2022 Fire Season in Review

We have recapped the 2022 wildfire’s in the Klamath-Siskiyou region. Please see the bottom of this blog for ways in which you can contribute to the relief efforts for those people and communities most impacted.

Bear Creek: Fire Pollution Prevention Efforts

In the next weeks and months as local communities begin the long process of rebuilding, the Rogue Riverkeeper team will shift our focus to ways we can help minimize harmful impacts of these fires on Bear Creek and the Rogue River.

Fire, Rogue RiverkeeperGuest UserSeptember 18, 2020bear creek, almeda fire, rogue riverkeeper, rogue river, salmon, fire, fire pollution, bear creek greenway

Back to the Source

For five days in May, KS Wild leads a raft-supported hike along the Rogue River. This guest post by Tuula Rebhahn details the journey along the river and the adventure that awaits you!

Wild Rivers, Water, Public LandsKlamath SiskiyouJuly 9, 2019rogue river, wild rogue river, rafting, hiking, history

Healthy Watersheds, Resilient Forests

Following decades of fire suppression and logging that created dense young forests, a return to ecosystem resiliency requires thinning second-growth plantations, retaining large trees and forest canopy, and returning the role of fire to these fire-dependent forests.

Land of Wild Rivers

Few experiences are more evocative of the Pacific Northwest than the sight of a salmon leaping a waterfall. People gather to watch as they make their way to ancestral spawning grounds each year at Rainie Falls on the Rogue River or the mouth of Wooley Creek on the Salmon River. Some rivers of the Klamath-Siskiyou are strongholds for wild salmon, including the federally listed Northern California/Southern Oregon Coho Salmon

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New BLM Resource Management Plan

On August 5, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed a management plan for western Oregon, largely ignoring a formal protest from 22 conservation and fishing groups. The BLM plan eliminates protections for streamside forests, increases clearcutting in wet forests, and removes 2.6 million acres of federally managed public forests from the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan

BLM Releases Management Plan for 2.6 Million Acres in Oregon

The Bureau of Land Management administers the public forests that surround communities in Western Oregon. These are our backyard forests! Places like the Wild Rogue River, the Applegate Valley foothills and rare plant hotspots in the Illinois Valley deserve our best conservation efforts.

State Fails Rogue Streams

he Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) has failed to protect the clear, cold streams and fish in our region by excluding them in their decision to expand stream buffers for Western Oregon’s forests. ODF granted limited protections for streams to the north but left out almost the entirety of the Siskiyou region (essentially the Rogue Basin) in their policy decision.

Protecting Our BLM Backyard Forests

Western Oregon’s BLM lands support salmon, steelhead, and wildlife while delivering clean water and recreational values to the public. These forests are source-drinking watersheds for hun-dreds of thousands of Oregonians, they sequester large amounts of carbon, and they provide crucial ecological functions. The natural amenities found on these public lands are highly valued and sought after, from local residents to tourists from around the world.

Gas Pipeline A Bad Deal

Rogue Riverkeeper and our allies have been fighting the proposal for a gas pipeline, power plant, and export terminal through southern Oregon for years. This dangerous and unnecessary project threatens private property owners with eminent domain, will impact dozens of threatened and endangered species, will clear-cut a 95 foot swath for 235 miles, will raise our gas rates here at home, and accelerate climate change.

Wilderness in the Klamath-Siskiyou

The Klamath-Siskiyou region is home to the largest expanse of wildlands on the West Coast. Some of these pristine wild areas are protected under the Wilderness Act as Wilderness Areas, but many other wilderness-quality lands are unprotected and face a variety of threats including logging, road-building, over-grazing, and irresponsible off-road vehicle use.

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How Clean is the Water? Visit Swim Guide for Current Conditions

Rogue Riverkeeper has monitored local streams for fecal bacteria, turbidity, pH, temperature, and conductivity with a number of great partners throughout our region. Our past efforts have documented steadily declining water quality throughout the Little Butte Creek watershed, improving water quality on Evans Creek, and highlighted the source of pollution on Ashland Creek so that steps could be taken to improve the situation.

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