The year has seen habitats protected, Klamath River dams removed, timber interests handed a loss

By KS Wild and Rogue Riverkeeper staff

As 2024 comes to a close, it’s always nice to reflect on the year, so we bring you a 2024 highlight reel featuring good news and positive updates for public lands and all that live in and enjoy them all across the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion across Southern Oregon and Northern California.

Stewardship successes for local public lands

Here at KS Wild, we take great pride in our relationship with public lands in our region. We advocate for and defend public lands on a daily basis through commenting, education and litigation. But nothing beats getting outside and giving back to the land with boots on the ground.

In 2024, we celebrated with our volunteers and the U.S. Forest Service as we wrapped up a habitat protection project at Days Gulch Botanical Area, repaired meadow infrastructure at Meridian Overlook on the Siskiyou Crest, and garnered support to finish a fencing project in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument to help an endemic butterfly species. This work was made possible by the donations of our supporters, a few grants, partnership with Vesper Meadow, Friends of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, and the U.S. Forest Service as well as an incredibly dedicated team of volunteers!

Klamath dam removal

The largest dam removal project in U.S. history was completed Oct. 2 on the Klamath River, where four dams were taken out, allowing adult salmon to swim all the way up the Klamath River from the Pacific Ocean and into more than 400 miles of newly reopened habitat.

In late October, just weeks after the dam removal project was completed, adult fall Chinook salmon were spotted in Oregon’s stretch of the Klamath Basin for the first time in more than a century — swimming over 200 miles from the ocean. Salmon have also been spotted spawning in a tributary above the former Iron Gate Dam site for the first time in more than 60 years.

This major win comes after a long, tough battle from local Indigenous communities who rely deeply on these waters and the salmon within them. We are all grateful for the long battle many of our Indigenous neighbors have held steadfast to, including our friends and office-mates at Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group.

Coho and fall Chinook returns are up this year in the Rogue

Every year, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife counts salmon and steelhead returning to spawn in the Rogue River at Huntley Park (8 miles upstream from the river mouth at the ocean). Compared to 2023, the coho and fall Chinook salmon returning to spawn this fall are both above the 10-year average. Coho are listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened in the Rogue. This year, the number of returning coho were more than double the 10-year average. Last year, the returns for the same two species were below the 10-year average.

River conservation makes headway

While we await news from Congress on a package of bills for public lands conservation that includes the Wild and Scenic Rogue, Illinois and North Fork Smith rivers, KS Wild has made progress at the state level to shore up protections for special waterways in southwest Oregon. Under the Clean Water Act, states can designate bodies of water as Outstanding Resource Waters, which provides for water quality protections. Earlier this year, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality accepted nominations for the Wild and Scenic Illinois River, and one of its tributaries — Rough and Ready Creek — to be designated as Outstanding Resource Waters. KS Wild is hopeful that the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will prioritize ORW rule-making in the coming years for the Illinois River and one of its headwater tributaries. These waterways contribute to exceptional water quality for the Illinois River watershed and critical habitat for wild salmon and steelhead.

Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument survives Supreme Court challenge

Timber Industry lawyers have long sought to strip the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument from the biodiversity protections that it enjoys. They’d like to treat this special place the same way that the BLM treats old-growth forests elsewhere — namely as stump fields. But sometimes the well-paid forces of darkness do not prevail! After two different federal circuit courts ruled in favor of protections for the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument, the timber industry hired an extremely expensive corporate Portland law firm to lobby the Supreme Court to do away with the Monument. The court declined to hear their case and the Monument remains intact.

Old-growth forests get a win

In a celebration for old-growth-associated wildlife species, a federal court found that the Bureau of Land Management’s Medford district violated its resource management plan by selling timber sales in Late Successional Reserve forestland that would have removed critical wildlife habitat. The “gap creation” clearcuts and commercial canopy removal proposed by the BLM would have turned Late Mungers and other LSR forest reserves into fire-prone timber plantations.

The court ruling ensures that the BLM protects old-growth Late Successional Reserves while allowing for small-diameter fuels reduction and prescribed fire to improve forest resiliency!

Pipe Fork forest remains unsold

People love the Pipe Fork Creek in the Williams Watershed. What’s not to love about waterfalls, clean water, old-growth and Port Orford cedar? Well evidently some of the Josephine County Commissioners don’t love where they live or defend what they love. Instead of working with the community to allow for purchase of the forest and its protection, the politicians tried to bundle the Pipe Fork forests with other timber tracts and sell them to the timber industry for clearcutting. But the plan backfired, the timber didn’t sell and the forests remain standing. Now there is another chance for a conservation buyer to save the day.

New trails and recreation infrastructure — Fredenburg Butte

The Medford BLM isn’t known for investing much effort into public lands recreation, so when they make an effort to provide non-motorized recreational trail opportunities it is noteworthy and a cause for celebration. Props and thanks to BLM public land managers for moving along efforts to create and promote forest trails on Fredenburg Butte near the community of Butte Falls!

Elliot State Forest becomes a carbon reserve

Following decades of efforts by dedicated Oregonians, the old-growth forests of the Elliot State Forest in the Coast Range are now protected as a carbon reserve. These public lands had been used as a political football and were the subject to numerous logging proposals and controversies. But all’s well that ends well and we can now all enjoy the good news that Oregon has a sizable coastal old-growth forest reserve.

KS Wild Side appears every month and features reports from the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, a regional conservation organization based in Ashland, and its affiliate, Rogue Riverkeeper. For more information go to kswild.org.