Kalmiopsis - Wild Rivers Coast

The Kalmiopsis Wilderness and its adjacent public lands cover several hundred thousand acres in Southwest Oregon’s Josephine & Curry Counties. This region is rich with wild, free-flowing rivers and includes Wild & Scenic designations for the main-stem of the Illinois, Chetco & North Fork Smith Rivers. 

Currently, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s Oregon Recreation Enhancement Act (S. 440) and Oregon Representative Val Hoyle’s Southwest Oregon Watershed and Salmon Protection Act (HR 5004) both include provisions for permanent protection under the 1872 Mining Law for waterways threatened by nickel mining and other rare-earth mineral speculation. In previous years the Cave Junction City Council, Del Norte, and Curry County Commissions endorsed the “mineral withdrawal” provisions for these bills to protect several key watersheds, including:

• Rough and Ready Creek at the headwaters of the national Wild and Scenic Illinois River, ; 

• North Fork Smith River watershed, which flows into the main stem of the Smith River near the Oregon-California border; and 

• Hunter Creek, which flows directly into the Pacific just south of Gold Beach. 

All of these rivers and creeks serve as vital habitat for wild salmon and steelhead. For communities like Cave Junction, Gold Beach, and Crescent City, their drinking water comes from these clean water sources too.

Portions of Hunter Creek (in Curry County) and many other Illinois River tributaries (in Josephine County) are also part of Senator Wyden’s River Democracy Act. You can learn more about Senator Wyden’s statewide effort to protect more than 3,000 miles of waterways as Wild & Scenic at www.ouroregonrivers.org.