Monitoring Grazing on the Siskiyou Crest

Have you ever been to the Grouse Gap shelter and found the surrounding meadows denuded and the picnic area littered with cow dung? Or have you hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and stopped to filter drinking water at a spring only to find the riparian vegetation stripped away and the water too foul to filter?

For decades the Klamath National Forest has authorized and encouraged extensive grazing of the Siskiyou Crest that damages meadows and springs in the backcountry. The Klamath National Forest believes grazing public lands for private profit trumps all other values of these special places.

To add insult to injury, every year the cows released by the Klamath on the drier south side of the Siskiyou Crest trespass onto the wet meadows and headwater streams on the north side of the Siskiyou Crest in the Rogue River Siskiyou National Forest. The private cattle ranchers benefit from this trespass grazing while botanical hotspots, meadows, and watersheds pay the price.

It's easy to get involved by simply documenting what you see during hikes in sensitive areas. Click here for our grazing manual before you head into the field, and submit your impact report form below.