Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN) works at the intersection of community and conservation in the Applegate Valley. We strive to build a stronger sense of place in the Applegate River watershed, through education, stewardship, and activism.

Our goal is to inspire a culture of advocacy in the Applegate Siskiyous and to empower both friends and residents of the region to become a voice for all things wild.

As an organization and as individuals, we take pride in both the unique diversity of our region and the strength of our community. We are inspired each day by the region’s rugged beauty and have made a commitment to protect the lands that surround us. We are also inspired by our friends and supporters who make this work possible and share our passion for this spectacular landscape.

This post highlights our work throughout the Applegate Siskiyous in 2021 and our continuing efforts in 2022. Please support our work with a generous year-end donation.

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Fighting for Forests

The Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands (IVM) Project

For the past two years ANN has been opposing the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) massive Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands (IVM) Project. Although cloaked in misleading euphemisms and language, the project is not about “restoration” or land resiliency, and instead proposes widespread industrial logging across 800,000 acres of Medford District BLM lands in southwestern Oregon. This includes forests in the Aplegate Valley, the Illinois River watershed, the Rogue Valley, in the Rogue River watershed, the Cow Creek watershed near Glendale and in many other locations throughout the region.

In fact, if approved, the IVM Project would allow the BLM to log up to 20,000 acres and build up to 90 miles of new roads per decade without additional site specific scientific review, public comment, public involvement or the disclosure of environmental impacts. By reducing or eliminating many of the processes intended to infuse public interest into public land management planning, the BLM is attempting to circumvent its obligation to the public under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The intent of the project is simple: to increase timber production on BLM lands by cutting the public out of the process. Rather than allow the public to participate in the planning and approval process, under the provisions of the IVM Project, the BLM would approve timber sales before announcing them to the public, before providing meaningful information to the public about these timber sales, and without offering the public an opportunity to participate.

To make matters worse, the IVM Project specifically proposes this logging in Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forests set aside to protect old forest habitat for the Northern spotted owl and in other locations outside the current “timber harvest land base” identified in the BLM’s 2016 Resource Management Plan.

If approved, the IVM Project would allow the logging of trees up to 36″ DBH and over 150 years of age, the reduction of canopy cover to as low as 30%, and the implementation of “group selection” logging, a form of staggered clearcut logging that specifically targets mature forest habitats. These activities have been documented to increase fire risks, eliminate suitable Northern spotted owl habitat, and degrade scenic values that are important for the local recreation economy.

Please sign our petition to Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, asking her to withdraw the IVM Project, maintain the NEPA processes and encourage meaningful public involvement on public lands. The IVM Project intends to eliminate the public’s influence by reducing public input, accountability, transparency and removing regulatory hurdles that promote the protection of biological values, endangered species habitat, and fire resilient old forests. Throughout the last two years ANN has been organizing against this vast and damaging timber project — this opposition will continue and intensify in 2022.

For more information read our recent blog: Managing for Resilience with Alternative Facts

Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales

Despite having no authorization to do so, the Medford District BLM, Grants Pass Resource Area, has already begun planning projects under the provisions of the IVM Project. This includes the Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales near Mungers Butte and in the mountains between Williams, Murphy, and Selma, Oregon.

These projects, located in proximity to rural communities in the Applegate and Illinois Valleys, would increase fire risks, damage habitat conditions, and impact carbon sequestration and storage, while degrading the scenic values for which these areas are known.

Located in a large Late Successional Reserve (LSR) forest and in an important connectivity corridor between the Red Buttes Wilderness, the Siskiyou Crest and the wildlands of the Kalmiopsis, the region contains high biological values, important old forests habitats, dense coastally influenced forests, and unique serpentine soils supporting intact plant communities, spectacular wildflower displays and open stands of sugar pine, western white pine, Jeffrey pine, incense-cedar and fir.

If the IVM Project is approved, both the Late Mungers and Penn Butte Timber Sales could be implemented without site specific scientific review, the disclosure of direct, indirect or cumulative impacts, adequate public involvement or meaningful public comment periods. The impacts would be devastating to the wildlands of the area and to the surrounding communities.

In 2021, we led public hikes into the area and conducted field monitoring to document the old forests targeted for logging. We also organized with local partners on the ‘Protect Mungers Wildlands’ campaign, and have been working to engage the affected communities to oppose the IVM Project and the associated timber sales. In 2022, ANN will continue focusing on our opposition to the IVM Project, the Late Mungers Timber Sale and the Penn Butte Timber Sale.

For more information on the IVM Project and Late Mungers Timber Sale visit our campaign website:

Save Pipe Fork

In late 2020, ANN and Klamath Forest Alliance worked to document the many important biological values of the Pipe Fork watershed, a tributary of East Fork Williams Creek. We then nominated the watershed for Wild and Scenic River protection in the River Democracy Act.

Located on the northern slope of Sugarloaf Peak in the Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Area, the area is the most intact drainage in the Williams Creek watershed. The spectacular Pipe Fork begins at Larkspur Spring, then pours down bedrock cascades and over log jams as it rushes through slopes of old-growth forest into the easternmost stand of Port Orford-cedar in Oregon.

Large portions of the watershed are located within the Pipe Fork Research Natural Area intended to protect this rare stand of Port Orford-cedar from logging, development and infection with the deadly Port Orford-cedar root rot (Phytophthora lateralis). Port Orford-cedar stands across its limited range have become infected by this non-native pathogen and are dying en mass in many watersheds. Yet, the Pipe Fork watershed remains intact, largely unlogged and uninfected by this devastating pathogen.

Unfortunately, while we work to secure Wild and Scenic River protections for federal lands in the watershed, the Josephine County Forestry Department is heading in the opposite direction and has proposed clearcut logging on a 320-acre parcel along the stream’s lowest reach. Our partners at the Williams Community Forest Project (WCFP) have been working to secure a conservation buyout of these threatened private lands and stop Josephine County’s shortsighted timber sale plan. ANN has played a supportive role in this effort and we encourage our supporters to get involved with WCFP and the campaign to save the Pipe Fork.

In 2022, ANN will continue supporting the proposed conservation buyout on lower Pipe Fork. We will also continue working towards the permanent protection of the adjacent federal lands as a Wild and Scenic River segment in the River Democracy Act.

For more information on the threats to Pipe Fork, read our blog:

Rogue Gold Timber Sale

The Rogue Gold Timber Sale is located in the mountains between Rogue River, Gold Hill and Jacksonville, on the ridgeline divide between the Applegate and Rogue River watersheds and has been proposed by the Medford District BLM. Located predominantly in Kane, Galls, and Foots Creeks, the project proposes to log the last old forest habitats remaining in these already heavily fragmented watersheds, and either remove, downgrade or degrade the last islands of suitable Northern spotted owl habitat in the area.

The removal of large, old trees up to 36″ DBH, the removal of significant forest canopy and the implementation of “group selection” logging will not only impact endangered species habitat, but it will also increase fire risks in the watershed’s last, fire-resilient, old forest habitats.

In 2021, ANN conducted extensive on-the-ground monitoring of timber sale units and submitted extensive public comments in the BLM’s Scoping process. We intend to continue tracking this project and advocating for the retention of old trees and old forests in the Rogue Gold Planning Area in 2022.

Upper Applegate Watershed Restoration Project (UAW)

For the past five years, ANN has engaged in a collaborative process surrounding the Upper Applegate Watershed Restoration (UAW) Project, which was approved by the Forest Service (Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District) in July 2020. Throughout the planning process we worked to protect intact habitats, reduce impacts to the environment, and focus the project on the needs of the land and the community.

When the decision was released approving this project, we were happy with significant portions of the project and disappointed by others. We were disappointed by some of what was included, such as the highly controversial OHV trails on Beaver Creek that are inconsistent with the project’s stated “restoration” goals. We were also disappointed by some of what was not included, such as the pollinator and native plant restoration sites proposed by the community, and the Applegate River Ditch Trail, a proposed hiking trail that was also both envisioned and heavily supported by the community. Finally, we were hopeful that the agency would continue working with our community into the project implementation stage.

For the past year, our goal has been to improve the implementation of those portions of the project we do support, such as the extensive plantation thinning and fuel reduction treatments near communities in the Upper Applegate Valley. Yet, despite repeatedly promising to continue collaborating with our community, the Forest Service has been largely unresponsive since the project’s approval.

In late 2020 and early 2021, ANN organized a community implementation review team to monitor the fuel reduction and commercial logging units in the UAW Project. We visited the proposed thinning sites, led review team field trips and submitted a written document to the Forest Service outlining the portions of the project we support and the portions of the commercial logging mark that we believe could be improved. After almost a year, the Forest Service has yet to respond and the thinning projects are unfortunately moving forward without the promised community collaboration.

In 2022, we will continue our advocacy in the UAW Project area and continue striving for real community collaboration. We will also continue working to design, map and encourage the designation of the proposed Applegate River Ditch Trail. Our goal is to improve outcomes in the UAW Project for both the environment and residents of the Upper Applegate Valley.

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Envisioning the Future of Conservation in the Applegate

Siskiyou Crest Coalition

In 2021 ANN worked with partner organizations and supportive individuals to start the Siskiyou Crest Coalition. The goal of the Siskiyou Crest Coalition is to promote and secure permanent habitat protections for the Siskiyou Crest and the surrounding mountains.

Our vision for the future of the Applegate includes broad protected landscapes, rewilding projects, the restoration of natural processes, the maintenance of our region’s world-class biodiversity, thriving rural communities connected to the landscape that surrounds them, and sustainable outdoor recreation. We are actively working with rural communities in southwestern Oregon to promote this vision for the future

In 2021, ANN and the Siskiyou Crest Coalition joined forces on a series of public hikes into the wildlands of the Siskiyou Crest, sponsored online webinars exploring the area’s complex ecology, and hosted the premiere film showing of Sagebrush to Sea: A Journey Across the Siskiyou Crest.

In 2022, we will continue our advocacy for the Siskiyou Crest through coordination with the Siskiyou Crest Coalition.

Wild and Scenic River Legislation

After working to nominate numerous new Wild and Scenic River segments in the Applegate River watershed, we are now collaborating with both the Siskiyou Crest Coalition and the Oregon Wild and Scenic River Coalition to amplify our voice and more effectively promote our proposals.

Currently, public lands throughout the Applegate River watershed are proposed for permanent protection as Wild and Scenic River segments in Senator Ron Wyden’s River Democracy Act. The legislation calls for the protection of portions of the Middle Fork Applegate River, Butte Fork Applegate River, Elliott Creek, Carberry Creek, tributaries of the Upper Applegate River, the Little Applegate River canyon, Pipe Fork, Long Gulch and Slate Creek.

ANN will be working in 2022 to secure passage of the River Democracy Act and gain permanent watershed protections for these iconic Applegate River tributary streams.

For more information on our proposal read our blog:

Mt. Ashland Road Paving Project

Although technically outside the Applegate River watershed, Mt. Ashland is the highest peak on the Siskiyou Crest and is threatened by a road paving project proposed by the Klamath National Forest. This project proposes paving Forest Service Road 20 from the Mt. Ashland Ski Area parking lot to Grouse Gap Shelter at the headwaters of Grouse Creek, and to the very summit of Mt. Ashland. We believe this project is not only completely unnecessary, but damaging to the environment, to numerous rare plant species, and to the current recreational uses in the area.

Paving these roads will create direct, indirect and cumulative impacts that were not adequately considered by the Klamath National Forest when they approved this project, with absolutely no public input or scientific analysis.

Our vision for the future of Mt. Ashland and the Siskiyou Crest does not include additional development, road paving, the encouragement of overuse, and/or the degradation of the unique natural values found on the highest peaks in the Siskiyou Mountains. We will continue working in 2022 to oppose this project and protect the many important biological and recreational values of the Mt. Ashland area.

For more information read our recent blog: No new pavement on Mt. Ashland: Stop the Mt. Ashland Road Paving Project

Take Action to stop the proposed road paving project on Mt. Ashland, sign our petition.

Donate to Applegate Neighborhood Network

In 2o21, ANN worked across the Applegate watershed advocating for conservation and community values. We opposed those projects that threatened our environment and our community, we led hikes to regional wildlands; we hosted educational presentations; we advocated for the permanent protection of regional rivers and streams, and began organizing to implement our vision for the future of the Applegate River watershed. We look forward to 2022, and working with you to protect, defend and restore the wildlands, wildlife and biodiversity of the Applegate Siskiyous!

The vast majority of ANN’s funding comes from supporters like you. Donate Now!

Although just outside the Applegate River watershed, at 7,532′ Mt. Ashland is the highest peak on the Siskiyou Crest, a botanical paradise, and one of the most beautiful and accessible landscapes in the region. Important as the gateway to the Siskiyou Crest, and located at its intersection with the Cascade Mountains in the nearby Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, the area is also very important for its habitat connectivity and contains extremely high biological, botanical and scenic values. It is also a very popular recreation area, offering world-class hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail, mountain biking and hiking in the adjacent Ashland Creek Watershed, hiking in the McDonald Peak Roadless Area, incredible botanizing, pollinator viewing, and camping at the two primitive campgrounds, including the Mt. Ashland Campground and Grouse Gap Shelter, a CCC-era snow shelter built in the Grouse Creek Basin.

The area is wild and spectacularly beautiful despite being easily accessible from the town of Ashland, Oregon. It is only a short distance from Interstate 5 on the Mt. Ashland Ski Road to the Mt. Ashland Ski Area. However, the mountain’s southern face remains accessible only by gravel roads that extend from the pavement’s end at the Mt. Ashland Ski Area. This gravel road access helps to retain the area’s incredible backcountry charm and reduce the impact of overuse on both the ecology of the mountain and the recreational experience it provides.

Unfortunately, the Klamath National Forest has proposed paving Forest Service Road 20 from the Mt Ashland Ski Area overflow parking lot, around the southern face of Mt. Ashland to the Grouse Gap Shelter, and up to the very summit of Mt. Ashland. This project, although completely unnecessary, comes at a high price to the region’s incredible botanical diversity, biological values, habitat connectivity, and recreational experience.

Currently Road 20 is particularly popular for dog walking, jogging, mountain biking and hiking directly on the gravel road surface, past the Mt. Ashland Ski Area overflowing parking lot. If paved, traffic and driving speeds would dramatically increase on Road 20, leading to a total loss of this currently popular recreational resource. Paving these roads will negatively impact Mt. Ashland’s two backcountry campgrounds. The traffic, increased driving speeds, noise, increased use and the loss of solitude in the area will also impact recreation on the Pacific Crest Trail and on adjacent trails in the Ashland Creek watershed, degrading one of southwestern Oregon’s most important recreational resources.

In addition, access to the area on the existing high standard gravel roads is already completely adequate. In fact, if anything the area is already perhaps too accessible and suffers from impacts associated with overuse. Rare native plants are routinely walked on, driven over and crushed along the road systems on Mt. Ashland. Paving will only increase this impact.

As described above, paving these roads will impact the currently very popular forms of recreation found in the area today; however, the impacts will also be quite severe to the region’s important biological values.

As the axis of connectivity between the Siskiyou Crest and the Cascade Mountains, the old-growth forests, subalpine parklands, wet meadows, rock gardens and aspen glades in the area are highly important as both wildlife habitat and for their intact and exceptionally diverse botanical values.

Designated as the Mt. Ashland-Siskiyou Peak Botanical Area, the region contains the world’s entire population of the Mt. Ashland lupine (Lupinus aridis ssp. ashlandensis), along with numerous other rare wildflowers and two rare conifer populations. These populations could easily be impacted directly by the proposed road paving project and will certainly sustain impacts associated with overuse in the future if the road is paved. These impacts have already begun to mount in the area, forcing Forest Service action by closing down unauthorized parking areas and user-created trails to reduce impacts on rare plant species.

Ecological impacts will multiply exponentially with the increased use facilitated by the proposed Forest Service Road 20 Paving Project. The additional traffic and recreational use will increase the destruction of vegetation associated with user-created trails and excessive trampling. Very little parking exists along this narrow road system, and parking on roadsides and unauthorized parking areas will undoubtedly increase with the proposed road paving, leading to further vegetation damage, soil compaction, accelerated surface erosion, and gully creation on fragile decomposed granite soils. These impacts are inconsistent with the mandates in the Fish & Wildlife Service’s Conservation Agreement for the Mt. Ashland lupine and other rare plant species found on the mountain and should not be authorized.

This includes impacts to numerous rare plant species that grow directly adjacent to the roadway. Species impacted could include the only population of Mt. Ashland lupine in the world, one of only 8 populations of the endemic Henderson’s horkelia (Horkelia hendersonii) which is found only on the Siskiyou Crest, and one of only 8 populations of Jayne’s Canyon buckwheat (Eriogonum diclinum) which is endemic to the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains. Impacts to these species will be particularly severe along the Mt. Ashland Summit Road and on the summit itself, where many rare species grow, including these unique wildflowers, along with the only population of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) in the Siskiyou Mountains — the population consists of only a few vulnerable trees — and one of only two populations of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) on the Siskiyou Crest.

In recent years, increased use has compounded the impact of recreation on Mt. Ashland, including impacts to the important plant species mentioned above. Likewise, just this past summer, staff on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest removed graffiti from large granite boulders near the summit of Mt. Ashland. Unsightly impacts such as graffiti will increase if the roads are paved and Mt. Ashland is made even more accessible.

To date, the Klamath National Forest has provided no real justification for the so-called Forest Service Road 20 Project and the agency has also worked to ensure the public has no voice in this process. The agency approved the project with no public notification (besides one, single facebook post), no environmental or scientific analysis, no public comment period, no disclosure of direct, indirect or cumulative impacts, and with no attempt at public transparency.

The authorization for this large road paving project on Mt. Ashland was authorized through a paltry, one-page Categorical Exclusion (CE). Read the Road 20 Road Paving Project CE here.

ANN opposes the Forest Service Road 20 Project and we invite you to join us in making our voice heard. Please help us stop the Forest Service Road 20 Project that proposes to pave roads on Mt. Ashland by both signing our petition and sending the District Ranger for the Happy Camp/Oak Knoll Ranger District, and the Forest Supervisor for the Klamath National Forest an email expressing your concerns.

Since the agency did not ask for our input, we must take the initiative ourselves and advocate for Mt. Ashland, the Siskiyou Crest and the area’s many important biological values. We have one very simple message: No new pavement on Mt. Ashland!

Sign and share our petition at this link: https://ann.secure.force.com/petition?pid=Mt%20A

Send emails to the following Klamath National Forest officials:

Klamath National Forest Supervisor Rachel Smith: rachel.c.smith@usda.gov

Happy Camp/Oak Knoll District Ranger Roberto Beltran: roberto.beltran@usda.gov

In January 2019, the BLM proposed the Anderson Butte Safety Project to address serious public safety concerns with inappropriate, irresponsible, and unsafe target shooting near Anderson Butte in the Little Applegate River Watershed.

For many years, the BLM has allowed unmanaged and irresponsible target shooting to expand across the face of Anderson Butte and throughout Medford District BLM lands. This activity has threatened lives, contaminated forest soils with lead bullets, encouraged illegal dumping on unauthorized shooting sites, and pushed other public land users off the landscape, literally out of fear for their own lives.

Also for many years, local community members and public land visitors have complained to the Medford District BLM about the obvious safety risks posed by people shooting down public roads, across public hiking trails and off big open spaces elevated directly above rural communities. In January 2016, a neighbor on Griffin Lane had a bullet fired from BLM land above her home and lodge into her front door. Other neighbors have also been threatened by stray bullets shot from BLM land towards their private residential properties. Likewise, many hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers utilizing the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail (an Oregon State Scenic Trail), the Jack-Ash Trail, and the Wolf Gap Trail have also been threatened by stray bullets while enjoying their public lands.

Public land managers across the country have begun limiting target shooting to safe and ecologically appropriate sites that do not threaten the safety of other public land users, yet our local BLM has allowed public safety concerns to escalate, and recreational shooting now overwhelms and displaces other users in the Anderson Butte area and throughout other portions of the Medford District. We do not believe going for a hike on public lands should be a life threatening experience, nor do we believe that nearby landowners should have to be regularly threatened by stray bullets on their own land.

Currently, the Medford District BLM’s so-called multiple use policy has been replaced and subverted, in many locations, by a “dominant use” policy, where the most intrusive, intimidating, damaging and dominant forms of recreational use are the most prominent, but not the most popular uses of public land.

At times, to truly provide for multiple uses and to accommodate a wide variety of public land users, the BLM must curtail incompatible uses to maintain both public safety and ensure enjoyable, high quality recreational opportunities are available to all public land users. Currently, the Anderson Butte area is suffering from agency neglect, indifference and bias that creates a de facto “dominant use” policy.

Although numerous trailheads in the region were “closed to target shooting” in the BLM’s 2016 Resource Management Plan, these closures have gone completely unenforced, and the problem only intensified following the development of the Jack-Ash Trail in 2017.

The Jack-Ash Trail was heavily supported by the surrounding communities and required significant collaborative efforts between the Siskiyou Upland Trails Association, the public and the BLM. The project was approved by the BLM and funded through private donations, grants, extensive volunteer efforts and agency support. Yet, rather than provide a safe recreational experience for the public, the BLM has allowed the situation to become extremely dangerous.

Unfortunately, many hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers have experienced the trauma of approaching a trailhead with excessive automatic gunfire occurring. They have felt unsafe and vulnerable to bullets raining down on designated recreational trails. The impact to trail users has created a situation where people decide to either risk their lives enjoying the Jack-Ash Trail, or avoid the area altogether. After the considerable collaborative and volunteer efforts to build this beautiful non-motorized trail, public members are frustrated and upset that basic public safety has not been maintained by our local land managers.

The situation is particularly problematic not only because of the level of recreational use and the number of residential properties surrounding the area, but also because of the open nature of the environment on Anderson Butte. Much of the area supports south- and west-facing slopes with broad sloping grasslands and large stands of chaparral. These areas do not provide an adequate backstop and bullets can fly unobstructed across long distances towards homes, communities and public recreational trails. The situation is extremely dangerous, and at some point someone could be killed or injured by stray bullets. We ask the BLM to act before that happens and close the area to recreational shooting.

Multiple fires have also been started in the Anderson Butte area since 2002 from irresponsible target shooting, further threatening the communities below. These human caused ignitions are preventable and can be reduced by prohibiting target shooting in the Anderson Butte area.

Finally, after decades of pressure by residents and other recreational users, the BLM proposed the Anderson Butte Safety Project. This project proposes the closure of 11 specific sites to recreational target shooting, totaling 50 acres on BLM lands near Anderson Butte. The closures are currently proposed for only two years and, unfortunately, the BLM is addressing this long-term public safety problem, with a temporary, short-term “solution.”

Way back in January of 2019, the BLM accepted public comments on the Anderson Butte Safety Project and the associated Environmental Assessment (EA). ANN and many others submitted substantive comments on the project and had hoped to see the closures move forward, but the project has been stymied since that time and no progress has been made. Now two years later, after as many years as the closure is proposed to last, the BLM has initiated an additional 60-day comment period before releasing a final decision and working to maintain public safety in this beautiful area.

Unfortunately, the 2019 John Dingle Jr. Conservation and Recreation Act, which contained many good provisions and new wilderness areas, also requires an additional 60-day comment period before the BLM can release a final decision and close small portions of the area to target shooting. That comment period extends to January 3, 2022. We hope you will again speak up for the safety of residents, trail users and other public land users on Anderson Butte.

Join us by commenting on this project and asking the BLM to:

1. Institute a permanent recreational shooting closure to restore public safety throughout BLM lands near Anderson Butte, including the area between Talent and Phoenix, Oregon, the Little Applegate River, Wagner Creek Road and Sterling Creek Road. The proposed two year closure on 11 specific sites is not adequate to protect and maintain the safety of other public land users and nearby private property owners.
2. Implement and fund aggressive monitoring, signage and enforcement of this closure to ensure compliance and maintain public safety.
3. Conduct a separate, comprehensive, district-wide NEPA project analyzing recreational shooting on Medford District BLM lands. This process should close most BLM land to target shooting, while designating a limited number of safe public shooting sites on BLM lands. These sites should be specifically chosen because they do not threaten nearby homeowners, do not conflict with other recreational uses such as hiking and driving on backcountry roads, do not create excessive environmental impacts, and will not contaminate soils in riparian areas with lead shot.

To be very clear, ANN does not oppose the Second Amendment and we understand the right of individuals to bear arms. We take no position on public land hunting and acknowledge ethical, backcountry hunting as a valid public land use. Yet, we do take a position on irresponsible, dispersed public land shooting. We are extremely concerned by the impacts associated with irresponsible shooting on our communities, to public safety and to our environment.

Click here for more information on the Anderson Butte Safety Project

Submit comments to: Tye Morgan, Ashland Planning and Environmental Specialist, by mailing the BLM,

Attn: Tye Morgan, 3040 Biddle Road, Medford, Oregon 97504; or through email at: BLM_OR_AFO_anderson_butte_sp@blm.gov (Subject: Anderson Butte Safety Project).

You may also submit comments via BLM’s ePlanning register on the project’s website by selecting the “Participate Now” tab, or in the Documents section of the webpage. The comment period ends on January 3, 2022.

Four years later, Applegate Neighborhood Network is taking a look back at the Miller Complex Fire through our photo monitoring project. Many of the photos in this post allow one to compare the fire effects utilizing photos taken during fire activity, or soon after the fire had burned, with contemporary photos taken this summer in the same or approximate locations. These photos offer insights into how the fire has regenerated over time and demonstrate how fire activity translates to fire severity.

Four years ago today, lightning crashed and thunder echoed down the canyons of the Applegate River sparking twenty-seven small fires across the entire Applegate River watershed. After a few days, only five smoldering fires remained burning in remote reaches of the watershed. These included the Abney and Cook Fire above Cook and Green Creek and the Seattle Fire above the Middle Fork Applegate River. These fires later merged becoming the roughly 30,000-acre Abney Fire, the largest fire in the 2017 Miller Complex.

That same evening lightning sparked the Creedence Fire near Grayback Mountain at the headwaters of Carberry Creek, and the Burnt Peak Fire on the forested ridgeline dividing Palmer and Kinney Creek above the Upper Applegate Valley. Together these two fires burned over 6,000 additional acres, bringing the total acres burned in the Miller Complex to 36,400.

In the summer of 2017, residents of the Applegate endured dense smoke and active fire until rain and snow fell in mid-October, dousing the stubborn, unending backcountry fire. As fire activity increases across the West there are debates about the most appropriate strategies to adapt and evolve with a changing climate and with changing fire behavior. We are bombarded with fire information from across the West. The big destructive fires that burn communities are heavily covered in the media, but hundreds of other fires are burning throughout the West with far less media interest. Smaller fires in remote locations with beneficial fire effects rarely make the news, and the Miller Complex is a prime example of that. Only four years later the Miller Complex Fire is largely forgotten by the public, but remains a prominent footprint in our local landscape.

By taking a look back at the Applegate’s most recent major wildfire, there are lessons to be learned by our community and about the ecosystems that surround us. Residents on Palmer Creek Road and at Joe Bar had active fire on or near their properties and homes in the summer of 2017, but no homes or structures were lost. We should try to learn from the experience of these communities. These comparative photos provide a window into the world these communities lived with as they watched the fires burn, and have subsequently watched the areas regenerate in the post-fire landscape.

In all, the Miller Complex burned in a wide variety of plant communities and habitat types at 66% low, 27% moderate, and 7% low severity. The fire burned in remote locations inside our biggest, wildest wildland habitats in the Kangaroo and Condrey Mountain Inventoried Roadless Areas. In these areas it burned at mixed severity through subalpine forests and into deep mountains canyons filled with old-growth forest on the northern slope of the Siskiyou Crest.

The Burnt Peak Fire also burned in largely inaccessible backcountry in the Collings-Kinney Inventoried Roadless Area, however, it burned through arid oak woodland, sunbaked chaparral, dry grasslands and low elevation forest, more indicative of our low elevation habitats. The Burnt Peak Fire backed down from the wildlands to the doorstep of the Upper Applegate Valley near Palmer Creek Road and was visible by many residents that live on or near Upper Applegate Road.

Check out the photo comparisons and keep the dialog going around how we can best live with wildfire in the Applegate while also protecting lives and property. Fire is an important part of our ecosystem and is an inevitable force of nature, but how we choose to live with and adapt to it now will shape our community for decades to come.

Comparison Photos During the Fire & After the Fire Four Years Later

Burnt Peak Fire

Abney Fire

After Wildfires Come Wildflowers

After wildfires come wildflowers that are a boon for pollinators. The Miller Complex Fire area came to life with massive super blooms two and three years after the fires. These masses of flowers are stimulated to germinate due to the heat of the fire itself, as many species need heat to break down their seed coat and allow for seed germination. Other species germinate in response to chemical cues from smoke and ash that lets them know conditions are right to grow due to an increase in sunlight and abundant nutrients from ash that feed rapid plant growth. Four years on the super blooms have started to wane as shrubs have filled in burn areas in many locations. Many of the early seral shrubs that find their niche in burn areas, such as deer brush (Ceanothus integerrimus), are also beneficial for rejuvenation of the fire area because they can fix nitrogen from the air into the soil and help build soil in fire affected areas. The Siskiyou Mountains world-class botanical diversity is increased through wildfire, which many refer to as pyrodiversity.

Abney Fire Super Blooms

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A Complex Mixed Severity Fire Mosaic

The Miller Complex Fire created various fire effects that overall could be classified as a mixed severity fire mosaic, with low, moderate and high severity fire effects present in different areas throughout the fire.

(This article was originally printed in the Spring 2021 edition of the Applegater Community Newsmagazine)

Happy Earth Day!

For those of us who care for our environment, love the land, and work for wildlife, water, or wildlands, the last four years have been dark and uncertain times. From the national monuments stripped of protection and regulations gutted for the benefit of industry, to the xenophobic, environmentally destructive border wall, widespread anti-science policy and climate denial, we have had little, to nothing to applaud about the Trump Administration and its frenzy of shortsighted, profit-driven resource extraction.

Now with a new administration calling the shots, and in a flurry of Executive Orders, the Biden Administration has begun dismantling the destructive legacy of Trump era anti-environment policies. These Executive Orders have set forth a new policy agenda focused on environmental justice, climate change, and land and water protection. They commit federal land managers and regulatory agencies to science-based management, climate smart policy, and the protection of 30% of the American oceans and land base by 2030.

The lofty goals and words of these executive orders sound hopeful, but will only become meaningful when they are fully enacted and backed up with permanent wildland protections, long needed endangered species protections, and transformative changes to our economy, our food production system, our transportation system and our way of life. These changes will require innovative thinking and consistent political pressure. No matter how lofty and progressive their words might be, our elected officials must be encouraged by citizens like you and me to turn those words into meaningful action.

All too often people view the climate and extinction crisis as something affecting far off lands, with solutions in the carbon rich forests of the Amazon in South America and the  Tongass National Forest in Alaska; however, both the impacts and the solutions can also be found right here in the Applegate watershed. We have seen the impact of highly variable and erratic weather patterns, warming temperatures, reduced snow loads, extended droughts, and low stream flows. What we don’t often appreciate is how the public lands of the Applegate watershed can also be part of the solution.

The Siskiyou Mountains are known for their world-class biodiversity, incredible habitat connectivity, towering ancient forests, and wild, clear-flowing streams. Protecting the Siskiyou Mountains is an important part of fighting climate change on the local level, but with global implications. The forests of the Siskiyou Mountains and in particular the ancient, fire-adapted, old-growth forests, sequester significant amounts of carbon. In fact, recent research shows that forests and other vegetation can absorb up to 40% of the emissions generated in the lower 48 states. Ironically, the timber industry is instead the largest single source of emissions in Oregon, but if managed properly for carbon sequestration and biodiversity, rather than industrial timber production, our forests could be a significant part of the climate solution.

Protecting the Siskiyou Crest and the surrounding wildlands in the Applegate watershed as part of Biden’s initiative to protect 30% of America’s ecosystem by 2030 would not just protect these carbon rich forests, it would also protect some of the most botanically diverse wildland habitats in the West. The Siskiyou Crest contains widely varying plant communities, endemic plant species found nowhere else in the world, and strongholds for endangered wildlife like the Northern spotted owl and Pacific fisher.

A broad, protected area straddling the Siskiyou Crest, expanding the Red Buttes Wilderness Area, designating new wilderness areas and encompassing the many wildlands of the Applegate would protect the region’s important biodiversity, maintain connectivity in a changing climate, facilitate species dispersal, promote carbon storage in old forest habitats, and protect important regional climate refugia.

Local Applegate residents are also strongly supportive of new Wild and Scenic River designation in our watershed. Recently Senators Wyden and Merkley introduced the River Democracy Act proposing 4,700 miles of new Wild and Scenic River in the state of Oregon and over 150 miles in the Applegate River watershed. This includes numerous important tributary streams to the Applegate River, vital cold water refugia, carbon rich forests, and significant wildland habitats. We hope to see this legislation passed and enacted into law, protecting the wild rivers and streams we depend on in a warming climate.

If we are to weather the coming storms, high dry winds, atmospheric rivers and the extended droughts of climate change, while maintaining the planet’s spectacular biodiversity and sustaining a livable future, we must alter many aspects of our daily lives and economy. We must also preserve what remains of our wild, old forests and woodlands, our rivers and high mountain peaks. Finally, we must build movements that ensure the lofty words of the Biden Administration translate into real action on climate change and biodiversity.

-Luke Ruediger, ANN Executive Director

Beginning at beautiful Larkspur Spring high in the spectacular Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Area, and running through the Pipe Fork Research Natural Area (RNA), the Pipe Fork is one of the last truly wild streams in the Williams Creek Watershed. The Pipe Fork tumbles down the northeastern flank of Grayback Mountain through spectacularly lush old-growth forests supporting the easternmost stands of Port Orford-cedar in Oregon. The Pipe Fork flows cold and clear out of the wildlands and into the East Fork Williams Creek where it contributes important cold water refugia for threatened coho salmon.

The old-growth forests along the Pipe Fork contain spectacular groves of Port Orford-cedar, incense cedar, Douglas fir, sugar pine, live oak, madrone, chinquapin and tanoak. These forests also provide important connectivity habitat between the high country of the Siskiyou Crest near Grayback Mountain and the foothills of the Applegate Valley around Williams, Oregon.

ANN recently nominated the Pipe Fork for protection as a Wild and Scenic River, and just this month, Senators Wyden and Merkley introduced the River Democracy Act, which proposes Wild and Scenic River designation for streams across the state and across the Applegate River watershed, including the federally owned portions of Pipe Fork.

Yet, while support for the permanent protection of the Pipe Fork has been growing, a 320 acre parcel of “timberland,” owned by Josephine County and directly adjacent to the roadless wildlands and the Pipe Fork RNA, has been proposed for clearcut logging. The Josephine County Forestry Department has proposed to clearcut 114 acres of mature conifer forest, and under the Oregon Forest Practices Act, would likely not only log off this important forested habitat, but would also likely “treat” stump sprouting hardwoods like madrone, live oak, tanoak and chinquapin with herbicides after the logging is completed.

Clearcut logging, road reconstruction, landing construction and yarding activities will increase surface erosion rates in the watershed’s highly erosive decomposed granite soils. This will increase sedimentation rates, fill in small pools, create turbidity, compromise coho salmon and steelhead spawning gravels with siltation, and increase stream temperatures in the East Fork Williams Creek’s most important cold water tributary. The removal of forest cover will also impact the area’s important habitat connectivity and reduce habitat for forest dwelling species like the Northern spotted owl and Pacific fisher.

Thankfully the Williams Community Forest Project (WCFP) has been working to acquire the 320 acre Josephine County parcel for conservation purposes. WCFP is attempting to attract conservation buyers that can acquire and hold the parcel until federal funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund can be used to incorporate the property into federal ownership and add the acreage to the existing RNA. At first Josephine County appeared interested in selling the parcel rather than logging off its forests; however, recently the county commissioners proposed selling the property at public auction to the timber industry. Again folks at the WCFP sprang into action and have secured a temporary reprieve.

Currently, WCFP is working to secure funding or backing from large land trusts to acquire the property, but they also need to convince Josephine County to act on behalf of its citizens, not the timber industry. Please support their efforts by signing their petition and sending comments to the Josephine County Commissioners. Also please watch the new film sponsored by WCFP, “Pristine Waters.” This seven minute film will give you a glimpse of Pipe Fork’s beauty and will explain why it must be protected. ANN strongly supports the work of WCFP and the protection of Pipe Fork.

Sign the Pipe Fork Petition

Send a comment to the Josephine County Commissioners at: BCC@josephinecounty.gov

WATCH PRISTINE WATERS

LET’S KEEP PIPE FORK WILD!

Today, Oregon Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced the River Democracy Act of 2020 which will designated new Wild & Scenic River segments across the state of Oregon. The legislation is a direct result of a public nomination process initiated by Senators Wyden and Merkley to identify potential Wild & Scenic Rivers across the state. Oregon residents responded with enthusiasm, submitting over 15,000 nominations for thousands of miles of wild rivers and streams.

Currently only 2% (2,137 miles) of the state’s 110,000 miles of streams benefit from Wild & Scenic River protections and not a single stream mile in the Applegate River watershed has received Wild & Scenic River status. Yet, during the public nomination process Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN) and our partners at Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA) identified 200 miles of stream eligible for Wild & Scenic River protections in the Applegate River Watershed.

Our proposal includes 3 separate river segments spread throughout the Applegate River Watershed including the proposed Headwaters of the Applegate Wild & Scenic River, the Applegate Wild & Scenic River, and the Slate Creek Wild & Scenic River. Currently these spectacular streams are proposed for designation in the 2020 River Democracy Act.

The Headwaters of the Applegate Wild & Scenic River Proposal

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The proposed Headwaters of the Applegate Wild and Scenic River includes the over 85 miles of the wildest streams in the Applegate River watershed including the Middle Fork Applegate River, Butte Fork Applegate River and Elliott Creek. These streams and their spectacular tributaries contain extremely rugged terrain, vast old-growth forests, high levels of biodiversity, undisturbed wildlife habitats, deep clear pools, rushing waterfalls and bedrock gorges.

Each stream drains the northern slope of the Siskiyou Crest and runs largely undisturbed through the vast wildlands and old-growth forests extending across the headwaters of the Applegate River in the Red Buttes Wilderness Area, as well as the unprotected Kangaroo and Condrey Mountain Inventoried Roadless Areas.

Middle Fork

The Middle Fork is the the largest tributary in the Applegate River. Known for its deep swimming holes, thundering waterfalls, beautiful bedrock gorges, spectacular dispersed camping, old-growth forests and numerous wilderness hiking trails, the watershed contains portions of the Red Buttes Wilderness Area, the Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Area and smaller wildlands like the Whisky Peak and Stricklin Butte Roadless Areas. The proposal includes the Middle Fork and all its major tributary streams.

Butte Fork

The Butte Fork is the largest and wildest major tributary pouring into the Middle Fork. The stream originates at Azalea Lake in some of the most rugged and diverse high country in the Siskiyou Mountains. The majority of the watershed is protected in the Red Buttes Wilderness Area, but this proposal would include the lower reaches of the Butte Fork below the Wilderness boundary. Located within the Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Area, this portion of the Butte Fork contains beautiful old-growth forests, crystal clear pools and numerous spectacular wilderness trails. The proposal would include lower Butte Fork and its tributary streams.

Elliott Creek

Little known and relatively obscure, Elliott Creek contains some of the steepest, loneliest canyons in the Applegate River watershed. The stream drains a broad swath of the Siskiyou Crest’s northern slope from Dutchman’s Peak to Copper Butte including the Condrey Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area, the adjacent Elliott Ridge Roadless Area and numerous Forest Service Botanical Areas. The area is also a stronghold for old-growth forest and large portions of the watershed are designated as a Late Successional Reserve. The stream provides important, largely undisturbed wildlife habitat for species like the Pacific fisher, Northern spotted owls, great gray owls, black bear, cougar and elk. The proposal would include Elliott Creek and many of its tributary streams.

Applegate Wild & Scenic River Proposal

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The proposed Applegate Wild & Scenic River would include numerous tributary streams spread across the Applegate River watershed. The proposal includes over 105 miles of stream representing nearly all the major ecosystems found in the Applegate Watershed from the Siskiyou Crest to the Applegate Foothills. The proposal includes streams in Carberry Creek, the Upper Applegate River, Little Applegate River and Middle Applegate River Watersheds.

Forks of Carberry Creek

Draining both the spectacular high mountain meadows, rocky summits and old growth forests of the Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Area and the low elevation forest and woodlands of the Collings-Kinney Inventoried Roadless Area, Carberry Creek contains a wide variety of intact forest habitats. It also contains numerous Forest Service Botanical Areas and the Oliver Matthews Research Natural Area designated to protect the rare Baker’s cypress. The proposed Forks of Carberry Creek Wild & Scenic River includes Steve’s Fork, Sturgis Fork, O’Brien Creek and Brush Creek.

Upper Applegate River

Our proposal includes 4 small tributaries of the Upper Applegate River including Kinney Creek, Palmer Creek, Mule Creek and Star Gulch. These streams contain unique low elevation habitats including dry conifer forests, mixed hardwood forests, oak woodlands, chaparral and sweeping grasslands. Portions of Kinney Creek and Palmer Creek drain the Collings-Kinney Inventoried Roadless Area, Mule Creek drains the Little Grayback Inventoried Roadless Area and is traversed by the popular Mule Creek Trail, while Star Gulch contains large portions of the BLM’s Burton-Ninemile Lands with Wilderness Charateristics (LWC).

Little Applegate River

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Our proposal in the Little Applegate River watershed includes the beautiful Little Applegate River canyon and numerous tributary streams including Bear Gulch, Muddy Gulch, Birch Creek, Blacksmith Gulch, Owl Gulch, portions of Glade Creek, and Skunk Gulch. The area is arid and unique for western Oregon with a diverse mixture of grassland, chaparral, oak woodland, hardwood groves and dry mixed conifer forest. Wild, accessible and extremely popular for recreation, the Sterling Ditch Trail traverses the area and numerous trailheads provide river access.

Pipe Fork

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The Pipe Fork is the last wild tributary of Williams Creek, an important cold water refugia and the only stream proposed for Wild & Scenic designation in the Middle Applegate River watershed. The stream also contains the Pipe Fork Research Natural Area which currently protects stands of Port Orford cedar, uninfected by the fatal Port Orford Cedar Root Rot (Phytopthera lateralis). Usually a coastal species, this disjunct population of Port Orford cedar is the eastern most population in Oregon.

The Pipe Fork flows through the northern Kangaroo Inventoried Roadless Area on both Forest Service and BLM lands. The area supports spectacular old growth cedar groves, along with sugar pine, ponderosa pine, white fir, and Douglas fir.

Slate Creek Proposal:

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Slate Creek is the first major tributary to the Applegate River. Located near Wilderville and Wonder, Oregon the headwaters of Slate Creek flows through Forest Service land in a deep red rock canyon. The areas unusual serpentine soils create rather open, rocky forests of twisted chaparral and windswept Jeffrey pine savannah. Healthy stands of Port Orford cedar also line the stream. Portions of the area are protected in the Cedar Log Flat Research Natural Area which supports the only carnivorous cobra lily fens in the Applegate River watershed and numerous rare plant species.

Although relatively obscure and unknown, Slate Creek flows cold and clear through the beautiful Slate Creek Roadless Area. The proposal includes the upper portions of Slate Creek, Cedar Log Creek, and Buckeye Creek.

Support the 2020 River Democracy Act

We strongly support the 2020 River Democracy Act and look forward to new Wild & Scenic River designations throughout Oregon and in the Applegate River Watershed. These new designations will support healthy rivers, streams and fisheries. They will also protect old-growth forests, roadless wildlands, rare plant species, intact wildlife habitats and unique pieces of Oregon’s natural heritage. Please take a moment to thank Senators Wyden and Merkley for their leadership and urge Congress to move this bill forward.

Take Action Now!

2020 has been a difficult year for people across the world. Here in the US we have struggled through the pandemic, economic hardship, social isolation, mass misinformation campaigns, ongoing displays of systematic racism, social unrest and an all out assault on public institutions, including those who manage our public lands.

It has been a year of turmoil and anger, fear, anxiety, outrage, and also empowerment. Yet, despite the pandemic and all the uncertainty and instability it brings, millions of people across the country and across the world have raised their collective voice for equality and justice. So within the darkness of the pandemic there is hope for a better tomorrow.

Here at ANN we work hard to protect the landscape that surrounds us, support our community and help empower local, rural people to engage directly in the management, conservation and protection of public lands. Below are projects and issues we worked on in 2020 and that we will continue addressing in 2021.

Bear Grub Timber Sale

We poured our hearts into stopping the Bear Grub Timber Sale in 2020. Located in the mountains between Talent in the Rogue Valley and Ruch in the Applegate Valley, the project proposes nearly 1,100 acres of commercial logging, including 293 acres in the Wellington Wildlands and additional acreage along the popular East Applegate Ridge Trail.

The timber sale calls for group selection logging, a form of staggered clearcut logging that will increase fire risks, degrade forest habitats, and impact the scenic and recreational values of the Applegate Valley, the beloved Wellington Wildlands and the East Applegate Ridge Trail.

We worked with neighbors throughout the region to fight this timber sale, which was, unfortunately, approved by the BLM and sold at timber auction in October. In 2021 ANN will continue working to STOP BEAR GRUB and SAVE WELLINGTON WILDLANDS.

For more information: Stop Bear Grub Website

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Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands Project (IVM)

The IVM Project could perhaps be the single most damaging BLM proposal in southwest Oregon in many, many years. The project proposes 684,185 acres of proposed “treatment areas” spread out across nearly the entire Medford District BLM. Under the provisions proposed for the IVM Project up to 20,000 acres could be commercially logged, and up to 90 miles of new road built per decade without site specific environmental review or public comment. These “treatments” would include heavy industrial logging in Late Successional Reserves (LSR) set aside to protect the Northern spotted owl and its old forest habitat.

ANN is working with conservation allies across the region to oppose this damaging project that will increase commercial logging in sensitive landscapes, while gutting public accountability and reducing public input and oversight. ANN’s work on the IVM Project will continue and intensify in 2021.

For more information: IVM Blog Post

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Late Mungers

The Late Mungers Timber Sale is proposed in a large Late Successional Reserve on the ridges between the Williams Valley and Murphy in the Applegate Watershed, and Selma in the Illinois River watershed. The project has proposed logging in old forest habitats including small roadless areas near Mungers Butte. ANN is actively working with conservation partners in Williams, Murphy and Selma to oppose this sale and PROTECT MUNGER WILDLANDS!

For more information: Protect Munger Wildlands Website

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Wild & Scenic Applegate River

In response to a public nomination process initiated by Senator Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Merkley (D-OR), ANN and our partners at Klamath Forest Alliance have proposed new Wild & Scenic River designations on tributary streams throughout the Applegate River Watershed. In total, we have documented, identified and promoted almost 200 miles of new Wild & Scenic River designations for the Applegate River Watershed that encompass some of the most intact wildlands in our area.

ANN will continue working towards the protection of these ecologically important rivers and streams in 2021. If secured, these would be the first permanent protections of federal lands in the Applegate River watershed in 33 years!

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Applegate River Native Plant & Pollinator Restoration

For the past three years ANN has been working with the Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District to restore native plants and pollinator habitat along the Upper Applegate River. This past fall, with much-appreciated funding provided by the Ashland Food Co-op, we worked with Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds to grow out 14 native species of plants and provide a seed mix comprised of 16 different native species of wildflowers and grasses. In November, under COVID protocols, a small group of five community volunteers planted 250 plants and sowed the seed mix at the small site along the Upper Applegate River. We will continue working to restore native plants and pollinator habitat along the Upper Applegate River in 2021.

For more information: Native Pollinator Planting Along the Applegate River Blog Post

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Upper Applegate Watershed Restoration Project (UAW)

ANN has worked collaboratively with the Forest Service for many years on the UAW Project. We have attended an exhaustive amount of public meetings and field trips about the project, and have done extensive on-the-ground monitoring of the project proposals.

We have worked hard over the years of project planning to help focus the project on thinning in plantation stands and fire protection measures directly around homes and communities, including manual thinning and prescribed fire. We also worked to keep logging and manual thinning away from important wildlands and intact habitats scattered across the Upper Applegate Valley.

In the end, the Forest Service approved a project we can mostly support. The logging, manual thinning and prescribed fire proposals are located primarily in tree plantations or adjacent to rural communities at risk to wildfire impacts. Although we are following the project, the impacts of this portion of the project have been greatly minimized by ANN’s years of collaborative efforts.

Unfortunately, two new OHV trails we strongly opposed were approved in the Final Decision for the UAW Project; however, three additional OHV trails proposed by the Forest Service, including routes in the Boaz Mountain Roadless Area, were withdrawn due to pressure from ANN and long-time rural Applegate residents.

In 2021, we intend to monitor UAW project design and implementation. We have developed a UAW Community Implementation Review Team to continue ensuring the project meets the habitat restoration goals promoted by ANN and local community members during the long UAW collaborative process. Once projects are approved, we can’t just walk away and forget about it. ANN has a commitment to seeing collaborative projects through to the end, to ensure the ecological commitments made by the agencies are met.

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OHV Closures

ANN has been working for many years to monitor OHV impacts and advocate for the closure of unauthorized OHV routes in the Applegate Watershed. Progress has been slow but steady as we document impacts and advocate for solutions. BLM in particular has been slow to act, but is directed to address the issue in 2021. We hope to hold their feet to the fire.

We are also working on illegal OHV route closures on the Siskiyou Crest and in designated Botanical Areas on Forest Service land. Recently some progress has been made and numerous routes have been either approved for closure, or initial steps have been made to physically close them to illegal OHV use. We hope to continue closing damaging OHV routes and documenting impacts across the Applegate Watershed in 2021.

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Moving Forward in 2021

Although 2020 was a long and difficult year on many levels. ANN has continued to build our grassroots movement advocating for the public lands of the Applegate Valley. We have made progress on many levels, but have also faced challenges and disappointments. With the closing of 2020 comes hope for 2021. Please help us defend the Applegate River watershed, advocate for responsible environmental policies, and build a grassroots movement to permanently protect the wildlands of the Applegate.

Your support in 2021 will help us achieve our goals and keep the Applegate, wild, spectacularly beautiful and uniquely diverse. In the Applegate Valley we have so much to appreciate and so much to defend. Join us in 2021 and make a generous tax deductible donation today!

Donate to ANN!