Pulling of unnecessary barbed-wire fencing set for Saturday, May 20
By Lee Juillerat for Ashland.news
A series of volunteer work days intended to improve and upgrade features of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument will begin Saturday, May 20, with the removal of unnecessary barbed-wire fencing.
“You may have seen the horrifying spectacle firsthand — a wild animal, sometimes alive and sometimes dead, caught in an alarming position on barbed-wire fencing,” said Collette Streight, executive director of the Friends of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. “If you’ve been spared the experience of seeing this in real time, an internet search for wildlife-friendly fencing will generate hundreds of photos of elk, deer, rabbits, foxes, owls and other animals who’ve been ensnared on wildlife-unfriendly barbed-wire fencing.”
Streight said the monument, a 114,000-acre ecological wonderland and hotspot for biodiversity, has more than 10 thousand feet of unnecessary barbed-wire fencing that she describes as “relics from when cattle grazing was much more prevalent on those lands. This fencing is not only life-threatening to wildlife, it can also inhibit the free flow of animals across the landscape. If you are a wildlife lover like me, you may now feel an urgent need to start removing fencing as fast as you can. Fortunately, you can do so with us very soon.”
The Friends and the Medford District Bureau of Land Management will hold the fence pull on the Green Springs Mountain Loop Trail from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tools, safety equipment, drinks and snacks will be provided. At a previous fence pull, Streight said 10 volunteers removed about 1,000 feet of barbed-wire fence in less than three hours. “We also laughed, ate tasty snacks and made new connections — both with other people and with the trees and birds we worked among that day.”
The upcoming fence pull is the first event in 2023 Monument Stewardship Days. Also planned June 7 is a Star Thistle Pull from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. in partnership with KS Wild. Registration for both volunteer events can be done at the Friends website, cascadesiskiyou.org.
The website also provides information about other upcoming activities, including a series of Hike and Learn programs. On May 26 and 27, a Hike and Learn program will focus on identifying wildflowers. Streight will give an evening class on May 26, and Liz Landreth will lead the wildflower hike on May 27. Scheduled for June 9 and 10 is another Hike and Learn program, “Volcanism in the Cascade-Siskiyou: Western & High Cascades.”
Streight, who joined the Friends last June, has more than 25 years of experience in environmental program design and management, community engagement, and environmental education. She said her career focus has been on “connecting people to the wonder and value of the more than human world as well as providing folks practical ways of living more sustainable and regenerative lives at home, work and school.”
Since 2011 Streight has practiced and taught the Deep Nature Connection principles and practices learned from her mentor, Jon Young of the 8 Shields Institute. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Psychology at California State University Chico. She can be contacted by email at [email protected].
According to Friends website, the group’s purpose is to “inspire people to protect, conserve, and restore Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and to increase awareness of the Monument’s unique biological diversity, landscape, and cultural history. We support the protection, restoration and conservation of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument through service, advocacy and education.”
Email freelance writer Lee Juillerat at [email protected].
