagan, Julie Spelletich, Scott Loring, Barb Mumblo, Matt Dybala, & Julie Kierstead.

Tallowbox Trail

In 2023 and 2024 ASA worked to build the Tallowbox Trail, a new 4.2 mile hiking trail on BLM lands in the Burton-Ninemile Lands With Wilderness Characteristics (LWC) in the Applegate.

The trail traverses open clearings high on the slopes of Tallowbox Mountain, beautiful oak woodlands, chaparral, and live oak stands, as well as mixed conifer forests in the Ladybug Gulch drainage. We are excited to open the trail to the public and encourage others to explore this beautiful area. Get out and enjoy the Tallowbox Trail — the views are incredible, spring and early summer wildflowers can be spectacular, and fall color a wonderful accent to the tawny grass and green forests of the Applegate.

Upcoming Threats

The biggest threat to our public lands nationwide, and here in the Applegate Valley, will be the Trump Administration and its corporate-industrial agenda. We anticipate a significant emphasis on logging, mining, grazing and other forms of resource extraction on federal lands during the upcoming Trump Administration. We also anticipate new attacks on existing environmental protections throughout our region, and across the country.

Yet, it is not just the threat of the Trump Administration and its new focus on public lands we must oppose. We also have very tangible and immediate threats that must be addressed, including the SOS Project, the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale, the new reiteration of the Cedar Flat Timber Sale and the Forest Service’s Yellowjacket Project.

ASA is the only conservation organization focused specifically on defending the wildlands of the Applegate, from the mouth of the river, up to the headwater basins on the Siskiyou Crest. We are also among the most passionate, knowledgeable, and dedicated advocates in the region. We need your help in 2025 to keep this region wild, to maintain the region’s world class biodiversity, and to build a grassroots movement for its long-term protection. Please consider supporting our organization with a generous year end donation!

Siskiyou Crest Coalition

Applegate Siskiyou Alliance continues to be the fiscal sponsor for the Siskiyou Crest Coalition (SCC), working to secure permanent protections for the Siskiyou Crest region. We are tired of fighting endless timber sales and damaging projects, and we envision a future where the Applegate and the Siskiyou Crest region are protected for their high ecological values. The Siskiyou Crest Coalition is growing, and more organizations, businesses and individuals continue to sign on in support of protecting the Siskiyou Crest. As a coalition we are stronger, and we plan to have a viable campaign to protect the Siskiyou Crest, with a strong coalition, as soon as a more favorable administration is back in place. Until then, ASA will continue to work with SCC to build momentum for the future.

Make a generous year-end donation!

In recent years southwestern Oregon has experienced uncharacteristically intense heat and extreme temperatures with prolonged periods of drought. Throughout interior southwestern Oregon and the Applegate River watershed these specific drought events and “heat domes” have in turn triggered eruptive flatheaded fir borer mortality outbreaks.

In 2022 and 2023, the outbreak affected Douglas fir populations at lower elevations, predominantly on sunbaked south and west facing slopes, in areas where shallow, unproductive soils favor chaparral or oak woodland, and in areas with relatively low precipitation levels adjacent to the valley floor or on exposed foothill slopes. Ironically, mortality has often also been concentrated in conifer forests subjected to BLM “forest health” commercial thinning (i.e. logging) operations over the past 30 years.

Unlike 2022 and 2023, the spring, summer and late fall of 2024 brought very little conifer mortality, demonstrating that the eruptive beetle outbreak has subsided. Even the casual observer can drive Highway 238 through the center of the Applegate Valley today, and see very little conifer mortality; whereas, in 2022 and 2023, the hills were streaked in “red stage” beetle mortality. The abundant fall rain this past month continues to mitigate the concerns of beetle proliferation and significant tree mortality; however, BLM is ignoring that the eruptive outbreak has passed and assumes that there will be elevated mortality rates in the next few years, despite dramatically changed circumstances.

Unfortunately, BLM has responded to this tree mortality event with post-disturbance “salvage” logging in stands either affected by recent beetle mortality or in living, green stands that survived the outbreak, an approach the BLM recently implemented in the Lickety Split Timber Sale, with devastating impacts. In the Lickety Split Timber Sale whole slopes of both living and dead trees were cleared above the Little Applegate River, and its tributary Lick Gulch, in large clearcuts and industrial logging operations.

Recently, this approach was taken a step further when the BLM approved the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale on the ridgeline dividing the Upper Applegate and Little Applegate Valleys. In the Boaz Timber Sale, both stands with significant mortality and whole stands of living, green Douglas fir trees are proposed for clearcut logging. According to BLM’s own data, the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale would retain, on average, only 3.3 trees per acre, while logging many thousands of mature trees that survived the beetle outbreak.

The BLM is now also proposing the so-called Strategic Operations for Safety (SOS) Programmatic EA, which would allow the BLM to log virtually at will, without any meaningful scientific analysis or public comment, across approximately 840,000 acres of Medford District BLM lands. The project area was designed to encompass the more arid, lower elevation habitats in interior southwestern Oregon, and it therefore surrounds many local communities, including Eagle Point, Shady Cove, Gold Hill, Rogue River,Grants Pass and communities throughout the Applegate Valley. It also includes a total of approximately 254,000 acres of “eligible treatment areas” that could be logged.

Alternative 2 of the SOS Project proposes to log up to 15,000 acres and build up to 20 miles of new “temporary” road every five years. The prescriptions allow for the removal of both live and dead standing trees in all age and diameter classes, and in virtually all Land Use Allocations. This includes Late Successional Reserve forest set aside to protect Northern spotted owl populations and their old forest habitat. It also proposes significant logging in Riparian Reserves designated to protect water quality and riparian habitats, as well as in Areas of Critical Environmental Concern meant to protect some of the Medford District BLM’s most important, diverse, and intact habitats.

The SOS Project specifically allows the BLM to target stands with as little as 10% cumulative mortality, claiming these habitats have been heavily affected by beetle mortality. Alternative 2 would allow the BLM to both log adjacent to “linear features,” like roads and ridgelines, within one mile of homes, and as “area” treatments focused on commercial timber production. Either way, the timber sales implemented under the SOS Project would heavily log mature stands with living, green forest canopy down to as low as 20 square feet of basal area.

This translates to clearcut logging with a handful of “seed” trees per acre. For example, a 30″ diameter tree is approximately 5 square feet of basal area and retaining 20 square feet of basal area means retaining only four, 30″ diameter trees per acre. Conversely, a 20″ diameter tree is about 2.2 square feet of basal area, so retaining 20 square feet of basal area means retaining only nine, 20″ diameter trees per acre. (source: USDA Basal Area/Tree Per Acre guide)

The BLM claims this logging must occur to support public safety and reduce fire risks; however, many of the trees identified as “dead and dying” are living trees which do not pose public safety risks, and logging these trees to the levels proposed will actually dramatically increase fire risks.

The SOS Project also claims these trees must be logged to capture economic value from “dead and dying” trees subjected to flatheaded fir borer infestation and imminent mortality — but many of the trees targeted for logging include living, green trees without signs of beetle infestation.

Scientific research has shown that trees surviving large scale beetle outbreaks often contain unique genetic traits that may make them more resilient to drought, intense heat and future beetle outbreaks. This makes their retention particularly important for climate adaptation, for forest regeneration and for the retention of existing mature stands. (Six. 2018) Yet, thousands of acres of these forests would be logged in the BLM’s SOS Project, all without scientific review or meaningful public involvement.

Scientific studies conducted throughout the West have shown that beetle mortality patches, even at a relatively large scale, do not increase fire risks or fire severity, and may, in fact, reduce them. (Hart 2015., Meigs, 2016, Harvey etal. 2014, Donato. 2013) At the same time, research conducted on Medford District BLM lands has shown that the types of logging proposed tend to increase future fire risks through the loss of canopy cover, the removal of large fire resilient trees, the accumulation of logging slash, the regeneration of dense, even-aged, highly flammable vegetation, and by altering cool, moist micro-climate conditions. (Zald. 2018. Lesmeister. 2019)

The snags and downed logs that remain after relatively severe natural disturbance events, like beetle mortality outbreaks, are also important “biological legacies” and become a “requisite for maintaining long term forest growth.” Research shows that “in the Klamath Mountains conifer seedling performance can depend on the ability of the soil to retain moisture and support nitrogen fixing and ectomycorhizal organisms. Removal of large amounts of organic material may result in difficult reforestation of these thin, droughty, and infertile sites. (Amaranthus.1989)

The snags provide structural diversity, important wildlife habitats, shade for forest regeneration, and create continuity between the forest conditions before and after a beetle mortality event. Additionally, as these snags fall to the forest floor they become downed logs, which are also important for structural complexity and wildlife habitat, while also creating microclimates that are important for forest regeneration, as water retention reservoirs holding up to 25 times more water than adjacent forest soils, and as habitat for the mycorrhizal fungi required by many native conifer species. (Amaranthus. 1989).

Logging these biological legacies (e.g. snags and live trees) would have lasting consequences, and very few benefits to surrounding communities. In fact, the snags or dead standing trees removed will be done at an economic loss, or as, at best, break even timber sales, and that’s why the BLM has padded the economics of these sales by including abundant living, green trees, which are sold at low value salvage prices for the economic benefit of the timber industry.

The logging of these green trees under a so-called “salvage” sale is not only dishonest and inappropriate, but it will compound the impacts following the recent beetle events and the loss of mature forest cover already occurring in the region.

To make matters worse, the BLM has proposed to start this damaging project in the Applegate Valley with the first timber sale called “SOS Project 1,” which includes extensive logging on Thompson Creek, around Ruch, on Sterling Creek, in the forests along and adjacent to the East Applegate Ridge Trail, and in the Wellington Wildlands, a cherished wildland and 7,500-acre roadless area located between Ruch and Humbug Creek, at the heart of the Applegate Valley.

Many of the forests proposed for logging have not been significantly affected by beetle mortality and are being mischaracterized as “salvage” logging. Weaponizing the public’s fear of climate change, fire and beetle mortality, the BLM has initiated a campaign of Orwellian misinformation claiming they must clearcut or virtually clearcut living, green stands to save them from future mortality — but the only certainty of mass tree mortality is the authorization of the BLM’s SOS Project and the green tree logging it would unleash.

Like many of the projects recently proposed by the Medford District BLM—and shut down in the courts—the agency is once again attempting to eliminate any meaningful scientific review, site specific, project level analysis, and public comment opportunities that would otherwise encourage accountability and/or some level of scientific rigor. The SOS Project should be opposed and all post-disturbance logging should be limited to true hazard trees: truly dead standing trees along regularly used BLM roads.

The BLM is currently taking public comments on both the SOS Project and SOS Project 1. Use the information in this post and below in the talking points to provide public comment for these damaging logging projects.

SOS Project Talking Points:

-No living, green trees should be logged in the SOS Project. The vast majority of these trees are not infested with flatheaded fir borer beetles and do not meet the criteria for “dead and dying” trees.

-Current mortality rates have dramatically declined since 2022 and 2023 due to the eruptive nature of beetle mortality events and shifts in regional weather patterns. This means that the potential for tree mortality has dramatically decreased and the assumptions surrounding imminent mortality are unfounded. Current analysis in the SOS Project erroneously ignores that the recent eruptive mortality event has subsided.

-The removal of living tree canopy will only increase fire risks by opening up stands to increased wind and solar exposure, while encouraging dense, highly flammable even-aged regeneration of brush, hardwoods and conifer species. This understory response or increase in young, even-aged growth, along with artificial tree planting, has been shown to dramatically increase fire risks in affected stands.

-Removing living, green trees that survived the recent beetle mortality events will reduce forest cover and remove genetically resistant trees that have an increased ability to survive beetle outbreaks. These same trees also aid in the regeneration of affected habitats with genetically adapted and highly resilient trees.

-Logging beetle mortality patches will disrupt forest succession, damage forest regeneration, impact soils, spread noxious weeds, remove important wildlife habitats, and degrade complex early seral plant communities supporting incredible biodiversity.

-2024 Aerial Detection Surveys have not been disclosed or made publicly available, and were not included in the SOS analysis. This is important because these surveys would show a dramatic decline in Douglas fir mortality across the region in 2024, yet the agency is refusing to provide information or publish the results of its publicly funded survey. These surveys must be completed, made public, be included in both project analysis, and available to inform public comment before project approval. Withholding this information from the current analysis is irresponsible and inappropriate.

-The recent mortality in southwestern Oregon and climate trends going forward show that the productivity of many forests are not sufficient to justify the designation of “Timber Harvest Land Base,” and the entire planning area should be removed from this land use designation. Sustained yield logging is inappropriate, timber yields and growth rates cannot be reliably sustained, and other public land values cannot be maintained if timber is being unsustainably harvested.

Follow this link and click on the “participate now” button to comment. Make your comments by January 6, 2025

SOS Project 1 Talking Points:

-Repeat the same talking points as above for the SOS Project and include the specific concerns below for the SOS Project 1 proposal.

-The units proposed for logging in the Wellington Wildlands are highly controversial and should be canceled from further consideration in the SOS Project 1. They are also located on the proposed trail corridor for the Center Applegate Ridge Trail, which has been promoted by the Applegate community for over a decade and would be damaged by industrial logging activities.

-The units along the highly popular East Applegate Ridge Trail will impact scenic, biological, and recreational values and are incompatible with the East Applegate Ridge Extensive Recreation Management Area. All units adjacent to or surrounding the East Applegate Ridge Trail should be canceled.

-The Woodrat Mountain and Woodrat Mountain Gliding Site’s Special Recreation Management Area contain unique recreational opportunities, world-class hang gliding opportunities, and highly scenic values which would be impacted by the types of logging proposed. Units surrounding Woodrat Mountain should be canceled.

-“Salvage” logging, especially when significant green tree removal is involved, will increase fire risks, impact nearby communities, degrade habitat values, damage scenic viewsheds, and impact the local outdoor recreation and amenities based economy of the Applegate Valley.

Follow this link and click on the “participate now” button to comment. Make your comments by January 6, 2025

References:

Amaranthus, M.P. & Parrish, D.S. & Perry, David. (1989). Decaying logs as moisture reservoirs after drought and wildfire in Stewardship of soil, air and water resources. Proceedings of Watershed 89. 191-194.

Donato, D.C., Harvey, Brian J., Romme, William H., Simard, Martin, Turner, Monica. 2013, Bark Beetle Effects on Fuel Profiles Across a Range of Stand Structures in Douglas-fir Forests of Greater Yellowstone. Ecological Applications, 23 (1), 2013 pp. 3-20

Hart, Sarah J. Schoennagel, Velden, Thomas T., Chapman, Teresa B. 2015. Area burned in the Western United States is Unaffected by Recent Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreaks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science UnitedStates of America. Vol. 112, No. 14, 4375–4380, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1424037112

Harvey, Brian J., Donato, Daniel C., Turner, Monica G., 2014. Recent Mountain Pine Outbreaks Wildfire Severity, and Postfire Tree Regeneration in the US Northern Rockies.Proc Natl Aca Sci USA. Oct 21, 2014 111 (42): 15120-15125

Lesmeister, Damon., Sovern, Stan., Davis, Raymond., Bell, David., Gregory, Matthew., &Vogeler, Jody. 2019. Mixed Severity Wildfire and Habitat of an Old Forest Obligate. Ecosphere Vol. 10, Issue 4, April 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2696

Meigs, Garrett W., Zald., Harold S., Campbell, John L., Keeton, Williams S., Kennedy, Robert E., 2016. Do Insect Outbreaks Reduce the Severity of subsequent fires?Environmental Research Letters, 2016; 11 (4): 045008 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/045008

Six, Diana L., Vergobbi, Clare., Cutter, Mitchell., 2018. Are survivors different? Genetic-based selection of trees by Mountain pine beetle during a climate change-drive outbreak in a high elevation forest. Frontiers in Plant Science. July 2018. Volume 9, Article 993 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2018.00993/full

Zald, Harold S. & Dunn, Christopher J. (2018) Severe fire weather and intensive forest management increase fire severity in multi-ownership landscape. Ecological Applications 0(0), 2018. Pp 1-13

We recently hiked into the Upper Applegate Fire which burned this summer on Cinnabar Ridge in the Buncom Roadless Area, located between the Upper Applegate and Little Applegate Valleys. What we found was an extraordinary mixed severity fire mosaic with highly beneficial fire effects.

Although the fire was concerning for nearby communities and threatened the homes of our friends and neighbors around the Applegate Valley, now that the threat to communities is long gone, we can look at the actual effects of the fire, and we found those effects to be ecologically beneficial.

The mixed severity fire effects are characteristic for the region, and in the next few years the abundance of wildflowers and regrowth will be beautiful. All and all, the Upper Applegate Fire footprint has restored fire as a natural process to the Buncom Roadless Area, reduced fuels on a strategic ridgeline, and maintained high quality wildlife habitats.

We are sorry to those this fire affected in the human communities that surround the wildfire footprint and are grateful that no homes or structures were lost. At the same time, we see value in the process of fire on this landscape and are excited to see the beneficial effect of fire on the slopes of Cinnabar Ridge.

This was an accidental, human-caused fire, but now that folks surrounding it can feel safe and the winter rains have begun, we hope folks can watch the fire footprint the next few years, enjoy the beauty of the process, and appreciate the benefits that mixed severity fire can bring to these habitats. When we look at this fire objectively, we see short-term, but real impacts on our neighbors in the communities directly surrounding this fire, but we also see long-term benefits from a biological standpoint. It is both, and should be appreciated as such.

Upper Applegate Fire Effects

For the past number of months, ASA has been out on the ground monitoring proposed timber sale units in the BLM’s Cedar Flat Timber Sale in the upper Williams Creek watershed. The sale proposed to log 3,222 acres, including 2,493 acres in Late Succcessional Reserve forest designated to protect habitat for the northern spotted owl. This proposal would have logged significant mature, old-growth and primary unlogged forests on the flank of Grayback Mountain, in upper Rock Creek, Glade Fork, West Fork Williams Creek, on Little Sugarloaf Peak, and on the eastern flank of Holcomb Peak.

ASA was publicly opposing these mature and old-growth logging units, had visited every proposed logging unit in the timber sale, was working to draft technical comments on this project, and had begun organizing a public campaign; however, the Medford District BLM just canceled this controversial timber sale!

Although a significant, but perhaps short-lived victory, the BLM has indicated they hope to reconsider this timber sale in early 2025. We invite our supporters to contact BLM and ask them to cancel the mature and old-growth logging units previously proposed in the Cedar Flat Timber Sale. Please let them know that these units should not move forward in future BLM timber sales.

Talking Points:

1. Although we support the cancellation of the Cedar Flat Timber Sale, we are concerned that controversial mature and old-growth logging units may be included in future timber sales proposed in the area. If the Cedar Flat Timber Sale, or a new project based on this timber sale is proposed, we suggest that the BLM focus on the abundant plantation stands found in the area.
2. The Cedar Flat Timber Sale proposed logging units that included some of the last mature and old-growth forest in the Williams Creek watershed. These forests must be withdrawn from further consideration and should not be proposed for logging in any future timber sale.
3. Located in Late Successional Reserve forest, designated to protect habitat for the northern spotted owl, these mature and old-growth forests should be deferred from treatment due to their important habitat values. This includes proposed logging units on the flank of Grayback Mountain, along the Grayback Mountain Trail, on upper Rock Creek, Glade Creek, West Fork Williams Creek, and upper Bill Creek, on Sugarloaf Peak, and on the eastern flank of Holocomb Peak.
4. Ask the BLM to institute a 20″ diameter limit, require the retention of at least 60% canopy cover, limit commercial logging to plantation stands, focus non-commercial thinning adjacent to homes and communities, remove all stands over 80 years of age from logging treatments, and build no new roads if timber sales are proposed in the future.

Contact:

District Manager, Elizabeth Burghard: eburghar@blm.gov

Grants Pass Resource Area Manager, Heidi Lowrey: hlowery@blm.gov

With the fall weather comes the end of the public land grazing season on the Siskiyou Crest. Fall is a good time to go out and monitor the impact of grazing allotments on the public lands of the Siskiyou Crest, including the headwaters of the Applegate River, located on the northern slope of the Siskiyou Crest. The area is filled with sensitive wetlands, meadows, seeps, springs, and headwater streams that become heavily damaged each season by unmanaged cattle, utilizing what the agency calls “passive season long grazing.”

What this means is that cattle are dropped off in the spring and allowed to forage largely unmanaged throughout the grazing season, congregating in wetlands and meadows, along streams and other areas that are sensitive to livestock grazing. The result is the degradation of water quality, impacts to the spongy headwater basins that support water flows during the summer in the Applegate River, damage to willow wetlands, trampling of streambanks, the lowering of water tables, impacts to native vegetation, impacts to wildlife habitat, and increased competition between cattle and native grazing species such as elk and deer.

Each summer there are at least 10 active grazing allotments on the Siskiyou Crest on both the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and the Klamath National Forest, and although stocking levels may change from year to year, there can be up to 2,000 cows permitted on the different allotments on the Siskiyou Crest each year, resulting in long-term ecological impacts.

The Forest Service often claims that historic overgrazing is responsible for the dramatic impacts we see today. Although historic grazing impacts were severe all across the eastern Siskiyou Crest in the historic era, these effects are compounded and reinforced by the overgrazing that continues to occur on public land grazing allotments to this day.

This past October, we visited the Silver Fork Basin in the Beaver-Silver Allotment and Alex Hole basin in the Upper Elliott Allotment, two of the most overgrazed meadow systems and headwater basins in the Applegate River watershed and on the eastern Siskiyou Crest. We found both areas heavily overgrazed.

Watch ASA’s new video about public land grazing on the Siskiyou Crest.

In particular, we found Alex Hole and the surrounding meadows heavily trampled and “over utilized,” meaning palatable vegetation had been eaten down to the nub, precluding both flower production and seed production for many species. Denuded to ground-level, the meadows and streams in the Alex Hole basin support almost no forage for native ungulates such as deer and elk, and cannot provide stream shade due to heavy browsing by cattle in the summer and fall.

Earlier this summer we had visited Alex Hole on the second day of grazing season and found it to have already been significantly overgrazed, just two days into the season, meaning the cows had been there before they were permitted to be there.

Currently riparian habitats throughout the watershed within federal grazing allotments are collapsing, streams are downcutting, noxious or non-native weeds are spreading, and native riparian vegetation, such as willow, is being denuded across entire stream reaches. Waterways and springs are also filled with cow excrement, and deep “punching” where cattle hooves sink deep (6″-10″) into moist soils, damaging wetlands, seeps, springs and streams through excessive trampling, excessive soil disturbance, damage to native vegetation, hydrological impacts, downcutting and the slow, steady de-watering of these habitats through the compounding impacts.

In many favored grazing sites, cattle have eaten sedges, grasses and other herbaceous species to the ground, leaving little for wildlife, including deer and elk that also forage on these same native plants and in these same native plant communities. Additionally, aspen habitats have been heavily impacted on Alex Creek, including some of the region’s only tree-form aspen stands which are now heavily degraded, unable to regenerate, and slowly dying out due to extreme and continuous grazing impacts to aspen groves on Alex Creek.

Numerous sensitive wildlife species, such as the willow flycatcher, a small song bird that utilizes mature willow stands for nesting and foraging are also being impacted by overgrazing on the Siskiyou Crest at the Applegate’s headwaters. Willow flycatcher habitat requires dense, continuous willow stands, which are heavily fragmented by cows within the tiered meadow system of the Alex Hole basin, as well as in Silver Fork basin, and in some areas the willows have been entirely extirpated from specific stream reaches due to heavy trampling and grazing.

Sensitive species like the Sierra Nevada blue butterfly utilize the high elevation alpine shooting stars (Dodecatheon alpinum) as a larval host plant; however, cattle trample these larvae, eat the larvae while gazing, and target shooting star flowers and stalks as a favored species to eat early in the season. This precludes flower production and seed production of alpine shooting stars, limiting the geographic extent of this species and hindering its natural regeneration process, thereby impacting the ability of the Sierra Nevada blue butterfly to live in these meadows because they can’t complete their lifecycles without their larval host plant.

In fact, the federal livestock grazing program is heavily subsidized by the public. In 2015 resource economists studied the costs of livestock grazing on public lands. They found that the federal lands grazing program generated $125 million less than what the federal government spent on the program in 2014. Further, they found that federal grazing fees are 93 percent less than fees charged for non-irrigated Western private grazing land, or just $1.69 per animal per month for each cow and calf that grazes the public land. It costs more to feed a house cat, and this year’s fees are even less — in 2024 the fee was a paltry $1.35.

Public land grazing has many impacts, both contemporary and historic, but the negative effects of current public land grazing practices are clear to see on the Siskiyou Crest. These public lands contain important biological, recreational, scenic, and watershed values; yet, they are being managed as private feedlots, for federal grazing permittees, who both benefit from and significantly impact federal lands. Who does not benefit is the public, who is forced to socialize both the costs and impacts of this management.

Please help us bring public land grazing in the Applegate into the 21^st century. This begins first and foremost, with the Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District completing an Environmental Impact Statement for all grazing allotments in the Applegate, utilizing the best available modern science and research. It also begins with your advocacy, asking Forest Service managers to adopt and implement site specific Best Management Practices (BMPs) for each grazing allotment, along with publicly available Annual Operating Instructions (AOIs), that:

1. Incorporates the new mandates of the North Coast Water Quality Control Board that now requires Annual Operating Instructions (AOI) for all federal grazing allotments within its management area, including the headwater streams of the Applegate on the Siskiyou Crest. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest must comply with the Clean Water Act management requirements adopted by the North Coast Water Board in its Federal lands Permit.
2. Requires electronic (virtual) fencing for cattle on the Siskiyou Crest to allow land managers to better track their location, manage their movements, document cattle “drift” or trespass into unauthorized areas, and to help reduce impacts to sensitive habitats and species by herding cattle that congregate in specific habitats, especially wet meadows and rare plant populations.
3. Mandates site specific BMPs the grazing permit holder must implement to prevent unacceptable levels of water quality, riparian and wetland degradation, including but not limited to, instructions on rotating grazing among different areas, and the frequency and type of herding needed to avoid unacceptable levels of degradation.
4. Requires the agency to commit to a number of monitoring visits to each allotment on an annual basis. The agency should document the number of times and time periods that Forest Service staff will check each allotment to verify that the required grazing management actions specified in the AOI are being adequately implemented.
5. Requires mitigation in basins and watersheds that are listed as “impaired” due to sediment, water temperature or nutrient conditions. Mitigation measures should require at least a year of rest for watersheds in which the annual Multiple Indicator Monitoring (MIM) reading finds bank disturbance equal to or greater than 10%.
6. Mandates protections for rare and unusual plant species and Botanical Areas on the Siskiyou Crest, including both sensitive plants and unique plant communities like quaking aspen stands.
7. Mandates protections for the Pacific Crest Trail, its trail side camps, water sources, and scenery.
8. Requires additional protections and mitigation measures that benefit wildlife, including deer and elk.

Some of the local grazing allotments have not been meaningfully reviewed or received updates to their management plans since 1964, clearly it is time for an update and a shift towards more a modern, responsible approach to federal land management. The current management plans are badly outdated and the allotments are badly damaging habitats.

Finally, any new management plans developed by the the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forests should allow buyout options for federal grazing allotments and permits. This would allow grazing allotments to be publicly bought out and retired to protect and restore the biological, scenic and recreational values of the Siskiyou Crest region.

With both a warming climate and a looming biodiversity crisis, we should be protecting, not trampling and degrading our headwater streams. We should also be protecting our rare plant populations and designated Botanical Areas, our native pollinators, wildlife and aquatic species from unnecessary degradation. The current grazing program has significant impacts to the land, no benefit to American taxpayers, and acts as a subsidy for specific economic interests and individual families who benefit financially from the massive handouts, and leaves behind significant impacts for the public to address.

Contact the following Forest Service employees and help us support the many important values of the Siskiyou Crest. Our public lands should be managed as far more than a feedlot for private grazing interests!

Contact the following Forest Service employees with your concerns surrounding the public land grazing program and your support for updates to grazing management plans in the Applegate River watershed and in the spectacular high elevation habitats of the Siskiyou Crest.

Forest Supervisor Molly Juillerat: molly.juillerat@usda.gov

District Ranger Jen Sanborn: Jennifer.Sanborn@usda.gov

Impacts from public land grazing allotments aren’t limited to Forest Service land in the Applegate, they happen on BLM land too. Additionally, contact Senator Wyden’s office and tell him not to cosponsor the Operational Flexibility Grazing Management Program Act (S.4454, 118th Congress), which would remove the administrative control the BLM has over the grazing of livestock on 155 million acres of federal public lands. The Applegate has one grazing allotment on BLM land, the Lower Big Applegate Alloment, that could be affected by this legislation, but the impacts to BLM land throughout the West would be huge if this legislation passes.

From Andy Kerr’s blog post: Wyden’s Unilateral Public Lands Livestock Grazing Giveaway

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is the sole cosponsor of a bill by Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) that would give Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing permittees and lessees even more free rein than they have now to (ab)use the public lands. The Barrasso-Wyden bill, the Operational Flexibility Grazing Management Program Act (S.4454, 118th Congress), would effectively remove any administrative control the BLM has over the grazing of livestock on 155 million acres of federal public lands.

Andy Kerr

The Medford District BLM has been busy spinning false narratives about their proposed “salvage” logging projects in the Applegate Valley. Claiming to be targeting “dead and dying” stands and trees with the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale, the actual tree removal mark tells a very different story. Yet the BLM simply declaring living, green trees and stands that were largely unaffected by the recent flatheaded fir borer mortality events as “dead and dying,” does not change the reality on the ground — these trees survived the recent beetle outbreaks and have demonstrated either genetic or microsite related resilience.

The BLM has told the public that they must clearcut these stands — leaving, on average, 3.3 trees per acre — and kill these trees to save them from mortality. We find that logic backwards, Orwellian and wildly dishonest. In fact, both the BLM’s blatant lies and the impact of the project to forest habitats in the area are unacceptable. Only by removing all accountability, analysis and public involvement could such clearly false statements be used to justify this project.

Unfortunately, despite significant public opposition, the BLM recently proposed, retroactively approved, and sold the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale in the Applegate Valley to Mineral Creek Logging and Hauling currently based out of Eagle Point, Oregon.

The public is outraged that BLM can announce a timber sale to the industry and fully design it in a timber sale prospectus before even approving a project or disclosing the effects of the project to the public. People are also outraged that after many years of conflict with the Applegate community over its timber management program, the agency is now resorting to deception and Categorical Exclusions to increase timber production in the face of public opposition.

Medford BLM District Manager, Elizabeth Burghard, committed, in writing, back in 2016, to move forward with projects in the Applegate working in the “spirit of the Applegate Adaptive Management Area (AMA).” The Applegate AMA required community-based collaboration and adaptive management; however, Elizabeth has gone back on her word and has instead dismantled collaboration in the Applegate. In fact, in this project the BLM has used exclusionary NEPA processes specifically to avoid any level of public input or accountability.

While the BLM tries to deceive the public, Applegate Siskiyou Alliance will continue bringing you the truth and fighting for the land. The ecological integrity of the Applegate is our highest priority, and our goal is to challenge projects that damage our environment, like the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale. Please support our work as we expose this damaging timber project and oppose its implementation!

The Boaz Salvage Timber Sale is another shameful timber grab by the BLM. It is also being justified using misleading information, unfounded assumptions, and by cutting the public out of the process. Contact your elected officials and the BLM to express your opposition to the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale.

Get involved! Two things you can do to help us stop the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale:

1. ATTEND A FIELD TRIP! Join Applegate Siskiyou Alliance (ASA) as we lead a field trip to the proposed timber sale units. See the misleading narrative of the BLM firsthand and visit the threatened Boaz Salvage Timber Sale with ASA.

Boaz Salvage Timber Sale Field Trip with ASA

When: October 20, 2024 10:00 AM

Where: Meet up in Ruch in the Sunshine Plaza parking lot for the carpool.

What: We will carpool up to the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale where we will stop to look at the proposed timber sale units and discuss the project. Field trip participants can look into most units from the side of the road, but we will also provide optional off-trail opportunities to walk into the units to experience these beautiful forests more closely. Bring trekking poles if you want to walk into the units, as some are fairly steep. Any walk into a unit will be short and less than an 1/8th of a mile.

Please RSVP at the following email to attend the field trip: luke@applegatesiskiyou.org

2. CONTACT BLM land managers and your elected officials!

Medford District Manager, Elizabeth Burghard: eburghar@blm.gov

Field Manager, Lauren Brown: lpbrown@blm.gov

Talking Points:

—Ask BLM to cancel the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale and other so-called logging projects that target living, green trees and stands. Many stands proposed for “salvage” logging are mischaracterized as “dead and dying.”

—Withdraw the inappropriately applied Categorical Exclusion used to authorize the Boaz Salvage Timber Sales. Logging the resilient trees and stands that survived the recent beetle outbreaks is counterproductive, unacceptable, and irresponsible.

—Implement land management activities on BLM lands that respect public involvement, and conduct appropriate levels of scientific and environmental analysis. A Categorical Exclusions does not provide adequate public involvement, analysis, or public disclosure of the project’s environmental effects.

—The BLM must not circumvent the NEPA process to avoid public accountability, the public disclosure of impacts, or to avoid public comment and input. Public lands should be managed with transparency and accountability, and projects of this scope, scale and intensity should be analyzed with at least an Environmental Assessment.

—The environmental impact of proposed project activities are simply too high and should not be approved. The retention of only 3.3 trees per acre and the removal of existing forest canopy, including large diameter trees, will increase fire risks, damage habitat values, and contribute to climate change.