Archived News Stories

SPRING 2009

Copper Salmon Wilderness Signed into Law
On March 30, President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act into law making the Copper Salmon Wilderness a reality. After years of local effort, spearheaded by Jim Rogers and Friends of Elk River (THANK YOU!), the Copper Salmon Wilderness will now safeguard the North Fork of Elk River from the threat of misguided logging and road building on extremely steep and erodible terrain. This will help to preserve the Elk’s cold clear water, which is crucial for the long-term health of the Chinook and Coho salmon. It will also help to preserve habitat for imperiled birds that depend on old growth forests, such as the Marbled Murrelet and the Northern Spotted Owl. Thanks to everyone who wrote letters over the course of so many years. This is an extraordinary accomplishment. Hip, Hip Hooray for the brand new wilderness in our backyard! Please take a moment to write a note to Senator Ron Wyden and to Rep. Peter DeFazio thanking for supporting the Copper Salmon Wilderness. [You can go directly to their websites or send your letters by snail mail to Sen. Ron Wyden/230 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg./Washington, D.C. 20510 and Rep. Peter DeFazio/2134 Rayburn House Office Bldg./Washington D.C. 20515].

Elk River Gravel Mining Threat
In late March, we received notice that the Brookings-based company Tidewater has applied to remove up to 12,000 cubic yards of gravel from the lower Elk River (I think it was the same day that Copper Salmon Wilderness passed--proving once again the old adage: if it’s not one thing, it’s another.) As most of you know, the Elk has the strongest coho runs on the south coast. By destabilizing the riverbed, gravel extraction in the lower river will impact known rearing habitat for threatened coho and known spawning habitat for chinook and steelhead. By clouding the water with sediments, it will also increase temperature in an area that is already temperature stressed, further degrading coho rearing habitat. In addition, because gravel in the area is currently infested with gorse, the gravel will need to be processed into asphalt on site, per county permit conditions. As such, a new or temporary asphalt facility will have to be built, but processing gorse seeds into asphalt does not prevent its spread.

With these concerns in mind, please send a letter to Mr. Benny Dean at the Army Corps of Engineers. The deadline for comments has recently been extended to May 11. His addresses are as follows: Mr. Benny Dean, Jr., 1600 Executive Parkway, Suite 210, Eugene, OR 97401-2156/ Benny.A.Dean@usace.army.mil

There will likely be a public hearing about this project, and it may be crucial for local people to attend. Please keep posted on this issue by checking in here on the new KAS website for updates.

WOPR update
As reported in the last Storm Petrel, the very first WOPR sales are slated for the Floras Creek watershed. In recent weeks, however, the Obama Administration has indicated that it will not follow the Bush Administration’s Spotted Owl policy. The WOPR depended on the Bush policy, which had reduced old growth habitat for the owl by a quarter, against the recommendations of agency scientists. Several conservation groups had litigated on that policy. According to Dominick DellaSalla of the National Center for Conservation Science and Policy and a former member of the spotted owl recovery team, the Obama Administration’s new, science-oriented stance will likely spell the end of the WOPR. It is yet to be seen how this new policy will affect plans for local sales.

Chetco River Gold Mining
Last year, I reported on the new threat of suction dredge gold mining on 26 miles of the Wild and Scenic Chetco River--from high in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness right down to Nook Bar. Last summer, Representative Peter DeFazio introduced legislation (H.R. 6727) to address this threat, following-up on a prior Forest Service recommendation to upgrade river segment classifications on approximately 3.5 miles of the Chetco and withdrawing the “Scenic” and “Recreation” segments from mineral entry. The proposed law would require current claims in “wild” segments to be verified and would prohibit new claims. Representative DeFazio has indicated that he will introduce the bill again in this session. At this point, we have asked Senators Wyden and Merkley to introduce companion legislation in the Senate. We are concerned about the impact that suction dredging will have on the “outstandingly remarkable values” for which the Chetco River was originally designated wild and scenic: crystal clear water quality, world class fishery, and the recreational opportunity to catch very big fish. Just because the Chetco is right in our backyard, don’t forget, these are exceedingly rare qualities for a river. They are certainly qualities worth standing up for. Please write to Senators Wyden and Merkeley and ask them to introduce companion legislation to H.R. 6727 in the Senate to protect the Chetco. [You can go directly to their websites or send your letters by snail mail to Sen. Ron Wyden/230 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg./Washington, D.C. 20510 and Sen. Jeff Merkley/107 Russell Senate Office Bldg./Washington, D.C. 20510]

NW Naval Training Range
In February, I received word by a random email that the U.S. Navy was planning to expand its training operations by one third off the Oregon Coast, and that comments were due on an EIS in less than 3 days. There had been only one public meeting in Oregon--up near Lincoln City. After public outcry about inadequate notice, the deadline was extended for several more weeks. KAS made raised concerns about the impacts of increased weapons testing on seabirds, fish, and in particular marine mammals, which are known to have particular sensitivities to mid-frequency sonar. There are several cases in which military sonar use has been associated with whale strandings. The Northwest Training Complex extends from Washington down into northern California and includes known habitat--and in some cases critical habitat-- for 7 endangered species and 2 threatened species of marine mammals, including orcas. In addition, we raised concerns about pollution and hazardous wastes, which have been associated with other military testing sites.


Reining In Off-Road Vehicles
Over the past year, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has been developing a Travel Management Plan in order to address the issue of Off Road Vehicles (ORVs), which in several areas have been causing a great deal of damage to rare plants, fragile meadows, and erodible slopes and soils. The goal is to designate specific routes for ORV users and to prohibit them from just riding willy-nilly all over the place, off-road. This is a great idea, and there are miles of logging roads that could make good, durable places for riding. However, under the Forest Service’s current proposal, there are still many places where ORV users would still be encouraged in sensitive terrain, including designated botanical areas, areas with uninfected Port Orford Cedar (that could be wiped-out by the motorized spread of a fatal root-disease), Inventoried Roadless Areas, Research Natural Areas, and popular hiking trails. These are simply not the appropriate places for motorized recreation on our public lands--especially given that the Klamath Siskiyou Mountains are a globally recognized hotspot for botanical diversity. The Rogue/Siskiyou Travel Management planning process gives us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tell the Forest Service where motorized use should be allowed, and where it should be prohibited. The motorized recreationists are extremely well organized and well funded on this issue. They have swamped public meetings pressing the Forest Service to open more areas to motorized use. So even if you haven’t yet spent a lot of time wandering up in the mountains learning about the Siskiyou Mountain’s extraordinarily diverse wildflowers and other plants, I hope you’ll understand why we need to voice our concern at this crucial juncture to help protect them. (Photo of ORV damage in Botanical Area provided courtesy of Klamath-Siskiyou Wild, www.kswild.org)

Please write a letter to the Forest Service. Comments are due by May 11.

Scott Conroy, Forest Supervisor 

Rogue River/Siskiyou National Forest

3040 Biddle Road, Medford Oregon 97504

Email: comments-pacificnorthwest-rogueriver-siskiyou@fs.fed.us

Here are some key points to make (courtesy of KS Wild/www.kswild.org):

The Rogue/Siskiyou National Forest is a special place for me. The salmon and steelhead that depend on clean water, the amazing botanical diversity, and the few remaining backcountry roadless areas are irreplaceable treasures that are the part of the heritage of all Americans.

Please do not open our few remaining roadless areas, hiking trails, and botanical areas to additional ORV use. I urge you to allow motorized recreation on those portions of the existing system of logging roads where such use will not harm aquatic or botanical values. 

I believe that the irreplaceable roadless areas in the Rogue/Siskiyou are not appropriate places for ORVs. Please protect Port-Orford cedar and Coho salmon strongholds from ORV use.

I urge you to choose Alternative 4 because it prohibits motorized use within Inventoried Roadless Areas, Botanical Areas, and mapped serpentine soils while promoting motorized recreation in the Prospect OHV system.

Lastly, the Forest Service has a backlog for road maintenance on the Rogue/Siskiyou that will costs millions of dollars. Many Forest Service roads are literally falling apart. Please use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to identify and close roads that you can no longer afford to safely maintain.

To view the plan for yourself, you can try to check out the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest website (www.fs.fed.us/r6/rogue/). Unfortunately, I have found that this site is often inaccessible. In our area, some popular trails where ORV use will be encouraged are the lower Rogue River trail and the Illinois River Trail up into a Roadless Area adjacent to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

Last Updated 4/30/09