As part of our work with the Climate Forests Coalition, Applegate Siskiyou Alliance has been working hard to encourage the Biden Administration to protect our nation’s last climate forests. These include a wide variety of carbon-rich, mature and old-growth forest habitats spread out across the country, including right here in the Applegate River watershed. These forests mitigate the worst effects of climate change by storing carbon, providing habitat and climate refugia for wildlife, protecting watersheds and water supplies, and safeguarding biodiversity.

Although the Biden Administration has technically embraced the 30X30 concept, to protect 30% of our country’s land and water by 2030, very little meaningful action to implement this ambitious proposal has occurred. On Earth Day 2022, the administration also announced its intent to conserve mature and old-growth forests as natural climate solutions, by maximizing carbon storage on federal lands. Yet, the administration has also taken no meaningful action to provide lasting protections for these forested habitats, and federal land managers are actively working in the opposite direction.

Currently, both the BLM and Forest Service are working to increase timber production and old forest logging under the guise of “fuel reduction” and/or “forest restoration.” This includes logging larger trees, removing more canopy cover and implementing these “treatments” across much broader areas. The loss of habitat, stored carbon and forest resilience associated with these federal land logging practices is expanding exponentially across the landscape with devastating consequences for our global climate, local watersheds, regional wildlife, and biodiversity.

Fortunately, in response to President Biden’s Executive Orders on forests and climate, both the Department of Interior (BLM) and the Department of Agriculture (Forest Service) finally released their first nationwide inventory of mature and old-growth forest habitats. The inventory found 110 million acres of mature and old-growth forests remaining on federal lands, include over 32 million acres of old-growth. This includes the lush rainforests of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, the dry pine forests and pinon-juniper woodlands of the interior West, the boggy forests of the Southeast and the vast, productive hardwood forests of the East Coast. These forests represent a potentially powerful climate solution and conservation opportunity. They store vast quantities of carbon and support irreplaceable habitat. Unfortunately, however, the mature and old forest inventory only identifies these important forests, it does not protect them.

According to the Biden Administration, protecting mature and old-growth forests would be achieved by implementing the recently published draft “conservation” rules meant to create new public land policy on both BLM and Forest Service lands in the United States. Both agencies have initiated comment periods on new planning rules emphasizing forests as natural climate solutions and a need for new management and protection strategies. This blog will focus on the BLM planning rule with a second post to follow that will cover the Forest Service process. Both the BLM and Forest Service are accepting comments until June 20, 2023, so get your comments in as soon as you can to take action to protect mature and old-growth forests.

The Proposed BLM Planning Rule

The initially released BLM draft planning rule includes numerous positive things, some that are so basic that much of the public likely believes such rudimentary conservation measures are already in place; some that could be used to support broad-scale conservation across federal lands; and some, that if not properly implemented could do more harm than good. Other provisions are downright concerning, and are likely to encourage poor land management practices and a more pronounced corporate influence on federal lands.

Interestingly, for the first time, this draft planning rule finally proposes to put conservation “on par” within the agency’s multiple use mandate, in theory, making the protection or preservation of these lands as important to BLM land managers as the extractive industrial uses they have historically encouraged, including logging, mining, grazing and oil development. Some might be surprised that for the very first time conservation could actually be part of the BLM’s mission, rather than something that can be considered only after their logging, mining, grazing and oil development priorities are met.

Although very basic, this new mandate could lead to significant improvements on federal land, but only if we speak up during this comment period, demand meaningful change, and work to make this planning rule more robust and effective.

According to the BLM, the proposed planning rule would:

1. Move forward the BLM’s multiple use mandate by prioritizing the health and resilience of ecosystems across BLM lands.
2. Protect intact landscapes, restore degraded habitats, and encourage science-based management.
3. Apply land health standards to all BLM-managed public lands (currently this applies only to so-called rangelands).
4. Elevate conservation as a valid “use” of BLM lands within the multiple use framework.
5. Implement existing, long standing, but underutilized regulations by prioritizing the designation and protection of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern on BLM lands
6. promote the use of so-called conservation leases, allowing industry groups, corporations, non-profits and other entities to lease and manage federal lands for supposed “restoration” and to mitigate otherwise damaging projects

While many of these proposed changes sound positive at face value, they also depend heavily on the strength of the final federal rulemaking and on the integrity of implementation by the BLM and local land managers. Unfortunately, neither local, regional or national BLM managers have historically, voluntarily applied conservation measures or implemented conservation mandates. For example, nearly the entire BLM Conservation Lands System has been designated by Congress or by Presidential decree under the Antiquities Act, and very little, if any meaningful conservation-based protections have been implemented by local BLM districts.

Unfortunately, this proposed rulemaking would leave implementation up to local land managers during Resource Management Planning (RMP) processes, but in places like western Oregon, where the BLM’s most carbon rich mature and old-growth forests still exist, an RMP was approved in 2016 that is encouraging heavy industrial logging in mature and old-growth stands. This includes both the Timber Harvest Landbase and so-called “reserve” designations, such as Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forests which were set aside to protect and restore old forest habitat for the imperiled northern spotted owl. Currently, these LSR forests are being logged at an alarming rate and with particularly damaging levels of intensity under projects like the Medford District BLM’s IVM Project.

Although we can support some of the general concepts put forward, we are concerned that the necessary protections will not be put in place to achieve the true conservation and climate benefits envisioned, and we are also concerned that some of the most important benefits of this rulemaking will not be realized.

Additionally, although the BLM claims to be focused on achieving ecosystem resilience, they completely fail to mention the major contributors to ecosystem declines, biodiversity loss, and carbon pollution on BLM lands in the proposed rulemaking documents. These major contributors include logging, mining, grazing and oil development, and it remains extremely dubious that BLM is proposing to prioritize the health and resilience of ecosystems, protect intact habitats, restore degraded habitats, and elevate conservation to a valid use of public lands, without addressing the very practices that created many of the problems in the first place. Sadly, these damaging extractive uses continue to degrade BLM lands, but are not directly curtailed or adequately addressed in this proposed rulemaking.

Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designation

This proposed rulemaking would encourage an increase in Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designations. ACECs have historically been designated on federal lands to both protect intact landscapes and provide special management for historical, cultural and scenic resources, high quality fish and wildlife habitats, dynamic natural processes, and to protect natural hazards such as geologically unstable areas. Currently, on the approximately 1.2-million acre Medford District BLM, only 3% or 36,194 acres are protected as ACECs.

While we support the increased use of ACEC designations and have proposed a comprehensive network across the Medford District BLM as part of our comments on this proposed rule, we are also concerned that the current rulemaking will water down their protection. Currently, the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) gives “priority to the designation and protection of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern,” and proposes this designation to “protect and prevent irreparable damage to important historic, cultural, or scenic values, fish and wildlife resources or other natural systems or processes, or to protect life and safety from natural hazards.”

Under this rulemaking, BLM would alter these clear directives to designate, protect, and prevent resource damage, and instead proposes to prioritize the “designation and management” of ACECs. In western Oregon, we know what BLM management means, and it almost always translates to heavy commercial logging.

We support the designation of a more robust ACEC network on BLM lands, including the original emphasis on “protecting and preventing irreparable damage” to natural, cultural or historic resources. Our proposal includes the expansion or designation of 36 ACECs on 208,065 acres of BLM land. With the existing 28 ACECs, this would bring the total ACEC network to 244,259 acres, or 20% of Medford District BLM lands. Additionally, we propose that all old-growth and mature forests inventoried by the federal government be protected with ACEC designation. This would start to put conservation “on par” with other extractive uses on public lands and would enable the BLM to sufficiently focus on their climate and conservation mandates for the first time since it was established in 1946.

Under this proposal protecting at least 30% of BLM lands would be achievable and would include the most intact and diverse landscapes, with rare and unusual plant species or plant communities, along with all mature and old-growth forests, significant climate refugia, and important habitat connectivity corridors. The designation of these ACECs directly addresses President Biden’s policy support for the 30X30 concept, the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis in one robust, comprehensive action. If done across BLM lands it could become one of the most consequential conservation action available to the BLM, preserving our imperiled environment and climate. We strongly urge high level officials at the BLM to direct local BLM land managers to protect at least 30% of all BLM lands with robust, well connected ACEC networks.

Conservation Leases

This rulemaking also proposes “conservation leases,” which are both a privatization scheme and appear to get the BLM off the hook for management actions that BLM is already required to take. It would allow entities with enough money to lease federal lands, “for the purpose of ensuring ecosystem resilience through protecting, managing, or restoring natural environments, cultural or historic resources, and ecological communities, including species and their habitats.” These leases would be for “conservation use” that would involve either “restoration or land enhancement” or “mitigation.”

These so-called conservation leases would be used to justify environmental damage by mitigating the impact to intact environments by other land management activities. The stated goal would be to “restore” habitat and encourage management activities under the guise of restoration. We are concerned that many of these activities would have the opposite effect.

For example, we know that logging mature and old-growth forest with staggered clearcuts (e.g. “group selection”), down to 30% canopy cover and trees up to 36” diameter in LSR forest is identified as “restoration” by the Medford District BLM in their IVM Project. Yet, once these so-called “restoration” projects are implemented, the public can and will only identify these “treatments” for what they are: commercial logging projects focused on producing timber for the agency’s industrial partners.  The “restorative effects” of this commercial thinning on BLM lands often does not materialize, and in many cases the loss of large, fire resistant trees and canopy cover is actually increasing fire risks.

That is not to say that positive and regenerative management activities could not take place on some previously damaged BLM lands, but as long as BLM refuses to acknowledge the disproportionate impact of its own extractive management practices, fails to require local land managers to protect these important landscapes, and promotes a shameless greenwash of their current management activities, that potential is minimal at best. You simply cannot make positive steps forward while you refuse to acknowledge the problem and you continue contributing to it.

Please help us make this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the best it can be, and comment on the BLM’s draft planning rule. We hope to improve the final rule and we need your support to do so.

Talking points:

• Require local land managers to meaningfully curtail extractive or damaging land management activities such as logging, mining, grazing, oil development and off-road vehicle use on BLM lands.
• Curtail these damaging activities by codifying robust permanent protections for mature and old-growth forests and trees through ACEC designation. This is required to comply with President Biden’s recent Executive Order 14008 and 14072.
• Require land managers to upgrade existing Lands with Wilderness Characteristics areas to Wilderness Study Area designations, and in particular, re-inventory all wilderness quality lands in western Oregon with President Biden’s recent Executive Orders on climate and land protection, as well as this proposed rulemaking in mind. The previous inventory in the 2016 RMP for SW Oregon was not conducted in a manner consistent with the agency’s new policy direction.
• Follow the above-mentioned upgrade and reinventory with recommendations to Congress for Wilderness Designation in all Wilderness Study Areas.
• Increase the use of Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designation by mandating specific levels of protection (a minimum of 30%) rather than limiting it to the discretion of local BLM managers.
• Require that all lands protected as ACEC or other conservation-based designations be withdrawn from mineral entry to protect them from future mining impacts.
• Support and designate an ACEC network on the Medford District BLM, as proposed by Applegate Siskiyou Alliance and Klamath Forest Alliance.
• Specifically identify additional conservation based “uses” in the BLMs multiple use framework, including carbon storage and sequestration, quiet landscapes, darkness, archeology, biodiversity, connectivity, intact lands, backcountry, old forest reserves, climate refugia, etc.
• Discontinue the proposed Conservation Lease program and instead create policies to encourage conservation on BLM lands and adequately fund them.
• Ensure that all conservation activities apply to O&C Lands in Western Oregon. Recent court rulings surrounding the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument have affirmed that conservation is a valid use of O&C lands.  

In recent years Applegate Siskiyou Alliance (ASA) has been refining our vision, creating new connections, and bringing our advocacy to new levels. Our goal is to permanently protect the wildlands, old forests, biodiversity and wild rivers of the Applegate Siskiyou region. We have been working towards these goals by monitoring federal land management projects and filing lawsuits, objections and appeals, by organizing our community, joining national grassroots coalitions, advocating for legislative protections, supporting administrative policy changes that protect old forests across the board, educating the public, and traveling to Washington DC to lobby elected officials and federal agencies for these changes.

The citizens of the Applegate Valley and southwestern Oregon have a long tradition of forest activism and environmental advocacy, and their successes are written across the landscape wherever old forests still stand, unroaded landscapes still exist, and wild streams still run clear, cold and unencumbered by dams or other impediments. In recent years, residents in the area have worked tirelessly to oppose a seemingly endless barrage of BLM timber sales targeting old forest habitats across the Applegate River watershed and beyond. Yet, we have also found that as important and necessary as this activism is for the forests that surround us, we also need to adopt a more proactive approach advocating for stronger environmental policy, regulations, and habitat protections in our region.

Although we have been relatively successful in recent years in stopping numerous damaging timber sales throughout the region, from the Little Applegate River and Upper Applegate River watersheds, to Thompson Creek, Ruch, Murphy, Grants Pass, Selma, and along the Wild and Scenic Rogue River. We understand that sustaining this level of success through community-based activism under the land management mandates of the Medford District BLM, means a continual battle over timber sales, old-growth forests and unroaded wildlands. We also understand that our successes are temporary when a timber sale is canceled or withdrawn and our losses are permanent when a timber sale is logged.

With both of these realities and the incredible scenic, biological, recreational, biodiversity and connectivity values of our region in mind, we have gathered a coalition of local advocates and non-profit organizations together to form the Siskiyou Crest Coalition, with the goal of advocating for durable habitat protections in the spectacular Siskiyou Crest region.

The Siskiyou Crest Coalition strives to build the grassroots and political support necessary to achieve these goals, by sharing our love for the region, documenting its exceptional biodiversity, demonstrating its biological importance as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most important connectivity corridors, and generating a sense of pride in place that enables us to sustain our efforts and achieve our long-term goals.

For more information on the Siskiyou Crest Coalition, please visit the beautiful new webpage exploring the Siskiyou Crest region and highlighting our work!

Celebrating the Siskiyou Crest: A Festival of Arts, Culture & Science

Additionally, the Siskiyou Crest Coalition is organizing a Celebration of the Siskiyou Crest Festival to highlight the art, science, ecology and culture of the Siskiyou Crest region and its many important attributes. The event will include a series of regional hikes and field trips on July 14, as well as a Siskiyou Crest themed art show, panel discussions by respected local ecologists, keynote speakers, music, food, libations, and a good time with neighbors and supporters of the Siskiyou Crest on July 15-16. The art show, speakers, and other activities on July 15-16 will take place at the beautiful Pacifica Gardens in Williams, Oregon.

Festival organizers are currently accepting Siskiyou Crest inspired art for the juried art show portion of the festival, including poetry, music, video, dance, visual, textile, ceramic and sculpture arts. For more information and the application form, follow this link.

Help us bring our advocacy to the next level!

At ASA we believe advocating for the land or simply opposing the next public land timber sale is not enough, we also need to provide a vision for the future of the region and its human communities. We believe this vision must include protections for the world-class biodiversity, connectivity, and wildlands of our region. It must also include strong expressions of love for the region and a broad-based community of advocates who will act as its voice and support the protection of the Siskiyou Crest for future generations. Join us at the Siskiyou Crest Coalition and become a voice for the region!

Please support ASA as we strive to bring our work to a new level, provide a vision for the future of the Siskiyou Crest region, and organize our communities. Our goal is to both defend against immediate threats to our region and support its permanent protection. A generous donation, or recurring donation can help us build the capacity to achieve both these goals and continue leading the conservation community forward. Leave a lasting legacy for the Siskiyou Crest!

Applegate Siskiyou Alliance and our partners at Klamath Forest Alliance just released a short video about the Applegate Headwaters Wild and Scenic River proposal. The video highlights wild streams previously proposed for protection under Senator Wyden’s River Democracy Act, including the Middle Fork Applegate River, Butte Fork Applegate River, Cook and Green Creek, Whisky Creek, and Elliott Creek.

Unfortunately, Senator Wyden recently released a new version of his legislation and removed many streams in the Applegate River watershed from proposed protections, including all streams at the headwaters of the Applegate River in northern California. We are working to restore these streams to the River Democracy Act and support their protection as new Wild and Scenic River Segments.

Please sign our petition to protect these streams at the following link.

This weekend Applegate Siskiyou Alliance worked with a hardy group of 10 volunteers to plant over 1,800 native grass and wildflower plants at a habitat restoration site in the Upper Applegate Valley at Nick Wright Flat.

For six years Applegate Siskiyou Alliance has been stewarding this beautiful river terrace above the Applegate River. An unusual piece of publicly owned valley bottom land, nestled between homesteads and ranches, the site includes a large open meadow which has been largely converted to non-native grasses and weeds, along with some small remnants of native herbaceous vegetation. The site also includes open-grown ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, black oak, white oak, live oak and small tufts of bedrock protruding from the otherwise relatively level, meadowy river terrace.

Working in collaboration with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District, who own the land, we have planted small areas within the grassy river terrace, year after year, in order to reintroduce native grasses and flowering species for the benefit of native butterflies, bees and other pollinating species. In some locations, older more established plantings are now providing both pollen and nectar for pollinators and beautiful floral displays that National Forest visitors can appreciate. In other locations plantings and seedlings are still getting established, and on our recent volunteer planting day new plugs, donated by the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds were planted in blocks throughout the site.

In this round of planting we planted six species and approximately 1,800 containerized plugs, including the following species: showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis), cobwebby or western thistle (Cirsium occidentale), squirreltail grass (Elymus elymoides), and Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri) donated by the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

A tray of 25 tall woolly wild buckwheat (Eriogonum elatum var. villosum), an uncommon species in Oregon, were donated by Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds for planting at the site. These plants were grown from seeds from existing tall woolly wild buckwheat plants that grow near the restoration site naturally. Tall woolly wild buckwheat only grows in a handful of locations along the rocky banks of the Applegate River today, but was likely much more abundant before historic mining impacts altered the Applegate River’s native flora, so we are pleased to increase this beautiful and important species’ population in its historic range along the Applegate River corridor.

We are both excited and proud to steward this beautiful piece of the Applegate Valley, by reintroducing native species and removing non-native and invasive plants throughout the site. We also enjoyed a beautiful winter day, under blue skies and beautiful mountain ridges, working with our friends and neighbors in the Applegate.

Thanks to the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds for the donated plant material, and thanks to the volunteers that came out and helped! We couldn’t do this important work without awesome volunteers!

In recent years, the Medford District BLM has become increasingly secretive, non-transparent and hostile to both the environment and to the communities of southwestern Oregon. In areas like the Applegate Valley where opposition to old forest logging has been consistent and overwhelming, the BLM has changed the rules of engagement and has begun cutting the public out of the public land management planning process.

Rather than address public concerns or opposition to old forest logging proposals, the agency has instead insulated itself from critique by expediting the planning process, eliminating all avenues for meaningful public input and by refusing to implement site-specific scientific analysis and/or a credible environmental review process. This means that the BLM no longer notifies the public of its logging plans until the are “finalized” and no longer discloses, quantifies or analyzes a proposed project for cumulative and direct environmental impacts.

For many, many years the BLM has worked to circumvent its obligation to the public and the NEPA process, while pushing for increased timber production throughout western Oregon. In our region, this began to intensify in 2016 when the agency eliminated the Applegate Adaptive Management Area, a designation specifically meant to encourage open, transparent planning processes and public collaboration. Unfortunately, this trend has now culminated with the IVM Project where the public is being largely shut out of the process and timber sales are designed in the dark, without public oversight or engagement.

According to the IVM approval documents, public involvement is now fully discretionary on over 630,000 acres of BLM land in Southwestern Oregon, and the agency can log these landscapes with little to no public accountability. Although the BLM claims the IVM Project is based on the concepts of forest restoration, to many it is clear that the real goal is not just to get the cut out on BLM lands, but to also cut the public out of the process.

The Medford District BLM recently published its 2023 Timber Sale Plan identifying the commercial logging projects the agency intends to implement during the next year. On this list are four major timber sales in the Applegate River watershed, totaling 1,674 acres and an estimated 13.7 million board feet of public timber.

These four timber sales are proposed throughout the watershed on Sterling Creek, in the Middle Applegate, and on Williams Creek, where two large timber sales are currently proposed. Although these timber sales contain a wide variety of habitat types and forest conditions, they share one thing in common: a distinct lack of meaningful public involvement and a total lack of credible scientific analysis or environmental review.

The Late Mungers, Penn Butte, and Big Ben LSR timber sales are proposed for implementation under the provisions of the IVM Project. In these areas, the BLM has authorized a “program of work” which would log up to 20,000 acres and build up to 90 miles of new road in the next ten years, and the agency has begun implementing the IVM Project exclusively in the Applegate River watershed.

Each individual project or timber sale implemented under the IVM Project is now being fully designed, marked for timber sale removal and tentatively approved with a Draft Determination of NEPA Adequacy before the BLM notifies the public of their plans or incorporates a single shred of public input. Only after “finalizing” their timber sale proposal will the BLM release any information or accept public comment on the proposed projects.

No longer serving the public interest or working on our behalf, the Medford District BLM has fully committed to serving the interests of the private timber industry — the secrecy surrounding these four timber sales drives that point home.

For more information on the IVM Project and its influence on public involvement listen to this recent Jefferson Public Radio interview with ASA Executive Director, Luke Ruediger.

Late Mungers & Penn Butte Timber Sales

Currently, the Medford District BLM has proposed, but not fully approved the Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales above Williams and Murphy in the western portion of the Applegate Valley. These controversial timber sales propose logging old forest habitats in the Mungers Late Successional Reserve, an area designated specifically to protect northern spotted owl habitat and connectivity between watersheds. Yet, instead of protecting habitat, the project proposes logging old forests, degrading northern spotted owl habitat conditions and damaging the important connectivity that the area provides.

For two years, BLM timber planners designed the Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales under the provisions of the still unauthorized IVM Project and they did so in secret, refusing to provide any information to the public, despite repeated requests for information and project maps.

Although neither of these projects are currently approved, the agency has identified a March 2023 timber sale auction date for the Penn Butte Timber Sale, which has proposed logging 480 acres, producing an estimated 6.6 million board feet of timber. Meanwhile, the agency has identified a July 2023 auction date for the Late Mungers Timber Sale, which has proposed logging 312 acres totaling 2.5 million board feet.

For more information on the Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales, please review our recent blog posts and monitoring reports at the Applegate Siskiyou Alliance Blog.

Big Ben LSR Timber Sale

Currently very little is known about the Big Ben LSR Timber Sale and the BLM is refusing to provide information on this sale to either the public or to elected officials. Working totally in the dark, the agency has refused to provide basic information on the location of timber sale units and is designing yet another Applegate Valley timber sale in secret, with no public accountability or input.

Despite repeated requests for information, the BLM is claiming that no information can be made publicly available, yet they have identified a September 2023 auction date. Currently the agency has identified approximately 700 acres of logging units, and 3.5 million board feet of timber proposed for logging in the Big Ben LSR Project.

With an auction date in less than a year, clearly more is known about this sale than the BLM will share; however, all we have been told is that “the project will be roughly located South of Applegate and Ruch, bounded by the Applegate River and Thompson Creek.”

Lower Sterling Mortality Salvage

Although not propose for implementation under the IVM Project, the BLM has proposed to auction off the Lower Sterling Mortality Salvage Timber Sale including units along the extremely popular Sterling Mine Ditch Trail without any public comment or involvement. The newly released Categorical Exclusion and Decision Record identifies 182 acres proposed for logging while the 2023 Timber Sale Plan identifies up to 1.1 million board feet proposed for removal.

The project is located in the Deming Gulch, Armstrong Gulch and Hukill Hollow watersheds, where repeated commercial thinning operations have increased drought stress by reducing canopy, damaging microclimate conditions and logging large, old trees. This in turn has triggering a series of large bark beetle mortality events in the area, which are now targeted for “salvage” logging.

Rather than encouraging “resilience” and “forest health,” these previous timber sales have become the center of the most pronounced bark beetle outbreak in the Little Applegate River watershed, and a similar story is also playing out on Thompson Creek, Ferris Gulch and in other portions of the Middle Applegate River watershed.

Following the Buncom Timber Sale of the 1990s and the Sterling Sweeper Timber Sale of 2014, many stands commercially thinned by the BLM on lower Deming and Armstrong Gulch have became hotter and drier, with more open canopies and more pronounced drought stress. Since 2016, previously thinned stands on lower Deming Gulch, Armstrong Gulch, Hukill Hollow and other areas around the region have sustained large bark beetle and flat headed fir borer outbreaks. Instead of experiencing increased resilience and vigor, many of the trees in these stands have been colonized by bark beetles or flat headed fir borers, creating vast swaths of beetle-killed Douglas fir and ponderosa pine between Sterling Creek and Wolf Gap.

This same area was also “salvage” logged in 2018 during the Squishy Bug Timber Sale, which was intended to both “salvage” economic value from beetle killed timber, and to reduce the scope and scale of the beetle infestation. Yet, apparently like the “forest health” timber sales implemented before the Squishy Bug Timber Sale, the logging had no positive effect on future bark beetle mortality and may have made things worse. Now, for the second time in less than five years, the BLM is “salvage” logging directly within their previous timber sale units due to significant bark beetle mortality following commercial logging operations.

Secret Timber Sales & the End of Collaboration on BLM Lands

Totaling 13.7 million board feet, these four timber sales are being proposed for implementation in our watershed without considering our concerns, soliciting meaningful public input or disclosing the project proposals until timber sales have been “finalized” and fully designed.

In the Applegate Valley, we hear a lot from our public land managers and elected officials about collaborative forest management, while at the same time we watch the BLM erode the process, eliminate all avenues for meaningful public collaboration and operate in secrecy. Open access to information is the foundation of collaboration and the BLM is consistently refusing to provide basic information on timber projects affecting the communities and watersheds of the Applegate Valley. While we work towards meaningful dialogue and sound environmental stewardship, the BLM continues in the opposite direction.

Please join Applegate Siskiyou Alliance as we defend the forests of the Applegate and the right of the public to participate in public land management! Support our work with a generous donation and speak for the forests that surround you!

For the past three years Applegate Siskiyou Alliance has fought the Bear Grub Timber Sale, a large commercial logging project proposed by the Medford District BLM in the Wellington Wildlands, an over 7,000-acre roadless area west of Ruch, in the smaller Bald Mountain Roadless Area at the headwaters of the Little Applegate River, along the extremely popular East Applegate Ridge Trail, and many areas in between. This project proposed logging in the last remaining mature and old forest habitats surrounding Ruch, Little Applegate, and in the mountains above Talent, Oregon in the Rogue River Valley.

In October 2021, the Medford District BLM approved the Bear Grub Timber Sale and auctioned the sale off to the Timber Products Company, who had hoped to quickly begin logging; however, the BLM received 18 official Administrative Protests and was required to resolve these protests before the timber sale could be awarded and logging could begin. These included a detailed 52-page Administrative Protest submitted by Applegate Siskiyou Alliance and our partners at Klamath Forest Alliance. It also included numerous Administrative Protests from concerned residents in the Applegate Valley, who worked selflessly for over two years to stop this destructive timber sale.

Thankfully, this past week the Medford District BLM rescinded the decision to proceed with the Bear Grub Timber Sale due to issues surrounding these Administrative Protests and an admission that the project’s impact on the Pacific fisher was not adequately analyzed.

In the BLM’s cover letter that came with their 102-page “Response to Protests,” they unjustifiably deny a multitude of other valid Administrative Protest points that should have been addressed more meaningfully. However, they also officially notified those that submitted Administrative Protests that the Bear Grub Timber Sale Decision Record will be rescinded and our protests were at least partially granted.

What this means, we are not entirely sure, but the BLM stated they will rescind the decision record and that the agency will “further review” the Environmental Assessment (EA) in regard to project impacts and the Pacific fisher. We believe that this controversial, environmentally damaging and counterproductive timber sale should be withdrawn all together. It was developed with little to no meaningful public input, in portions of the landscape that are wild, well loved, and would not benefit from the logging treatments proposed. The Bear Grub Timber Sale would directly impact the Wellington Wildlands, the East Applegate Ridge Trail, as well as the forests and human communities of the Applegate Valley — it should be canceled!

This is a massive victory for the forests of the Applegate, but we need to ensure it is more than temporary! Please sign our petition and contact your elected officials demanding that the Bear Grub Timber Sale be canceled.

Please also consider supporting our work with a tax deductible donation. From Bear Grub to the IVM, to our tireless work to protect the Siskiyou Crest, Applegate Siskiyou Alliance is the most passionate advocate for the Applegate Siskiyous, and the only environmental organization focused entirely on protecting the wildlands of the entire Applegate River watershed. Your contribution will help us Stop Bear Grub!