HomeMy WebLinkAboutApplegate Fire Plan draft 2002
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Balancing Act
Living with Fire in the Applegate
The Applegate Fire Plan
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Balancing Act
Living with Fire in the Applegate
The Applegate Fire Plan
Coordinated by the Applegate Partnership
Sandy Shaffer and Jack Shipley, project coordinators
Diana Coogle, editor
Applegate, Oregon
Draft prepared in February 2002
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March 1, 2002
ApPLEGATE FIRE PLAN
Cover statement for the Draft Fire Plan:
This first iteration of our Applegate Fire Plan is nowhere near complete, nor is it
meant to be,
Our intention at this time is to offer you, the interested community of the
Applegate, a tool to assist you in a formidable task: that of formulating your own
neighborhood-scale fuels reduction strategies. These localized strategies will
stand alone, ready to be implemented by residents. The comments you offer and
the values that you identify in your plans will be melded into our overall
watershed-wide strategy, helping us to complete the Applegate Fire Plan by this
June.
This draft iteration contains background information on the state of our
watershed, meant to lay a foundation of knowledge and understanding of our
biodiverse watershed and of our high fire danger. It contains tools and methods
that a private landowner can utilize to reduce fuels on their own property, It offers
explanations and guidelines for dealing with conflicting values so that one doesn't
have to chose, for example, between fire safety and songbirds,
We welcome comments on the information contained within, but please remember
that it doesn't contain even half of what we intend for our final product. Other
sections will cover fire protection, fire suppression, complete emergency
communications and contacts, lists of funding resources, lists of human resources
to help perform on-the-ground work, county building codes, monitoring projects,
illustrations and maps, reference materials, etc,.
Thank you,
The Applegate Partnership &
all our "partners" in this project
899-3853 (msg)
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Table of Contents
I. List of Partners and Participants
II. Before We Begin (Introduction to the Plan)
1. Between May and October, a Sense of Unease (Introduction by Diana Coogle)
2, Taking Aim (The Goals of the Applegate Fire Plan)
3, But Why? (Justifying the Idea of an Applegate Fire Plan)
4, Finding Our Place (Strategic Planning Areas)
5. Who We Are and What We Are Like (Social Aspects of the Applegate)
6, Playing with Matches (Fire Risk in the Applegate)
III, Getting the Picture (Current Conditions in the Applegate)
1, From Then till Now (Historical Influences on the Behavior of Fire in the Applegate)
2. The Ground We Walk On (Soils of the Applegate)
3. Patches of Pines and Occasional Oaks (Patterns of Vegetation in the Landscape)
4, Sick Neighbors (Port Orford Cedar and Its Root Disease)
5, Looking Low (Landscape Patterns of Native and Rare Plants)
6, Fire at the Water's Edge (Streams and Riparian Areas)
7, Fish on the Hook (Current Conditions of Fisheries in the Applegate)
8, Foxes and Frogs and Siskiyou Salamanders (Wildlife in the Applegate Watershed)
9, Ruminating on Ruminants (Rangeland Management in the Applegate Watershed)
10. Applegaters at Play (Recreation on Public Lands in the Applegate)
II, What a Beautiful Place the Applegate Is (Scenic Values in the Applegate)
12. How Frequent, How Hot, How Big (Fire Regimes in the Applegate)
13, How Bad Will It Be (Fire Hazard Ratings)
IV How To If You Want To (Strategies for Fire Prevention)
1, Living in a Biocracy (paying Attention to Soils, Plants, and Animals in Relation to
Fire Prevention)
2. Making It Burn Slow and Low (Suggestions for Reducing the Catastrophe Level)
3. But What Can I Do about It, Anyway? (Hand and Mechanical Techniques To Reduce
Fire Hazard)
V Too Hot To Handle Alone (Emergency Communications)
VI. Glossary
VII. References, Maps, and Charts
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1. List of Partners
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The following local, state, and federal agencies and organizations participated in developing
this plan:
Applegate Partnership
Applegate River Watershed Council
Applegate Valley Fire District #9
Bureau of Land Management, Ashland Resource Area
Bureau of Land Management, Grants Pass Resource Area
Jackson County Building Department
Jackson County Department of Emergency Management
Jackson County GIS Services
Jackson County Sheriffs Office
Josephine County Building Safety
Josephine County Department of Forestry
Josephine County Planning Department
Josephine County Sheriffs Office
National Marine Fisheries Service
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Oregon Department of Forestry, Central Point Unit
Oregon Department of Forestry, Grants Pass Unit
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Rural Metro Fire Department
US Fish and Wildlife Service
US Forest Service, Rogue River National Forest, Applegate Ranger District
US Forest Service, Siskiyou National Forest, Galice Ranger District
Williams Creek Watershed Council
Williams Fire Department
Many thanks to the following people for submitting papers for this project or for serving on the
interdisciplinary team:
Tom Atzet, US Forest Service
Don Bellville, US Forest Service
John Brazier, US Forest Service
Matt Broyles, BLM
Greg Chandler, BLM
Tom Dierkes, BLM
Scott Haupt, BLM
Tom Jacobs, BLM
Chris Johnson, BLM
Dale Johnson, BLM
Janet Joyer, US Forest Service
Jim Leffinann, BLM
Sue Maiyo, US Forest Service
Linda Mazzu, BLM
Kenny McDaniel, BLM
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Sandra McGinnis, US Forest Service
John McGlothlin, BLM
Bob Miller, US Forest Service
Mark Mousseaux, BLM
Barbara Mumblo, US Forest Service
Tom Murphy, BLM
Annette Parsons, BLM
Kevin Preister
Mike Ricketts, US Forest Service
Tom Sensenig, BLM
Sandy Shaffer, Applegate Fire Plan coordinator
Bob Shoemaker, US Forest Service
David Squyres, BLM
Brad Washa, BLM
Fred Way, National Forest Service
Jim Wolf, Oregon Department of Forestry
Kip Wright, BLM
Larry Zowada, BLM
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II. Before We Begin
Introduction to the Plan
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Between May and October, a Sense of Unease
An Introduction to the Applegate Fire Plan
by Diana Coogle
Every year around Mayor June a sense of unease settles over me, It stays there more or
less subdued, depending on the temperature and the presence or absence of thunderclouds, until
the rains begin again in October, In the meantime, the fear of fire looms over me,
Several times during the quarter century I have lived on the mountain, this fear has been
realized - once in the deluge of lightning (the "fire from the dragon's tongue") of 1987, once
last summer, three times by human carelessness, and several other times by lightning, Each fire
has put me on tenterhooks, and each time the fire has been put out - suppressed - either by me
and my terrified neighbors or, for the lightning fires, by air tankers, helicopters, and courageous
fire crews, In spite of my fear and in spite of the terrifying aspect of lightning, I don't think I
really (not really) thought that a fire would destroy my mountain, my home, my forests, Until
Quartz Gulch, After the Quartz Gulch fire I thought, "If there, then possibly here,"
One day last January I hiked the Collings Mountain Trail with some friends, beginning
in the lush riparian vegetation next to a full and gurgling Grouse Creek, then hiking through a
grove of slender, red trunked madrones, then through an oak savannah, then into the Douglas fir
forest on top of the ridge, where occasional breaks in the big trees offered views of Grayback,
Sugarloaf, the Carberry Creek valley, Iron Mountain, the Red Buttes, The mountains were white
with new snow that day; the sun was winter pale, the forest large, the walking invigorating, the
company a delight It was a beautiful day in a beautiful place,
On the descent, though, the forest turned to spindle. Thin, wobbly firs crowded the hill-
side like thickets. Once through the spindly trees and back in a real forest, I stopped to gaze
down a steep slope just above the Carberry Creek swimming hole. Half of me filled with joy
that this beauty was my home; the other half filled with dread because I knew that lightning
knew no difference between Collings Mountain and Quartz Gulch,
Nor does lightning know the difference between Quartz Gulch and the mountains
around my own house, A fire that got started here could be in it for the home stretch, and that
could be a long. long stretch - a catastrophic stretch. The steep hillsides are like freeways for
fire, the dead branches of big trees like rungs of a ladder for fire, the preponderance of brush
like a candy store for fire. I can see how we got into this mess - unwise timber harvesting cou-
pled with decades of fire exclusion - and I can see what would help - cutting the dead limbs and
the thin umbrella trees, thinning the thickets of spindly firs, removing the brush. In my plan we
would leave the big trees, let the forest remain a forest, keep the ecosystem intact But how
much would it take to keep the ecosystem intact? How much would it take to prevent cata-
strophic fire? How big a price am I willing to pay for what degree of safety?
At one of the public meetings for the Applegate Fire Plan last fall, someone said there
was no doubt that the people who live near the Quartz Gulch fIre wish now they had cut their
trees - meaning that we should all learn a lesson and cut our trees so we don't end up like
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Quartz Gulch. But that's a false dilemma. There are other variables, Maybe the fire won't be just
here. Maybe these particular trees would survive. Maybe the fire that started here would be sup-
pressed. Maybe I don't want to live in a field. Maybe there are other ways to mitigate the possi-
bilities or the strength of fire, "Safety" is a gambler's game, a continuum along which anyone
could say at any point, "I'll stop here, I'm not willing to pay a higher price for a lower risk."
This document is about looking at that price against those risks. It's about understanding
what we mean when we talk about fire safety, the role of fire in the forests, and our relationship
with fire, It's about our watershed - its trees and rivers, its fish and wildlife, its soils and plants,
and its history, It's about the decisions we want to make - individually and as a community _
concerning our relationship with fire, It's about community - the human community living here
in the larger biotic community, It's about our place in the ecosystems, our interactions with the
larger world around us,
My job as editor, I was told as I was handed a sheaf of papers from various agencies and
individuals, was to make these papers readable - that is, to translate scientific jargon and the
occasional bureaucratese, without doing disservice to the accuracy of the information, into lan-
guage the public - and the agency people - would enjoy reading. In the process of doing that I
have developed a great respect for the writing of these scientists, Their language may have been
dense, full of technical terms, and hard to understand, but it said exactly, precisely what was
meant. From that point of view, in many cases the writing couldn't be improved. The problem
was that it also couldn't be read, at least not easily, not by nonscientists like me. As I worked, I
realized that the precision of these writers had come at the expense of fluidity, and I hope that if
I have sacrificed some precision of vocabulary for the sake of clarity and fluidity of language, I
haven't done any disservice to accuracy, If a technical term simply could not be translated easi-
ly into ordinary language, I put it in the glossary, though I minimized the glossary by excluding
terms with self-explanatory meanings or terms that were used only once and were clearly
explained at the time they were used.
In organizing this material, I chose to begin, naturally enough, with this section of intro-
ductory material (the process of developing the fire plan, some general information about the
Applegate and about its relation to fire) and to follow it with the chapters that tell us about the
area we live in - historical background as well as a report on the current conditions of various
aspects of our environment. After that come the essential bits - strategies for fuel reduction and
other techniques for making our homes more fire safe and our surroundings more fire resilient
Some readers might want to go directly to that section, down to the nitty-gritty, the how-to,
After all, that's what the purpose of the paper is.
But I hope you'll want to read the whole thing. I learned so much about the land we live
in and on and with by doing this work that as I read and revised, my goal shifted slightly, not
just to make these pages readable but to make my fellow Applegaters want to read them so they
would learn what I was learning, too, After all, we are talking about the homeland we love, and
the more we know and understand, the better we'll be able to make our decisions. Just as
important, the more we know, the better we will see the land we walk on and the woods we
walk through. I see our watershed with different eyes for having read these pages.
I don't agree with everything that is said here, but that doesn't matter. It all deserves to
be said, and all these points of view deserve to be listened to, Anyway, most of what is here is
fact rather than opinion. Our interpretation of the facts along with the priorities we place on the
values in our lives will determine how much of a price we want to pay for what level of risk.
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Taking Aim
The Goals of the Applegate Fire Plan
Before looking at the goals of this plan, it might be worthwhile to take a look at what it
is and is not intended to do, It isn't a legal document; it does not take the place of the National
Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) in land management or any other process, nor does it
change any existing land use or land management laws, Nothing in here has to be done - it is all
suggestion. Actions on public lands still need to involve the public, and private landowners are
still free to do as little or as much towards fire safety as they see fit, within the parameters of
the law, This Applegate Fire Plan will provide an overall view of the watershed and its relation-
ship with fire, historically and presently, and it will suggest ways we can improve that relation-
ship, personally and as a community, It will also provide direction to local agency land man-
agers, identifying high risk areas, items of value to the community, and enthusiastic and con-
cerned landowners who wish to work with their state or federal neighbors in developing fuel
reduction strategies, Finally, it gives us a plan for emergency procedures, useful in fire, flood,
or other emergency.
The goals are:
1, To foster a respect for ecosystems and the processes that maintain them so that we
can understand and relate to fire as one of those processes
2. To restore fire-adaptive species in the ecosystems, thereby encouraging more fire-
resilient forests
3. To develop strategies for fuel reduction and fire suppression that Applegate residents
can accept as sensible precautions against catastrophic fire and that the agencies that manage
lands in the Applegate can incorporate into their current management practices
4. To improve community awareness of our stewardship of the land through this look at
the behavior and history of fire in our watershed
5, To develop a system of emergency communications for Applegate neighborhoods
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But Why?
Justifying the Idea of an Applegate Fire Plan
Why do we need this project? Why do we want another fire plan? In a nutshell, people
don't like to have their loved ones, homes, livestock, or property burned up in a wildfire,
Despite these concerns, however, the potential for a catastrophic fire that will result in these
effects is dramatically increasing in the Applegate because of increasing human-caused wildfire
ignitions, increased vegetation density (fuel for fire), and greater numbers of people and homes,
To lower the risk and hazard of wildfire - to prevent catastrophic fire - we need a coordinated
effort by all neighbors.
Primarily, we have a significant opportunity to address four aspects of this problem:
human-caused wildfires, hazardous fuels, access for fire suppression, and emergency communi-
cations. As indicated below, each of these plays a role in the overall problem,
(1) People start the majority of the wildfires occurring within the Applegate watershed,
Reducing the number of such ignitions will reduce the potential for a catastrophic wildfire.
(2) Years of successful fire suppression have resulted in thousands upon thousands of
acres of overly dense brush and forest areas that are 'ripe' to burn if an ignition occurs, In many
of these areas, a wildfire would be difficult or impossible to stop under extreme conditions,
(3) Hundreds of homes have been built in the rural interface, Many have narrow or steep
access roads or driveways with dense encroaching or overhanging vegetation, inadequate clear-
ances for fire engines, and a lack of suitable turnaround sites. Many homes are located in dense-
ly vegetated areas with such vegetation literally coming up to the front door, In a wildfrre situa-
tion, most firefighters would be reluctant to drive up such roads with a fire engine or attempt to
save such a home for fear of being overrun by the wildfire, Their efforts to save a home are
often futile if the landowner has not provided space for them to work safely, Lost homes and
lives could be the result.
(4) Finally, many homes have been built in areas with no capacity for alternative elec-
tronic communication, particularly if power were interrupted in an emergency, Nevertheless, at
such times only the capability of good communication will allow us to participate in sharing
vital information.
Because of the large number of individuals and organizations that own or manage land
within this watershed, cooperation and coordination of individual efforts addressing one or
more of these problems are essential. With cooperation, coordination, and sharing of informa-
tion, individual and group efforts to reduce the potential for a catastrophic wildfire can be sig-
nificantly more effective,
In order to accomplish this, a 'road map' - a Strategic Fire Plan - is necessary. Such a
document will identify both broad-scale and site-specific goals and objectives, identify areas
with similar levels of risk of catastrophic frre, describe techniques and tools available to help
resolve these issues, and identify resources that can provide advice or financial or technical
assistance. It will provide the information, guidance and coordination necessary to ensure that
our efforts to reduce the potential for a catastrophic fire within this watershed are successful.
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Finding OUf Place
Strategic Planning Areas
The Applegate Fire Plan addresses the whole 500,000 acres of the Applegate watershed
- more than 10,000 residents, This represents not only a lot of land and a lot of people but a lot
of variation in landscapes, too, and in degrees of fire hazard. All these things brought up a prob-
lem as we began formulating this plan: what scale to use, both for overall analysis and for local
fuel strategies and emergency communications.
Although we sometimes referred to a map of the whole Applegate watershed to help
show its variations, the Interdisciplinary Team found it needed smaller areas to more effectively
analyze current conditions. The Emergency Communications component also needed smaller
neighborhood-sized areas for telephone trees, and fuel reduction strategies needed to be devel-
oped on a local level, for social as well as ecological reasons,
Therefore, we broke the so-called "4th field" Applegate watershed into nineteen areas
using both "5th field" and smaller "6th field" watershed lines, (Think of these areas as the
Applegate basin with its subbasins and their sub-subbasins.) These watershed lines follow
drainage contours and so make biological sense for analysis, They also work fairly well for fuel
reduction strategies because fire most often travels up a valley or gulch, Examples of 6th field
watersheds are Thompson Creek, Yale Creek, and Cheney Creek.
There are actually thirty-eight 6th field watersheds within the Applegate River's
drainage, and we combined a few, especially where there were either not enough residents (such
as in the Carberry/Steve/Sturgis/O'Brien areas of the upper drainage) or if a drainage line split a
community (as in Ruch),
The map on the next page shows these nineteen areas that we are calling Strategic
Planning Areas (SPAs), These SPAs will be used throughout most of our fmal Applegate Fire
Plan for the fuels reduction, fire suppression, and emergency communications sections, This
will be an easy reference for you to find your neighborhood - your "place."
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Who We Are and What We Are Like
Social Aspects of the Applegate
(Excerpts from "Words Into Action: A Community Assessment of the Applegate Valley," by
Kevin Preister, 1994)
The Applegate Watershed is comprised of approximately 496,500 acres in southwestern
Oregon, It is within the Klamath Geological Province which emerged over 250 million years
ago, Between 20 and 100 inches of rainfall occurs yearly in steep and rugged elevations ranging
from 1,000 to 7,000 feet Productive forests are supported by over 50 different soil types, most
of which are absorbent and moderately deep,
The Applegate River starts in California at an elevation of 4,145 feet and flows 60 miles
to join the Rogue River near Grants pass, The area of the Applegate system is 768 square miles,
The Little Applegate system is 117 square miles, while the Williams Creek system is 85 square
miles,
Valley residents identify with particular geographic areas. The historical distinction
between Upper and Lower Applegate areas is largely disappearing with demographic changes.
Research discovered five neighborhood units in the Applegate watershed, none of which is
incorporated: Upper Applegate (includes Ruch and McKee Bridge), Applegate (includes
Thompson Creek and Provolt), Williams, Murphy, and Wilderville, Each area is characterized
by face-to-face recognition as well as mutual caretaking and support
The middle 1970s brought dramatic changes to the Applegate Valley, according to local
residents. Land was broken up into smaller parcels; agricultural operations began to require out-
side income; a host of newcomers brought population influx and a land boom; the alternative
community began to settle in the valley; the local economic base declined; commuting became
a lifestyle; and people began locking their doors,
Economic and demographic data related to Jackson and Josephine Counties shed light
on current changes in the Applegate. The counties' population grew by 10.5 and 6,4% respec-
tively between 1980 and 1990. The retirement community has grown through in-migration,
bringing a significant source of wealth and stimulating services employment, especially med-
ical. The occupational structure is changing: employment related to logging and woods products
manufacturing has declined steadily, while trade and services employment registered sizeable
increases, accounting for 90% of the growth in nonmanufacturing jobs in the two counties.
These trends are expected to continue.
The Applegate Valley itself is estimated to have 12,650 people, based on disaggregated
census data (as of 1994; more recent figures are not available). Although the population has
been growing steadily through in-migration, school enrollments have remained fairly constant
over a long period, reflecting an aging of the valley's residents, About 70% of the valley's popu-
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lation lives in Josephine County. The valley has a lower rate of trade and services employment
and a higher rate of agricultural and lumber and wood manufacturing employment than the two
counties, The valley has a higher rate of both wealthier and poorer people than the two-county
region, as reflected in a higher average price of homes, mean household income, mobile home
occupancy and poverty rates. It has a higher proportion of residents who work in a neighboring
county or who work outside of Oregon altogether, The percentage of self-employed is much
higher in Jackson Applegate than Jackson County and much lower for Josephine Applegate
compared to Josephine County,
Four key cultural fmdings were discovered: 1) Valley residents have a strong land ethic,
Caretaking of the land was related across major community segments including agriculture, for-
est workers, and newcomers, 2) Community discussions centered on old-timer/newcomer
themes. This social category revealed differences in values, orientation to the land, and
lifestyles, as well as the continued effort in the valley to absorb change, 3) The rural culture still
works, which means, despite frequent comparisons between old-timers and newcomers, rela-
tions of cooperation and support still predominate, 4) Caretaking systems are stretched to their
limit. As state and federal management of resources has grown, the local land ethic has been
abridged. The community has been fragmented as well by the influx of new people and the
decline of the agricultural and forest base, leading to efforts to re-create a sense of community.
Issues are statements made by residents which can be acted upon and indicate key areas
of change in the community, Five major issues were held across all social groupings and geo-
graphic areas of the valley: 1) Residents expressed support for a "balanced" approach to forest
management and had fair agreement about the elements of such management. Opposition to
clearcuts was widespread but some level of timber production through select cutting was
desired; concern about the number of dead and dying trees was very high and the [perceived]
lack of agency attention not well understood, 2) Water issues are very current because of the
drought and the greater demands on the resource brought by increased population, worrying the
farming community in particular. 3) Logging on private lands has intensified and has generated
broad concern about its effects, 4) Domet firewood demand was expressed across the valley. 5)
Interface issues are related to predators, wildlife, fire hazard and beetle-killed trees.
The forest worker employment base has declined, Logging firms are reduced in number
and have fewer workers, while many workers have retired or left the area, The agricultural
lifestyle has continued to wane, with land parcelization and an increase in "hobby" operations,
while the granges appear to be revitalized as a social organization for the wider community. The
retirement community is increasingly important in terms of the wealth it brings to the commu-
nity, the involvement of retired people in community affairs, and their value orientation. The
alternative community continues to be important in the valley, especially its role in monitoring
public lands management, A large number of "lone eagles" were identified, those individuals
with links to the global marketplace who do not depend on the local economy, leading to an
assumption that their proportion of the population is higher in the Applegate Valley than in the
two-county area
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Playing with Matches
Fire Risk in the Applegate
Although we watch the skies anxiously when summer thunderstorms threaten to rain
lightning into our dry forests, it seems it might be wiser to watch ourselves, When it comes to
fire risk in the Applegate, human beings are more dangerous than lightning.
"Fire risk" is a self-explanatory term - how much chance is there that a fire will start? _
but it also has a technical definition: the chance of fire starting as determined by the presence
and activity of causative agents. Human activity is certainly one of these causative agents, so
human actions greatly influence the pattern of fire risk - as well as the number of fires - in the
watershed, In fact, human activities are high on the list of causative agents and include mowing,
landscape maintenance, "backyard" burning, fanning, ranching, timber management, light man-
ufacturing, mining and quarry operations, recreation, tourist and travel activities, and electrical
transmission, Lightning occurs in the watershed on a moderate to high frequency with, typical-
ly, at least two or three lightning storms every summer. Typically, but not exclusively, lightning-
caused fires occur in the ridge top areas and on the upper portions of the slopes,
Fire occurrence (or fire incidence) is also self-explanatory - and also has a technical def-
inition: the average number of fires in a specified area during a specified time, In the Applegate
between 1970 and 1999, a specified time period with available data, fire occurrence was about
78 fires per year, 56% of the 2,257 fires in the Applegate watershed during those 29 years were
human caused. The remaining 44% were started by lightning,
Typically, a human-caused fire in the watershed starts at low elevations along roads and
in the wildland-urban interface and burns up to the ridge tops, When these fIfes occur under
conditions of high and extreme fIfe danger, they are often costly, difficult, and damaging.
Because they often threaten life, property, and other resources of high value, they require a
large and complex response to suppress them,
19
_~_.,. -- "'__"'~~__'______' _'._~,..~.,._.___U"'___._,__"_,~_. "..
~~
20
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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
III. Getting the Picture
Current Conditions in the Applegate
21
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--"-,~.._~---- .......
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22
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From Then till Now
Historical Influences on the Behavior of Fire in the Applegate
Fire is as old as the hills, The cornerstones of hell are fire and brimstone; after the flood,
it is said, will come the fire, and when we envision catastrophe in the Applegate, we think of
fire, We live uneasily with fire here in the Applegate, and for good reason, As we try to right
the balance between fire and ourselves, which has been so out of kilter for so many decades, we
would do well to look to the past and learn what we can, not only about the character of fire but
about our relationship to it as well - then and now.
The geology of our area gives us the longest view into the past and tells us something
about the way fire behaves even today, Our mountains were formed by shifting continental
plates over 150 million years ago, Gradually, granite and serpentine rocks forced their way into
the common volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and everything (except for the serpentines) weath-
ered into the productive soils of our valleys and mountains, In Grants Pass and in scattered
patches northwest of Dutchman Peak, are small intrusions of granite and diorite. Each parent
rock produced a variety of soils, habitats, and plant communities - and a different response to
fire, The islands of serpentine, for instance, produce less vegetation over time and, therefore,
have fewer fires than other geologic situations.
Current climate conditions, as seems obvious especially in the drought years, influence
the frequency, intensity, duration and extent of fire (four qualities that are called, collectively, a
fire regime), Our summers are dry and lightning-prone because a Pacific coast high-pressure
system typically blocks precipitation for much of the season, In the upper elevations, where
temperatures are low and rainfall is high, fires are less frequent than in the valleys. Larger cli-
matic factors such as long-term, global variations related to EI Nino or to sun spot cycles also
influence fire regimes, but this influence is confounded by local climatic variations, recent land
management activities, and bums. Generally, we should be aware of climatic cycles, though
they are weakly related to the probability of fire and its likely intensity .
Past climatic changes also have left a lasting influence, Since the north-bound glacial
recession over 10,000 years ago, the climate has been relatively warm and dry. The most
notable era with this climate was the Xerothermic period (Hansen, 1955), which lasted approxi-
mately four thousand years and "ended" about four thousand years ago. Our ecosystem adapted
to its climatic influence by hosting plants that resist, avoid, or thrive in a regime of frequent,
low-intensity fire, Manzanita, canyon live oak, California black oak, Oregon white oak, cean-
othus, madrone, ponderosa pine, sugar pine, and Douglas fir are examples of our most common
fue-adapted species that migrated north from California,
The human influence, too, has not been insignificant to the behavior of rue, The Native
Americans of this area were not passive residents in a landscape; they managed the ecosystem
by planting crops; stimulating root and berry crops; culturing materials for tools, ceremonies,
23
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and lodging; and burning to maintain habitat for game, Though then as now lightning set many
fires, the human inhabitants, then as now, also set fires, with the difference that the Native
Americans set their fires deliberately in an effective strategy to manage species composition
and forest structure. (Though we sometimes also deliberately set fires as a management strate-
gy, most wildfires in the Applegate today are accidental.) Controlling the frequency and timing
of their fires, the native inhabitants were able to create and maintain entirely different vegeta-
tion mosaics and plant communities, Because forests were repeatedly and consistently burned,
they were kept thinned, shrub cover was kept low, and herb and grass vegetation was constantly
recycled, The Native Americans seemed to live safely with fire,
With the arrival of European settlers, adventurers, and fortune-seekers, the human use of
fire changed, In the first half of the 1800s the Hudson Bay trappers burned as they depleted
beaver populations. Their intent was to comer the market and destroy the source habitat.
Conflicts with the Native Americans over "management strategies" were common,
A few years after the California gold rush in 1849, gold was discovered in Oregon, The
consequent influx of miners and settlers intensified the existing patterns of fire ignition and
burning, By the mid 1800s miners and trappers were the dominant ignition source, Miners
burned to expose rock outcrops, and ranchers and settlers burned to clear the forests and elimi-
nate rodent and insect pests, According to Lieberg (1900) and Haefner (1912) the settlers start-
ed 95% of the fires; native inhabitants and lightning were responsible for the remainder.
The lethal and destructive fires of the late nineteenth century fueled the public to push
for fire suppression, Fires were believed to be wasteful and ruinous, Initial assignments for the
early Rogue River and Siskiyou National Forests were to curb the indiscriminate use of fire and
to suppress fires that had started, Without trails or mechanized equipment and with poor detec-
tion techniques, the suppression effort was ineffective and controversial with local residents
who felt fire was beneficial, particularly for ranching. During World War II, fire suppression
became a patriotic issue, At that time, too, access was improved; pumps, chain saws and dozers
became more portable, and a lookout system was established, The smoke jumper base installed
in 1940 at Cave Junction was part of the aggressive attempt to eliminate fire within national
forest boundaries, After 1940 fire control became much more effective, and forests were
allowed to grow, Fire's natural influence was ignored as the pendulum swung toward full sup-
preSSion,
The current conditions for fire differ greatly throughout the Applegate, since fire
regimes are unique for each plant "series," a category based on the species that will dominate
the site if it is left undisturbed and unburned for centuries, The most common series in the
Applegate watershed are Douglas fir and white fir. Over time it's been found that high-eleva-
tion, wet series (such as mountain hemlock and Shasta red (If) bum at a frequency of about 35
years; mid-elevation, moderate series (white fir and moist Douglas flf) at about 10 years, and
low-elevation, dry series at less than 5 years,
The behavior of fire differs significantly between series, In general, fire occurs less fre-
quently with increasing elevation, with decreasing vegetation, with decreasing accumulation of
dead material, and on north-facing slopes, What follows is a description of each series in terms
of its relationship with fire,
(1) Mountain hemlock is a climax species dominant on north-facing glaciated sites and
on extremely cold, high elevation sites (6,500 feet or more) with a short growing season.
Biomass production is low, and species associated with this series do not produce much litter,
Fire-free intervals range from 20-120 years. When fire does occur, it is frequently of high sever-
ity.
24
_'.n ...____._____._.. _, ._...... ....., ._.._,,__~__.~..._.., ,.,..._.~.,."_"._._....._."".._>-._,,___~._..,..___.......,_.__, .. ""_'~'~_"_"___"'""_"_'_'__""'_~
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(2) The Shasta red fir series occupies an elevational zone slightly lower than the moun-
tain hemlock series, Not being confined to unique topographic positions, it is also a more exten-
sive series, Shasta red fir commonly sheds needles and naturally prunes branches, creating a lot
of fuel for a potential fire, The Shasta red fir series also produces more biomass than the moun-
tain hemlock series and suffers a higher mortality rate, So trees fall more often, ending up soon-
er - and in greater tonnage - on the forest floor as fuel. In addition, the fuel cures faster in the
drier habitat. Fire-free intervals are slightly shorter than for mountain hemlock. Shasta red fir
can tolerate occasional light fire, but effective fire suppression is causing it to lose dominance
to both mountain hemlock at higher elevations and white fir at lower elevations,
(3) The white fir series occupies a belt between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, fmgering into the
Shasta red fir series above and mixing with the Douglas fir series below. Biomass and litter pro-
duction are high, Fire-free intervals range from 15-100 years.
(4) The Douglas fir series occurs at elevations of 1,000 to 4,000 feet. A prolific producer
of biomass and litter, Douglas fir nurtures conditions that favor fire, However, unlike white fir
and mountain hemlock, it is resistant to frequent, low-intensity fire,
(5) A belt of the white oak: series exists in and immediately above the interior valley
floor of the Applegate (Detling, 1961; Hickman, 1972, White oak: (Quercus garryana) domi-
nates the tree layer, under which thrive shrubs, grass and forbs, Several manzanitas are common
in this series, All species will return after a disturbance, Some sprout from the root
(Schapmeyer, 1974), but hoary and whiteleafmanzanitas (Arctostaphylos caneseens, and A. vis _
cida, respectively) do not sprout from the crown after fire, Greenleaf manzanita (A. patula),
usually found on the better sites, has a basal burl and will sprout (Munz and Keck, 1959). Fuel
production is low but what exists dries and burns quickly, Fire-free intervals range from 3-20
years,
(6) Driest of the conifer-dominated series, ponderosa pine occupies the lower slopes of
the inland valleys, where it integrates with white oak: on the driest sites and Douglas fir where
soils are generally deeper and more productive. Black oak: and poison oak: are common associ-
ates that are stimulated by fire. Ponderosa pine is productive and fire resistant.
25
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. _."~...__._- ~...
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The Ground We Walk On
Soils of the Applegate
Any area will revegetate itself if left alone after a fire, although in intensely burned
areas, conifers take longer to come in, If we want to minimize erosion in critical areas, howev-
er, we will want to revegetate them as soon as possible after a fire has swept through, This job
is most efficiently done when we have a good understanding of the soil we are planting. How
much vegetation we can plant and encourage and how quickly it will grow are affected by the
depth of the soil, the steepness and aspect of the slope, the soil's parent material, its drainage
and moisture-retaining capacity, and its penneability, Because shallow soils hold less water, are
more likely to limit roots, and often have fewer nutrients than other soils, they are not as pro-
ductive for plant gro~ and revegetation is slower. The steeper slopes, which are more suscep-
tible to surface erosion and tend to lose moisture quickly, may also inhibit revegetation, A third
complicating factor, parent material, has helped determine how nutritious and wet the soil is
and how susceptible it is to slumping and sliding, Soil is the most important aspect in defining
plant communities,
For the purposes oftrus fire plan, we have identified four categories of parent material:
alluvial, ultramafic, granitic, and "other and mixed." Alluvial soils are those that have been
deposited by streams. They are usually fmUld on gentle slopes or areas where earth has accumu-
lated abundantly, and they typically contain soils of various origins, Ultramafic soils were
derived from serpentine or peridotite rocks and are resultingly high in magnesium, iron and
other heavy metals and low in calcium. These nutrient imbalances and deficiencies lead to low
productivity in these soils, which are consequently sparsely vegetated. A paucity of organic
matter in ultramafic soils further impedes revegetation after a fire. Granitic soils tend to be
highly erodable because they are dry, thirsty soils that lack cohesion. Soil particles are easily
transported by gravity, water, and wind, In the "other soils" category we put soils whose parent
materials have similar productivity and similar properties concerning moisture and erosion,
Parent material of these soils is most commonly sedimentary, volcanic, or metamorphic (any of
those types altered partially by heat andlor pressure), These soils are typically more productive
and less susceptible to the impacts of fire than- either granitic or ultramafic soils, Mixed soils, as
one would suppose, are combinations of ultramafics, granitics, or "other" soils.
Slope is generally the most important factor in a soil's susceptibility to erosion~ the
steeper the slope, the greater the hazard, If we could discount slope, we would see that granitic
and ultramafic soils are more prone to erosion than the other soil types in this watershed. Soils
classified as !tother" are by far the most widely distributed throughout the watershed Granitics
are the next most common, and ultramafics are the third,
26
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---~._.,"-_..~...~.-
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Patches of Pines and Occasional Oaks
Patterns of Vegetation in the Landscape
It is easy enough to look at the landscape of the Applegate and see patches of vegetation
and landforms - pines or grasses or streams, It is this quilt, this design of the landscape, that
natural resource managers are studying as they search for the best management decisions, They
see landscapes as an aggregate of areas of vegetation and landforms that are similar to each
other because of their origins from climate, geology, natural disturbances, human activities, and
plant succession (Forman and Godron 1986), They describe landscapes as having three ele-
ments: matrix, patches, and corridors (Diaz and Apostol, 1992). The terms have technical mean-
ings similar to their everyday meanings: matrix is the most contiguous vegetation type; patches
are areas of vegetation that are similar internally but that differ from the vegetation surrounding
them, and corridors connect similar patches.
Eighty-three percent of the Applegate watershed has a forest matrix, As a general rule,
the largest trees grow on north-to-east aspects, at higher elevations, and in inaccessible areas,
With an increase in elevation the forests change from a hardwood-conifer mix to mixed conifer,
then to true firs and mountain hemlock at the highest elevations, The different species of trees
and tree sizes vary greatly because of the differences in topography, aspect, soil, and plant suc-
cession and because of the edge effect between the different vegetation types, Natural distur-
bances such as fire, windthrow, insects, and disease, along with human activities, have also con-
tributed to the variability of the forests, The result of these factors is the great diversity of forest
landscapes that we enjoy in the Applegate,
Patches of grassland and shrubs are scattered throughout the forests. Along the south
aspects, the patches of shrub lands increase in size, though the high elevations on the southern
boundary are more moist on the northerly slopes. The patches of grasslands and shrub lands
indicate hot, dry areas with perhaps shallow soils that are not conducive for growing trees,
These patches are most often found on south slopes and ridgetops, The western, southwestern,
and southeastern portions of the watershed also sport patches of serpentine,
In the lower-elevation valley bottoms along the Applegate River and its tributaries, the
matrix is white oak/grasslands or urban/agriculture areas with very small patches of hardwood
and mixed hardwood-coniferous forest. The valley bottoms can also be viewed as a corridor.
Adjacent to and up slope from the bottom lands on north slopes are more hardwood and mixed
hardwood-coniferous forests in the earlier seral stages, a reflection of historical timber harvest-
ing and human use on public and private lands, South slopes are generally naturally open.
The vegetation pattern becomes more complex when more structural components are
included, such as vegetation diameters, the number of canopy layers or height classes,
topoedaphic (soil and landform) influences, and disturbances,
Natural change in the vegetation pattern of a landscape is inherent. Natural succession is
continuously changing the vegetation, and there is no single seral stage and species mix that can
be considered the only natural stage, Disturbances to vegetation life cycles come from insects,
pathogens, wind, fire, fire suppression, fire exclusions, and other human actions. Along with
soil composition, fire exclusion may be the most important process responsible for vegetation
patterns, species composition, and crowded conditions of the plants in today's forests, As a
27
--" ._.... -._,.,..~.--.._-, - <-,--._.. ..._-ft""'_"'__"~"_____'_'~"_'''''''''''''''__~'.M__________~~___.~.,
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result of fire exclusion, these forests are densely crowded, tree growth rates have declined,
shade-tolerant tree species are more abundant, forest stands are more homogeneous, and most
shrublands are in a late seral stage, Fire exclusion has also probably decreased the area of
native grasslands, Without fire, shrub and tree species have encroached upon the grass ecosys-
tems, Due to livestock grazing, road-building, and other activities, predominant plant species
have shifted from native perennials to non-native annuals.
The relationship between shrub lands and woodlands is similar to that between grass-
lands and woodlands, Trees are growing more densely along the edges of shrublands, Mortality
is common among conifers in these areas, especially during periods of drought. Among the
shrubs, the lack of frequent underbuming has resulted in crowded plants and a build-up of fuel
materials. Increases in stem density and shifts in species composition have also occurred in the
woodlands, Trees are more numerous and, as a result, smaller in diameter, and they are proba-
bly less vigorous (in diameter growth and regeneration capabilities). In oak woodlands acorn
mast production has decreased, and young Douglas firs are growing in the shade of white oak
trees,
Fire exclusion has allowed forest stands to become overstocked with trees and has
caused a gradual change in tree species composition, White fir is not regenerating because of
the absence of wide openings in the forest canopy, True fir species are growing at lower eleva-
tions and beneath Douglas firs and pines, Douglas fir has invaded pine sites and is responsible
for a decrease in ponderosa and sugar pines, Douglas fir is also out-competing knobcone pine,
the main fire-dependent species, Large diameter oak trees, now dead, are common in the under-
story of Douglas fir forests and tell a similar story: the Douglas firs grew over the oaks, and the
oaks could not get enough light to survive, Shade tolerant tan oak is dominating the understory
of conifer forests, In general, shade tolerant, fire intolerant species are increasing in abundance,
and shade intolerant species are decreasing,
Some land managers see the abundance of conifer regeneration as responsible for the
demise of old-growth trees scattered across the landscape, Other land managers point to an
over-abundance of old growth trees on certain sites (too much competition within that age
structure) or to drought, regional warming, insects and disease, timber harvest, simple old age,
etc, The young trees, often thousands of stems per acre, are out-competing the physiologically
weakened older trees for limited water and nutrients, These overstocked conditions result in
lethargic trees that grow poorly. When conifers gain less than 1.5 inches in girth over ten years,
they are deemed to have "low physiological vigor" - they grow slowly, catch diseases, and show
other signs of stress - and are more susceptible to bark beetle attack (Hall 1995).
The Forest Service recommends a certain optimum distance between trees (the basal
area stocking) based on the series' relative susceptibility to insects and disease. Usually the
greater the density at which these trees grow, the greater their susceptibility. At the time meas-
urements were taken in the Applegate (for the 1994 Applegate Ecosystem Health Assessment),
the forests in all series proved to be overcrowded. The more productive series (white fir and
Douglas fir) showed the greatest difference between the recommended stocking and the forest
as we see it
Foresters use an "average relative density" index to help them understand the state of
health of a particular stand of trees (Drew and Flewelling 1979). If a stand has an average rela-
tive density of 0,55 or more, the trees are considered to be so competitive that mortality is
imminent. At this point, trees have a greater probability of dying from biotic factors, mainly
bark beetles. For the majority of unthinned Douglas fir stands in the analysis area, the average
relative density index is approximately 0.70.
28
"^._~,..__~.~-. ..,.,-".... ..' ..-..~__..~.__.....~,._....________.,,___ ,_".,..~,__._~..P.O~__ ......
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Sick Neighbors
Port Orford Cedar and Its Root Disease
Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) is a unique tree species that occurs in a
limited range in Southwest Oregon and Northwest California, In the Applegate basin, Port
Orford cedar is found primarily in the Williams Creek watershed and is also widely distributed
in the upper reaches of Slate Creek above the confluence with Ramsey creek. Of particular
interest in the Slate Creek drainage is the Cedar Log Flat Research Natural Area, where one of
the plant communities is made up of Port Orford cedar, hairy honeysuckle, and fescue on ultra-
mafic soils,
Phytophthora lateralis, the pathogen that causes Port Orford cedar root disease, current-
ly infests approximately 18% (1,294 out of 7,275) of the BLM acres with Port Orford cedar in
the Williams watershed, mostly within the East and West forks of Williams Creek. Smaller
infested areas occur in the southern portion of the Munger's creek drainage, and one small
infection center is located in the Powell creek drainage, The number of infected acres under
other ownerships in the Williams watershed and the number of infected acres in the Slate creek
drainage are unknown.
Phytophthora lateralis is spread over long distances when infested soil or water is
brought into previously disease-free sites, Road construction, road maintenance, mining, log-
ging, and traffic on forest roads have been the main means of moving earth from infected areas
into the forests, Soil clinging to the feet of elk, cattle, and humans can also carry the pathogen,
but infection through these means occurs on a much more localized basis than that associated
with vehicles, Spread of Phytophthora lateralis occurs primarily in the late fall, winter, and
early spring when the cool, moist environmental conditions favorable for the pathogen prevail.
Except in unusually wet conditions, little or no spread occurs in the hot, dry summer months.
Phytophthora lateralis can also be transported in water, Once the pathogen has been
introduced into a stream or body of water, there is always a possibility that propagules of the
pathogen can be transferred with water from that source. Propagules are especially likely to be
numerous if cedars that are in decline due to the disease or that have recently died of it are adja-
cent to water, but they may be present even in areas where all mortality appears to have
occurred years previously, The probability of spreading propagules of the pathogen in water
used for management activities is low if water is taken only from sources without evidence of
root disease. Using water from uninfested sources for forest use has been recommended as part
of a management strategy for Port Orford cedar root disease.
Water sources within the Applegate basin should be inventoried in order to identify
those that are infested by Phytophthora lateralis, Subsequently, when water is needed for fire
fighting or dust abatement, only uninfested water should be used if possible. Where no clean
water sources exist and water must be taken from a probably infested source, the water should
be treated with Clorox before use (1 gallon ofClorox to each 1,000 gallons of water). In areas
where water sources have not been inventoried, Clorox should be used as a matter of course.
29
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~...
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Adding chlorine bleach to Phytophthora lateralis-infested water will kill many propagules of
the pathogen. Complete mortality of P. /atera/is zoospores occurs after 60 minutes in 100 ppm
chlorine bleach, Clorox has recently been registered for use in treating water for fire fighting or
dust abatement to decrease the probability of Phytophthora lateralis spread.
Using prescribed fire as a strategy to help prevent the spread of Port Orford cedar root
disease or to kill the pathogen itself has been discussed, but not thoroughly investigated, In the-
ory, fire could decrease or even eliminate Phytophthora latera/is on a site by killing hosts or by
reducing or eliminating inoculum in the soil. Phytophthora latera/is itself is very sensitive to
heat; its survival is minimal in soil exposed to temperatures of 40 C (104 F) or greater, especial-
ly if conditions are dry. If prescribed fires can generate temperatures in this range at sufficient
depths in the soil to reach roots and organic material that are harboring the pathogen, it could
significantly reduce or eliminate Phytophthora /ateralis inoculum, In one trial (DeNitto unpub-
lished), soil baiting was used to evaluate the effects of fire on the presence of Phytophthora lat _
eralis in soil. In this case, the fire was of fairly low intensity with temperatures at or below 38
C (100 F) at a depth of 10 cm (4 inches). The fire did not seem to have any effect on the
pathogen. Effects of higher intensity fires have not yet been evaluated.
30
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Looking Low
Landscape Patterns of Native and Rare Plants
From forest trees to tiniest forbs, the flora of the Applegate is not only a part of the
broad landscape but also a focus of its intimate moments: shooting stars, mariposa lilies, fawn
lilies, ox-eyed daisies, Indian paintbrush - beautiful wildflowers are strewn all over the
Applegate, In addition to the familiar forbs and flowers, the Applegate is also botanically
blessed with a large number of catalogued, classified, and protected rare plants, The Applegate
watershed is in the Siskiyou portion of the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains, which is known as the
second most botanically diverse area in the United States (after the southern Appalachians), and
it stands out among other places in the United States for its many excellent examples of intact
native plant communities,
The Applegate has a large number of rare plants because of its diverse array of habitats,
created by natural evolution, fire, flood, volcanoes, geologic layers, the east-west position of the
mountains (contrasting with the north-south slopes 1 and (especially in the past 150 years)
human activities, Lands wet and dry, wooded and open, rocky and rock-free - the Applegate
offers many kinds of environments as niches for plants, Botanically the Rogue River sub-basin
of the Klamath Mountains shares plant species (many of them rare) that are found south into
northern California, north and east into the Cascades, west into the Coast Range, and east into
the western edge of the great basin of southern and eastern Oregon. Many plants found here are
indigenous to the Klamath region of southwest Oregon and adjacent northern California, and a
few are endemic strictly to the Rogue River valley, We know of no plant species strictly endem-
ic to the Applegate.
The Applegate watershed contains over 72 species that are tracked as "rare" on the U.S,
Forest Service's "Sensitive Species" list and the Bureau of Land Management's "Special Status
Species" list. The different agencies have subtly different classification schemes for rare plants,
but all are loosely based on the Natural Heritage Program's global and state ranking system
adopted nationwide for classifying rare species, In general, species that are federally or state
listed as "endangered" or "threatened" are the rarest and have laws like the Endangered Species
Act requiring protection and management. (This law does not apply to private lands.) Species
classified as "sensitive" by the agencies are those that potentially could be listed in the future,
and policy and internal regulations require protection and management on public lands. Species
listed as "tracking" or "watch" plants are ones that can be relatively common locally, but per-
haps are rare within the state - or are uncommon locally though they are more abundant else-
where. Tracking or watch species are often ones that were once "sensitive" but have been found
to be more secure than once thought. These tracking or watch species generally are not protect-
ed by law, regulations, or policy but are documented when found and protected when possible.
Some species have so little known about them that they are classified as "assessment" or
"review" species until their status can be ascertained, These species are generally protected like
31
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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
"sensitive" species. The Northwest Forest Plan (1994), as amended, also identifies fungi and
plant species that were thought to be associated with late successional forests, These "survey
and manage" species also have their own classification based on these criteria, Many of these
species have been found to be more common than once thought, and interestingly enough only
a few species are on both the "survey and manage" lists and the agencies' "sensitive" lists,
In relation to fire, it is important to understand the patterns of rarity, Rarity can be
expressed as the interaction of three factors: geographic range, local population sizes, and habi-
tat specificity, The rarest species are those that have small geographic ranges, small popula-
tions, and unique or specific habitat requirements, Some rare plants have always likely been
rare, even prior to settlement, often because they were adapted to rare habitats (serpentine out-
crops, fens, etc,), Other plants have become rare because of the impact of humans (anthro-
pogenic factors); many human activities have modified or eliminated suitable habitat or have
directly threatened plants by decreasing their range, decreasing their population sizes, etc.
Endangerment is not synonymous with rarity, Endangerment refers to the factors, or
threats, that affect a species, The most endangered species are ones that are very rare (those
with small ranges and populations and high habitat specificity) and have serious factors that
threaten them, Grazing, mining, agriculture, logging, settlement, road building, prescribed fire,
wildfrres, and fire exclusion within the Applegate valley undoubtedly affected rare plants and
communities historically, Habitat modification or entire habitat loss (e.g. conversion to agricul-
ture or rural and urban development) continues to be the primary factor adversely affecting rare
plant species in the US. and worldwide (although noxious weeds are becoming an increasingly
large factor) (Precious Heritage, 2000). This is likely still occurring, especially on private lands
where rare plant species are not protected by law, As the (inevitable?) development of private
lands in the Applegate watershed continues, the native habitat will continue to be modified, and
remaining suitable habitat for species adapted to those communities will in many cases be
diminished. Rare plants are afforded protection on state and federal public lands, as policies and
laws require the land management agencies to manage these species.
Wildfires had an important role in the Applegate watershed for maintaining grasslands,
shrub lands, oak woodlands, and ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, and true fir forests. Knobcone
pine also needs fire to be able to reproduce. The rare species associated with these communities
were likewise affected by fire. Fire exclusion over the last 100 years has undoubtedly affected
plant communities; it has changed the species composition and resulted in a build-up of fuel
throughout large areas of the landscape, The risk of catastrophic, high intensity wildfire has
increased, Shrubs have colonized into areas that were once grasslands, Hardwood trees and
conifers have colonized areas that were dominated by shrubs. Shade tolerant species (especially
true firs) have colonized areas that were once more open and dominated by shade intolerant
species, The overall density of trees and shrubs has increased, and the abundance of native
herbaceous species in the understory has likely decreased, These trends are apparent, and
effects to rare species associated with these communities are likely,
The role of fire for all the rare plants found in the Applegate watershed is not well
understood. Very little scientific research has been done concerning these species' dependence
on or tolerance of frre or concerning the way frre affects them. Much of what is known, or
believed to be true, is anecdotal, derived from studies on related species, or assumed from what
is known about the response of the habitats that these rare species occur in. Often, land man-
agers, botanists, and ecologists have to make decisions regarding the effects of actions on these
rare species with very little information, In the past, the procedure for protecting these rare
plants has been to prevent an activity from affecting them by avoidance or buffering, thereby
32
_''',__q,,_'_'_'o__ .,._~.._. ___" -.--.""..___~.._._.._.._v~.. __."_._,
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
keeping small islands of occupied habitat in their current successional state, essentially "not
affecting" the small populations, This has had great short-term success in "keeping the pieces"
on the landscape. Recently, however, agency botanists and ecologists have come to understand
that many of these species likely need some level of disturbance to continue to persist or repro-
duce, especially species that are not associated with later successional communities, At least
half of the rare plants known in the Applegate are associated with either early to mid-succes-
sional communities and are not associated with or dependent upon late successional communi-
ties, including a few species identified as "survey and manage" under the Northwest Forest
Plan. Utilizing fire or some means that emulates fire, such as thinning, is likely to be a critical
tool in managing many of these species for the long term,
All the rare species known for the Applegate have been aggregated into one or more of
the vegetation groups listed below. Some species occupy more than one group, especially
species that occupy the ecotones between the groups (edge or transitional habitats), Following
are the eight general vegetation types of the Applegate that are associated with its rare plants,
Barren Areas (BA): These areas support little vegetation. They include serpentine soils,
ridgeline rocky outcrops, and high elevation, subalpine balds, Often, plant species associated
with Barren Areas have adapted to harsh environmental conditions and grow sparsely.
Conifer/Hardwood Forests (CH): In this mixture of conifer and hardwood trees, between
30-70% of the overstory is evergreen or deciduous hardwoods, These types generally have an
important and diverse shrub and herbaceous component due to somewhat open light conditions,
Hardwood Forests (HD): Here, over 70% of the overstory is dominated by evergreen or
deciduous hardwoods. These types often have an important shrub, herbaceous, and grassland
component in the understory due to partially open light conditions, These can include narrow
riparian hardwood forests comprised of maples, cottonwoods and alders along major creeks and
drainages.
Grass and Forb Communities (GF): Generally over 60% of the area is dominated by
native (or non-native) grass and herbaceous vegetation, often on southerly slopes or ridge lines
and on shallow soils, Shrubs and trees can be scattered and make up less than 40% of the cover,
These types generally grade into shrublands or hardwood types.
Mixed Conifer Forests (MC): Here, conifers exceed 70% of the overstory, and forests
are most often dominated by Douglas fir and ponderosa pine or Douglas fir and white fir, While
an important shrub and herbaceous component can occur, the herbaceous layer is often more
scarce in abundance and richness due to dimmer light through a more closed canopy,
Shrubland (SC): In these areas shrubs dominate by at least 40% of the canopy, These
include pure manzanita and chaparral stands that can be classified as climax communities.
These types can grade into hardwood and conifer types, as well as grasslands.
True Fir Forests (TF): When true fIr trees (Abies species) dominate over 70% of conifer-
ous vegetation, we have a plant community called True Fir Forest. Like the mixed conifer
forests, an important shrub and herbaceous component can occur; however, the herbaceous
layer can often be scarce in abundance and diversity because of how little light falls through the
dense overstory.
Wetlands and Water (WA): This group includes ponds, pools, herbaceous wetlands, wet
meadows, and shrub-dominated wetlands,
The protection given to rare plants in the Applegate watershed addresses many of the
concerns mentioned above, but one threat in particular is difficult to combat: the dominance of
non-native plants. During the same time period over the last century that fire exclusion was the
norm, old world herbaceous and grass species were introduced to the Applegate. With the syn-
33
"' .... -->...----.--- .. -,._,...............-...'"'.,--._'---~._---..~----~."._."-_...~,., '- .,-~ .......
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
ergistic effects of ground disturbance coupled with fire exclusion, activities like livestock graz-
ing, mining, and settlement led to colonization of non-native plants in many areas, especially in
low elevation oak: woodland savannahs and grasslands. These non-native species, some of
which are classified as noxious weeds, have continued to expand, and new species have been
introduced into new areas, especially along roads or where heavy equipment is used, Many of
these species can out-compete native species, including rare plants, for resources and space,
The presence of these non-natives has also changed the pattern of vegetation response
following a fire. Wildfire historically helped perpetuate the native herbaceous component of
grasslands, and fire exclusion has allowed this component to decrease and the grasses to
increase, The composition of the grasslands also shifted over the last century from native peren-
nial bunch grasses to non-native perennials and annuals, Many grasslands once dominated by
native herbaceous forbs and perennial grasses are now dominated by annual grasses and weedy
non-natives like star-thistle (Centaurea so/stitalis). Fire (prescribed or natural) can perpetuate
these native/non-native communities and increase the amount of weeds following a wildfire,
Ground-disturbing activities will increase weed populations if sources exist close by or are
unintentionally introduced. Most extensive weed populations exist along roads and in areas that
experience heavy or repeated disturbance - roads, home sites, agriculture fields, timber land-
ings, etc, Once established, many of these species have the ability to colonize adjacent areas,
even with little or no disturbance, There is also a concern, when looking at changing fire
regimes, that some non-native plants, especially cheat grass and medusahead, burn differently
from native plants, faster, with more flash,
34
,----,-" .."'_.' ,___"",,,,".___.u',, "..,.._".. "',.,,,.--,---_" _____.,.___'_..~..,-
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
Fire at the Water's Edge
Streams and Riparian Areas
Water gives life, so it's not surprising to find that the most dynamic areas in our ecosys-
tem are along the streams, on river banks, in the floodplains, and in other riparian areas. To
understand the influence of fire in these places today, it is helpful to imagine them as they were
in the past. Significantly wetter than adjacent uplands, they may not have sustained low-intensi-
ty underburns quite as frequently as their upper neighbors, Occasionally stand-replacement fires
probably killed the above-ground portions of cottonwoods, bigleaf maples, and other sprouting
species, which would have quickly resprouted following the fire, In the meantime, streams
would have been left unshaded, and a lot of trees would have been in the channel, creating
pools, In the larger channels, periodic flooding removed areas of large trees in some locations
and deposited fresh ground for new trees in others. Deep deposits of rock and gravel may have
created some natural fire breaks, especially for ground fires, F aced with this kind of variation in
vegetation and land forms, stand-replacing fire was probably limited in its range,
Along many streams on the valley bottom, in the more open, well-drained, floodplain
areas with deep alluvial soils, large scattered trees such as ponderosa pine, madrone, oak and
Douglas fir would likely have been present. Here, cottonwood in particular but also Oregon ash
and maple often grew to 24 inches or more in diameter and provided some large wood in the
stream channels,
Riparian vegetation in these valley bottom areas today tends to be very dense and is
often confined to a narrow, straight strip along rivers, Large floods still remove this vegetation
from time to time, as fires also used to do, In many areas, agricultural lands and roads now act
as buffers to low-intensity fire that in the past would have occasionally moved down from the
surrounding uplands, Development in some areas has led to the removal of all riparian vegeta-
tion except for a few hardy species, The primary risk of ignition has shifted in many places to
vehicle- and utility-related sources, such as off-highway and other types of vehicles, arson,
improper cigarette disposal, and powerline corridors, In many streams and riparian areas, the
invasion of non-native species such as Himalayan blackberry has destabilized banks, decreased
habitat, and contributed to fire hazard. Non-native species often outcompete native species in
establishing themselves after a fire.
Another difference between Applegate streams today and the same streams historically
is that today in many valley bottom streams the water is warmer, This is mostly because we
have removed large riparian vegetation and decreased stream channel sinuosity ("curviness"),
The result has been shallower, wider streams and rivers without floodplains, Many streams are
on the State of Oregon 303d list for limited water quality because of high stream temperatures,
On the other hand, in places with dams the water is probably significantly colder than it
was in the past. We can't be certain that the water in the large rivers is warmer now than it was
previously.
Historically, along tributary perennial streams in the Applegate, fires would have period-
35
--, -,.._,...---~-_._-. "'-"""'~~.'."~""-'~'--'---"'-'------
---'---"--.....-.-...,. .....
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
ica11y and sporadically reduced density. The highest density would probably have occurred in
the canyon bottoms, where low-intensity fire did not enter as often - just "backing" into them
from upslope. No doubt canopy fires happened infrequently, since periodic low-intensity fire in
the surrounding uplands greatly reduced the risk of intense fire sweeping into the riparian areas
from higher ground.
In some areas along tributary perennial or seasonal intermittent streams, historic mining
or riparian logging combined with fire exclusion has created riparian areas dominated by dense
stands of young conifers lacking in large overstory structure, In some cases, clearcut riparian
areas now have dense stands of hardwoods and shrubs. These areas typically lack age and
species diversity and cannot contribute a sufficient amount of coarse woody material to the
aquatic system, Except for the lack of large wood available from fire-killed snags, this may not
vary greatly, on a site-specific basis, from what was present in these draws following the infre-
quent stand-replacement fires of yore, However, across the landscape, these types of degraded
riparian conditions are more present than they were in the recent prehistoric past.
Ephemeral streams are those that flow only in response to large storm events, typically
being very small and flowing less than 30 consecutive days. These streams are usually com-
pletely dry from late spring until late fall and tend to have no true riparian vegetation. Prehis-
torically, forests, woodlands and grasslands along ephemeral streams in the lower elevations
(under 3500 feet) of the Applegate subbasin were probably very open, being maintained by
periodic low-intensity ground fire. This is especially true of the more southerly facing slopes
and low elevation areas with pine-oak stands, Trees along these streams would probably have
been large and well-spaced, interspersed with occasional brushy patches of shrubs. The stand
structure would have been well adapted to and maintained by low-intensity fire, In some places
fire would have swept through these areas often enough that understory vegetation would not
have grown dense enough and big enough to produce a fire intense enough to kill the large trees
over a large area.
Today, vegetation along ephemeral and intermittent streams presents us with the most
dramatic difference between yesterday's picture and today's, especially in the lower elevations
of the Applegate subbasin. In many places open stands with large, well-spaced trees and patchy
areas of brush have been replaced with an almost unbroken dense stand of small diameter trees
and brush. Examples of the large trees that once existed on these sites are still scattered through
the area, although many have been removed through harvest or have died due to competition
from the surrounding dense vegetation, It is unlikely these large trees will again become domi-
nant along ephemeral streams unless action is taken to undo our years of fire exclusion. Where
stands were once adapted to frequent low-intensity fire, they are now so dense that any fire
occurring during periods of extreme fire danger could kill the existing trees, Many if not most
of the hardwoods will resprout after such events, Much of this area has had fire excluded for so
long that these hardwoods grow much more densely than they would if they had existed with
frequent low-intensity fire. The net result is that vegetation could reach extremely dense levels
following a major fire today much more quickly than in the past.
Loss of riparian habitat due to high-intensity fire is a part of the natural cycle in south-
western Oregon, However, due to fire exclusion and to an increase in human population and
recreation in the subbasin, there is a high potential that these fires will be more intense and will
affect more acres of riparian habitat than in the past.
36
,.." <. "_~"_,o_..,. _.',...._ '__."~'_"'__'_~__"'."'"_~"~__~""_"'''''''''_''_'_~'...__.___.., __._
'.'-'--".'-'~""~<'-'''''-''-
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
Fish on the Hook
Current Conditions of Fisheries in the Applegate
Applegaters who like to fish are well tuned to the rhythms of the fish runs, by season
and by time of day, but even those who don't fish can know when the fish are running by the
number of parked cars suddenly appearing along the Applegate River, If fish don't crowd the
rivers and streams as they once did, nevertheless, schoolchildren, biologists, groups of tourists
with their guides and streamside homeowners still thrill to the spectacle of spawning salmon in
the Applegate watershed.
The Applegate River Basin is home to a variety of native species of fish, including coho
and fall chinook salmon, summer and winter steelhead, and rainbow and cutthroat trout, which
are limited to streams and lakes or reservoirs, Non-native fish include Pacific brook lamprey,
Pacific lamprey, Klamath small scale sucker, and reticulate sculpin,
One of the concerns of the land management agencies in the Applegate is the future
health and survival of the anadromous fish within the basin: the salmon and steelhead which
spawn in the freshwater streams and rivers of the Applegate Basin and migrate to the ocean for
their primary growth. The Applegate River Basin represents twelve percent of the total acreage
in the Rogue River Basin yet provides one-third of all coho spawning in the Rogue Basin, On
May 6, 1997, coho salmon was listed as a federally threatened species in the Rogue River
Basin,
Many factors in the Applegate watershed currently work to limit the numbers of salmon,
steelhead and trout in our rivers and streams, There is a general lack of water, and when there is
water, it is likely to be too warm. Erosion from stream banks, roads, and hillsides leads to an
influx of sediment that smothers fish eggs. A lack of large wood in the streams and riparian
areas limits fish numbers because large wood attracts more wood, which is necessary for cover
for the fish and for the production of insects that fish eat. There is a lack of rearing pools for
juveniles and holding pools for adults, Migration corridors are being blocked by gravel push-up
dams, concrete dams, and culverts, Finally, channelization of streams in the lowlands is an
important limiting factor. When the meanders of streams are straightened out, for agriculture or
other reasons, the land loses floodplain activities, important fish habitat and surface area of
streams, Channelization also disrupts the seasonal fertilization of riparian areas by river sedi-
ments.
The Applegate Dam has reduced peak flows of the river; as a result riparian vegetation
has encroached the river channel, which, in turn, has led to fewer stream meanders and less fish
habitat On the other hand, the Applegate River is augmented by the dam, an effect that has sig-
nificantly improved the numbers of fall Chinook. The dam has had a trade-off effect for fish:
the number of coho and steelhead is down because they can no longer get above the dam to
spawn, but the cooler water provided by the dam is good for the fall chinook.
High water temperatures and excessive erosion of sediment can have an adverse effect
37
-.. -~.....,-"~-,._..-",-".., .' '-'''~~-'''-_._-'-"'-''--''-''''-'~'-'_._''-'~.~_#_'._""~~..,---~
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
on fish. The State Department of Environmental Quality sets the optimum stream temperature
at 64 degrees; at warmer temperatures fish are susceptible to diseases and parasites, The
Applegate Dam releases water during the summer to cool the mainstem river, but in major trib-
utaries, low, warm flows continue to impair steelhead and coho production, Sediment and fre-
quent high levels of turbidity are also continuous problems to egg, fry, and aquatic insects,
The Applegate River has some productive riparian and instream areas, but agriculture in
the Applegate uses large amounts of water especially for livestock pasture and crops,
Consequently, there is less water for the fish. Because riparian habitats, streams, and wetlands
connect through privately and publicly owned lands in the Applegate watershed, management is
difficult. Most streams in the Applegate River watershed have been altered, Mining, timber har-
vest, road construction, the withdrawal of water for agriculture, and the increased density of
vegetation due to fire management have aU left their effects on fisheries,
The overall decline in habitat conditions for fish populations is a concern in the
Applegate. Forest health, especially along streams, influences stream habitat conditions, The
cornerstone for restoring streams on public and private lands is protection for and enhancement
of the vegetation along stream banks and in floodplains. Coho salmon, in particular, require
low-gradient, alluvial valley streams and wetlands containing sediment deposited by flowing
water. These habitats are mostly on private lands,
Silvicultural practices in the 1990s have begun to encourage the enhancement ofripari-
an reserves for fish habitat. Thinning and burning understory levels have enhanced tree growth,
which will increase the riparian tree populations suitable for habitat. With renewed efforts to
encourage fire-adaptive vegetative species in the ecosystems, fish habitat may be enhanced,
Since catastrophic fire further decimates declining stream health, strategies to reduce this risk
that are carried out with sensitivity for the ecosystem as a whole will benefit the fish,
Based on the Northwest Forest Plan, key watersheds in the Applegate have been estab-
lished for protection of salmon and steelhead: Beaver Creek, Palmer Creek, Yale Creek, and
portions of the Little Applegate River watershed, Other critical areas for salmon and steelhead
protection and enhancement are Williams Creek, Thompson Creek, Slate Creek and Cheney
Creek.
38
.,..'
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
Foxes and Frogs and Siskiyou Salamanders
Wildlife in the Applegate Watershed
"For in the end," says monk, scholar, and writer Thomas Berry in The Dream of the
Earth, "the human community will flourish or decline as the earth and the community of living
species flourishes or declines," Our attention to the wildlife in the Applegate is essential as we
develop a fIre management strategy.
Since the arrival of humans in the Applegate watershed, people have had an impact on
the ability of the habitat to function as home range, dispersal zones, and migration pathways for
native wildlife species, The Native Americans used plants and wildlife for products they need-
ed, and they manipulated the land by using natural processes such as fIre, which probably bene-
fIted their preferred game species on the valley floor and in low-elevation oak woodlands and
conifer forests, Euro/ Asian settlers, on the other hand, burned to expose land for its mineral
potential or to increase grazing for sheep and cattle. Game animals and fur-bearers were hunted
and trapped as marketable products to be exported outside the watershed. Large predators such
as grizzly bears, wolves and mountain lions were extensively hunted because they conflicted
with human endeavors, Hydraulic mining changed soil composition and landforms and, there-
fore, habitat capabilities, Placer mining in creeks altered channels and riparian vegetation, dis-
rupting habitat connectivity,
Before fIre suppression, occasional intense fIres and frequent small fIres left many
canopy gaps, and understory habitat was generally more open, A mosaic of habitats was likely
the rule. Species that did well in this regime included northern spotted owl, American martin,
and red tree vole, Species that have benefited from the denser stands caused by fIre exclusion
include California quail, black-capped chickadee, and mountain beaver,
By the 1920s fIre suppression was public policy. By then, too, many private lands had
already been logged to some degree. Shortly thereafter many of the federal lands began provid-
ing lumber to local mills. The larger numbers of acres harvested, the location of harvest units
on north and east slopes, and the intensity of the harvest (clear cut vs. select cut) began frag-
menting late successional forest vegetation and influencing dispersal and migration of many
species. Roads were built into forested lands to access timber harvest areas and to facilitate fire
suppressIon.
More recently, human habitation in valley bottom lands and low-elevation oak wood-
lands and conifer forests has eliminated or substantially altered much of the habitat used for
home territories, wintering grounds and avenues for dispersal and migration by wildlife species
such as elk, river otter and red-legged frogs.
A 1994 assessment of ecosystem health in the Applegate revealed that some plant
species and communities are considered to be at risk; consequently, their associated wildlife
species are expected to be in decline as well. For instance, in low- to mid-elevation dry grass-
lands, Roosevelt elk, western bluebirds, and acorn woodpeckers are affected; in valley bottom
39
-., _.,-,,-._.~._.,.~._- . -'-'-----'----""-'--"""""
~~----~"-~- ,.' ...-. ,......
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
late-seral communities, it's the northern spotted owl, pine marten, and pileated woodpecker; in
moist mountain meadows, it's the mountain bluebird, savannah sparrow, and long-eared owl.
Individual species may not be at risk, but human activities (forest management; farming, graz-
ing, and rural development in valley bottoms, riparian zones and low elevation woodlands and
forests) alter and modify the complex associations that these species have with each other and
with their habitat. These activities affect the numbers and stability of wildlife, the dispersal and
migration of various species, and the quality, connectivity, and fragmentation of habitat.
Riparian areas provide habitat for many of the watershed's indigenous species, such as
the fisher, western pond turtle, and bald eagle, They provide dispersal and migration pathways
for other wildlife, But human activity, especially in the valley bottoms, has had a deleterious
effect on these environments, The clearing of land and the introduction of non-native species
(Himalayan blackberries) have altered riparian vegetation, Private homes have interrupted natu-
ral processes, and these and other human activities have changed stream and river flows and
channels, In much of the watershed, domestic animals, the cutting of snags in forested areas,
fire exclusion, and the water needs of local residences have taken their toll, The natural connec-
tivity of the eocsystem has been drastically affected, and these altered communities no longer
support the same groups of species (acorn woodpecker, flammulated owl) as they did prior to
development. Many riparian acres that have been managed for timber production no longer pro-
vide the structures and canopies necessary for species such as the tailed frog or hermit warbler,
In some of these areas grazing, inadequate culverts at stream crossings, and roads that parallel
streams have had additional negative impacts on the habitat.
In low-elevation woodlands, many of the large open-grown oak trees are being replaced
by oaks in more crowded conditions, with sparse upper reaches and smaller limbs, The loss of
"savannah" type oaks contributes to the decline of many species that need cavities of a suffi-
cient size in living and dead oaks for nests, dens and roosts. Stands of ponderosa pine and sugar
pine were, in their natural condition, relatively open with a variety of grasses and forbs avail-
able as wildlife forage; living, large pine trees provided food and shelter, and, as snags, large
pine trees provided maternity and roost sites for bats and nest sites for cavity-dependent
species. However, these pine species are being lost in the watershed at an alanning rate due to
bark beetle infestation and to the encroachment of shrubs and of other conifer species as a result
of fire exclusion. Loss of pine stands, lack of replacement stands, and logging of dying trees
(mortality salvage) threaten existing and future supplies of high quality snag habitat. In the
short term the abundance of snags resulting from the current high levels of pine mortality will
benefit wildlife species dependent on them. In the longer term, habitat may be diminished,
Douglas fir and white fir forests have also been altered by fire exclusion: dense stands
of these species now occur over a greater number of acres; young and mature forests in this
condition will take longer to attain the structure and composition of late successional forests,
The wildlife species that prefer Douglas fir and white fir forests have been likewise affected.
However, these stands do provide habitat for a wide variety of species. In 1994 Dr. Stuart Janes
of SOU began looking at trunk diameters to determine the conditions of habitat used by
neotropical migrants in the Williams Creek subwatershed. His initial data found that stands on
north-facing slopes with basal areas of 190 to 220 square feet per acre were similar to late-suc-
cessional forests in terms of providing habitat suitable for some breeding birds, On the other
hand, stands in the same area and with similar basal areas but on south-facing slopes contained
bird populations at 55% less than on the north-facing slopes. This initial work suggests the vari-
ation within the watershed.
Due to low populations (natural and unnatural), restricted range, threats to habitat, and
40
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
other factors, many indigenous wildlife species in the Applegate watershed are considered to be
at risk in at least portions of their natural ranges. Of immediate concern are those species listed
as threatened or endangered and those being considered for this listing, In addition, some
species not currently considered at risk of extirpation within the watershed may have an overall
importance to species viability, dispersal, and migration, suggesting that these species need par-
ticular consideration. Many species require special habitat features (snags in burns with exca-
vated cavities, cattail marshes, moist rotting logs, etc,), and these species, too, need to be
accounted for in land management.
Snags and down logs provide essential habitat for many special status species within the
watershed and contribute to the viability of many other species, Most of the bird and all of the
bat species utilizing snags are insectivorous and help regulate insect populations, The number
of snags and down logs, the extent of their decay, and their distribution in the watershed are
important contributors to ecosystem health, We still do not have an effective process by which
to inventory, on either public or private lands, the number of snags and down logs or their use
by wildlife species, More research needs to be done for us to understand the requirements of
snag-dependent and -using species, the interaction of these species as a community, the impact
of human activities on snags and down logs, and the results of an increase in forage for insects
coupled with a loss of nesting and roosting habitat for birds and bats,
Areas suitable for deer winter range are also a valuable part of the landscape, Most of
these areas occur below 3,000 feet in brush fields that are most often south-facing, The primary
value from winter range is nutritional, especially for pregnant does, but decadent and thick
brush stands are also useful as cover for escape from predators, hunters, and poachers.
Historically, these areas would have been revitalized by periodic fire, which would have kept
portions of these crucial areas producing high quality forage while allowing other patches to
gain decadency until fire burned through them. When winter ranges (often decadent brush
fields) are not managed, they can increase the spread of fire to other upland habitats or nearby
homes, as was seen in the Quartz Fire this past summer, which started in the lower brush fields,
which were in dire need of revitalization for species such as deer, and quickly spread to the
uplands and adjacent habitat of the northern spotted owl.
Concern has been expressed over the connectivity and fragmentation of late-succession-
al forests within the watershed, The Northwest Forest Plan established Late Successional
Reserves to insure management activities that would promote and maintain the late successional
characteristics of the forest. Goals for wildlife included that 15% of each watershed would
remain in late successional forest, that riparian zones would have buffers, and that 100-acre
reserves would be established around known spotted owl sites. The intent of the first two goals
is to allow dispersal and migration of less mobile species within and between watersheds.
Planning to meet the needs of all of the above species and their habitats could take
years, However, meeting the needs of some of the species that have political, economic, or legal
significance will help to guide planning efforts for fuels modifications across the watershed. It
is desirable to get fire back into these areas as a tool to maintain these habitats and reduce the
chances of large-scale conflagrations that remove some or many components of the habitat from
the land,
41
--... _.,......_~..._-._,_....."~......._. "'-.."'_"-_""-"_._._.__.,"._._,-~.__...-...,,.~._"-_.--------------~-
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Ruminating on Ruminants
Rangeland Management in the Applegate Watershed
Grazing is one of many uses of public lands, and although the impact of wildfire on
rangelands in the Applegate watershed is generally minimal, it is important to consider this use
of the land if we are to have a complete picture of the area, The BLM and Forest Service
Rangeland Management Programs administer eighteen grazing leases to nine operators within
the Applegate Watershed. In addition, private timber companies lease several thousand acres to
these agencies for grazing. Many acres of private land in the Applegate are used for grazing,
The primary goal of the grazing programs is to provide livestock forage while at the
same time maintaining - or improving - upland range conditions and riparian areas. The BLM
keeps track of how well it is meeting this goal with the use of monitoring studies, In 1995 BLM
revised its grazing regulations through Rangeland Reform, BLM's standards for rangeland
health now address the function of the land (grazing) in terms of the biological health of the
land according to laws regulating water quality and plant and animal populations and communi-
ties. BLM will be assessing rangeland health on grazing allotments over the next ten years,
The Forest Service works under a slightly different bureaucratic system, Annual operat-
ing plans are made each year for each allotment. Environmental Assessments are done periodi-
cally, The Wagner and Glade allotments have recently had EAs completed; all the other allot-
ments on the Applegate Ranger District are due for updated EAs,
Key Forage Areas, which are used to determine livestock moves between areas of the
allotment, are important to rangeland management. They serve as indicators of proper livestock
and forage management They are evaluated, as often as necessary, for ecological conditions
and to ensure that riparian conditions and salmonid habitat are in keeping with the standards set
by the Aquatic Conservation Strategy.
Money for rangeland improvement comes from grazing fees and agency budgets.
Rangeland improvements are designed to benefit wildlife, fisheries, and watershed resources
and to improve conditions for livestock grazing,
A discussion about the relationship between rangelands and fire is included in Chapter
I~ which covers strategies for fire prevention, (See page 57.)
42
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~~.~ ~
_._-"._._-,._._.....""-_.-..."~--,,~............
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Applegaters at Play
Recreation on Public Lands in the Applegate
The Applegate brims with opportunities for outdoor recreation, many of which are on
public lands, When Applegaters ride horses, mountain bikes, or off-highway vehicles in the
Applegate, when they fish, hunt, camp, and hike, when they go birding, rock climbing, or hang
gliding, when they visit natural and cultural heritage sites in the Applegate, when they enjoy,
picnicking, swimming, rafting and kayaking in the summer or snowmobiling, Nordic and tele-
mark skiing, and backcountry snowboarding in the winter, when they are in the outdoors to
photograph and view scenery and wildlife, they are often on BLM or U.S, Forest Service public
lands,
BLM manages three exclusive-use areas: the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail for hiking and
equestrian use, Kenny Meadows as a day use/picnic facility, and Woodrat Mountain for hang
gliding. Otherwise, the recreation sites are used for any of the activities described above, The
U. S, Forest Service maintains three developed recreation sites - the Upper Applegate River
Corridor, the Applegate Lake Recreation Area, and the Squaw Lake Recreation Area, It also
oversees four main undeveloped areas for recreation: the Red Buttes Wilderness, the Siskiyou
Crest Zone, the Middle Fork of the Upper Applegate River, and the Boundary/Craggy Crest
Zone,
Like hikers and horseback-riders, off-highway vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts use public
land throughout the Applegate all year long, though they enjoy their activities in the greatest
numbers in the spring and summer, All these recreationists tend to stay home more as the aver-
age daily temperatures rise to summer highs. The agencies predict that OHV use will be the
fastest-growing category of recreation on public lands in the Applegate within the time span of
this plan, This recreation causes some conflict with other users in some areas, for instance in
the Boundary/Craggy Crest Zone, which extends from Grayback to the Red Buttes and includes
the Oliver Matthews Research Natural Area and Miller Lake. Demand for more OHV trails is
increasing in the Boundary/Craggy Crest Zone, leading to the potential for system roads to be
converted to trails. This will also increase pressure on existing recreation budgets.
Many campers in the Applegate, including hunters and fishers, use "dispersed camping
areas" (undesignated campgrounds) on public lands, The Middle Fork of the Applegate River,
with its large plunge pools for swimming and fishing, is a favorite spot and has over twenty
sites within a four-mile section of this corridor. Almost every dispersed campsite is inhabited on
weekends throughout the summer. Unfortunately, because group sizes have increased and
because vehicles are encroaching on vegetation, the campsites are enlarging. Also, because of
an increased demand for dispersed campsites, areas above Forest Service Road 1040 have been
turned into campsites, increasing the potential for human-caused fires to escape up the hillside.
Fire in the Middle Fork corridor would have a serious impact on its recreation values. Increased
camping on road landings, quarry sites and other undesignated areas during deer hunting season
43
_.._,. ._,.,-.__",____,;..___,_ ""'_'~_M'____'~._______
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is also a concern because it coincides with the peak of ftre season, and, therefore. the risk of
wildfires increases. Yearly "hunter patrols" are conducted during the peak use weekends to
advise hunters and campers of current ftre restrictions and proper public land use ethics,
Another concern for ftre on recreation sites is at the Applegate Lake. where lake debris
has been a problem. particularly after the 1997 flood, This is a year-round issue for boaters. and
the debris has an impact on the available facilities; in addition, accumulations of debris on the
lake shore during the summer are a ftre hazard. There is high potential for human-caused ftres
around recreation sites and at the lake when the water level drops low enough for ftres to occur
below the full pool line. There is potential lost revenue to concessionaires during fire emergen-
CIes,
Squaw Lakes Recreation Area poses a slightly different problem: to keep the area as nat-
ural in appearance as possible while still providing semi-primitive, non-motorized recreation
opportunities, The "semi-primitive, non-motorized" aspect is disrupted when fIre-suppression
helicopters ftll their water buckets from Squaw Lake. An increasing demand for campsites. the
high degree of geologic instability from black schist soils, and the potential for fire are some of
the challenges facing management at Squaw Lakes,
One of the main concerns at developed recreation sites along the Upper Applegate is the
mortality of large conifers within the recreation sites and throughout the riparian area, Over the
last ten years the loss of drought-stricken ponderosa pines and Douglas fIrS has meant fewer
large trees and less shade on the sites, Large trees and shade are both key factors in maintaining
the long-tenn character and attractiveness of these places, Smoke inversions and traffic are
other issues of concern relating to fires in and around the river corridor,
The Red Buttes Wilderness Area is a favorite destination for Applegate backwoods
lovers, hosting 2000-3000 visitors a year. Fire suppression activities in the Red Buttes have
both short-tenn and long-tenn effects. For example, helicopters dipping water out of wilderness
lakes affect solitude. lake levels, and trees and snags in riparian areas. Other concerns related to
fire include impacts from ftre line construction and crew camps and the ftre hazard in Lower
Butte Fork Canyon resulting from years of ftre exclusion. The Rattlesnake Fire of 1987 burned
numerous acres, primarily in the area of Desolation Canyon, An increase of barren areas around
campsites and the impact of large parties are also problems needing attention. Though these
kinds of problems have various possible solutions (a pennit system. user fees. restrictions to
party size. etc,). a major challenge in the Red Buttes will be to meet the wilderness manage-
ment objective that natural occurrences should take place without the influence of human man-
agers.
Trails on public lands within the Applegate watershed are in generally good condition,
and visitor use is comparatively moderate. Trail experiences are generally of high quality with
good opportunities for solitude and interaction with the natural environment. Several interpre-
tive opportunities exist as well as opportunities for those interested in mechanized and motor-
ized experiences, Most lands used for recreation in the Applegate watershed are easily accessi-
ble by vehicle, People can travel to the most popular recreation areas during the summer in
ordinary passenger vehicles such as sedans with standard ground clearance.
44
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What a Beautiful Place the Applegate Is
Scenic values in the Applegate
"What a beautiful place you live in," visitors say again and again to their hosts in the
Applegate, "Yes," the hosts answer, "isn't it?" because they know it's beautiful. They know it's
beautiful because they see grand vistas of mountains and forests from their kitchen windows,
because they drive to work along an officially designated "scenic byway," Highway 238,
because they take in gorgeous views on little-used back roads that weave through the valleys
and mountains, because they hike or ride horses among the big trees and take their cameras to
wildflower meadows and have picnics at rivers and lakes with a background of mountains,
Viewsheds abound, For pastoral views, Applegate residents might drive their visitors
along Upper Applegate Road, where Grayback Mountain rises dramatically above the distant
ridges, green with forests, that form the backdrop for farmhouses and barns, hayfields and graz-
ing cattle, and where the Applegate River threads through the scene silver and sinuous like a
holiday ribbon, For mountain views they might hike up Grayback itself to show their visitors a
hawk's-eye view of farms and homes in the Williams and Thompson Creek valleys, of deeply
forested hills and ridges, of dramatically snow-capped mountains: Mt. Shasta, Mt. McLoughlin,
the mountains of Crater Lake, For waterfalls, they could take visitors to the gorge way up the
Applegate River; for big trees they could go up the Middle Fork of the Applegate into old-
growth Douglas fir, white fir, sugar pine, and ponderosa pine forests; for wildflowers they could
go up the Middle Fork for the calypso orchid or into the Red Buttes for masses of meadow
flowers or up Steve's Fork for wild lilac or along East Fork Road in Williams for bachelor but-
tons and poppies or in their own back woods for wild roses, wild iris, phlox, trillium,
columbine, and on and on, And if they really want to impress their visitors with the beauty of
the Applegate, they'll take them to Whisky Peak for a sunset over the Red Buttes, and then
they'll linger into the night for a star show beautiful enough to make city folks weep,
Though no survey has been taken, it may be that the scenic or aesthetic value is at the
top of the list of values held dear by Applegate residents,
In management policies, the agencies responsible for federally managed land in the
Applegate also concern themselves with the scenic quality of the watershed. They inventory,
evaluate, and manage lands for their scenic value, designating, describing, and protecting val-
ued viewpoints and viewsheds, Here is a sample of some of these viewpoints:
(1) Along the Upper Applegate Road: "Highly photographed is the view of the Red
Buttes with Applegate Lake in the foreground, primarily the Butte Fork and Middle Fork
Watersheds, "
(2) From Forest Service Road 2000000 and the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail:
"Nearly 360-degree views of several peaks in the Cascade and Siskiyou Mountains, highlighted
45
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by views of Mt. Shasta, Preston Peak, and Mt. McLoughlin. Geologic color contrasts are
impressive with marble, peridotite, and granite outcroppings,"
(3) From the Whisky Ridge Viewpoint and Whisky Peak: "Highlight of Whisky Ridge
Viewpoint is the engraved rocks locating each peak on the crest of the Red Buttes Wilderness,
Whisky Peak is a former lookout site with 360-degree views of the western portion of the
[Applegate watershed], including Whisky Creek, Steve Fork, and Upper Middle Fork
Watersheds. "
Management goals for these and many other Applegate viewsheds are "preservation"
and "retention"; their quality is marked "very high" and "high," (Such charts of federally man-
aged lands are like official documentation of beauty that Applegate residents know, anyway,)
These and other viewscapes generally appear unaltered since the 1970s and '80s, as the
amount of logging has decreased since then, Logging on the most recent timber sales (Little
Applegate, Beaver/Palmer, Lower Summit, and Squaw/Elliott) has appeared to slightly alter
landscapes, but units are anticipated to blend well with the surrounding environment over the
long term, Nonetheless, naturally occurring fires and floods have affected views within the
Applegate watershed, For example the Sheep Creek Slide on Wagner Butte is a landmark that
can be seen in background views from the western edge of the Applegate Management Area,
Two major fires, the Rattlesnake Fire (1987) and the Quartz Fire (2001), although heavily alter-
ing the color and texture of the landscape, have a mosaic effect, which may be considered natu-
ral, depending on the values one attaches to the area,
In considering scenic values, a major controversial issue is that of post-fire salvage
activities. To some eyes, fire creates a change in texture, color, and scale of a viewshed which is
(and looks) natural, whereas salvage logging after fires creates an unnatural effect and seems to
be much more destructive to the scenic value than the fire itself. Some people disagree with this
point of view, confirming the cliche that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
Nonetheless, Applegaters firmly blieve that the eye of any beholder will find beauty in
the Applegate, and they value that beauty highly,
46
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How Frequent, How Hot, How Big
Fire Regimes in the Applegate
Ecosystems are dynamic entities whose basic patterns and processes are shaped not only
by life cycles of plants and animals but also by nonliving disturbances such as fIre, drought,
and wind. The place and time of such forces are often unpredictable, but all these forces help
maintain the differences in the natural communities and increase the natural variability of
ecosystem structure, composition, and function (Kaufmann, et. al. 1994), Fire as one of these
forces is not only unpredictable; its results are often not repeatable, and its conclusions are
often contradictory (Lavern 1996),
Fire has played an integral part in creating the forest environment of the PacifIc
Northwest (Agee 1981) and a signifIcant and important part in shaping plant communities in
southwestern Oregon (Atzet and Wheeler 1982), Overall, the Applegate watershed can be con-
sidered a fIre-dependent ecosystem with numerous fIre-adapted species of plants and animals
dependent on fIre to recycle nutrients, regulate plant succession and wildlife habitat, maintain
biological diversity, reduce biomass, and control insects and diseases.
As we take a new and closer look at our relationship with fIre here in southwestern
Oregon, we need to consider the following elements: historic fIre regimes (a term used to refer
to the frequency, intensity, seasonality, duration, and extent of fIre), a classifIcation system
using key components of the ecosystem to describe the degree of departure from historic fIre
regimes (condition classes), fIre hazard, fIre risk, values at risk, and management needs, All of
these elements play a role in determining the tire plan for a given piece of land, What follows is
a discussion of the fIrst two of these elements, fIre regimes and condition classes,
Fire Regimes
Biological, physical, climatic and anthropomorphic activities have interacted for millen-
nia to influence the behavior of fIre: how often it occurs, how hot it bums, how big it is, in
which season it occurs, and whether it is a crown, surface, or ground fire. These elements make
up a fIre regime, Since the relationship between fIre and the ecosystem perpetuates itself in a
circular and stable pattern, if any component of the ecosystem is modified, the fIre regime is
prone to change,
Each vegetative type is adapted to its particular fIre regime (Agee 1981). The plants that
existed in the Applegate watershed prior to Euro-American settlement were adapted to a differ-
ent tire regime from the current one. Years of fIre exclusion in the Applegate have caused a
shift in vegetation away from the more fIre-adapted species that formerly predominated, In this
altered fIre regime, historic vegetative types cannot be maintained.
Several classifications and descriptions of fire regimes have been developed, The one
chosen for this document was based on national and regional scales (Heinselman 1981, Davis
47
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"----~...'---,--- ......
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and Mutch 1994, Agee 1981) and developed by the Oregon BLM State Office and the Pacific
Northwest Region of the Forest Service, Natural areas within the Applegate watershed fit into
three classes and one sub-classification of the seven categories of fire regimes, What follows is
an identification of each of these fire regimes in the Applegate along with a general discussion
of the plant community, fire type, and fire severity of each,
It is important to remember as you read that categorization produces simplification,
exceptions abound, and combinations of fire regimes are likely to apply to single ecosystems,
Fire Regime #1: 0-35 years between fires, which are oflow severity, Typical climax
plant communities of this regime include ponderosa pine, eastside and dry Douglas fir, pine-oak
woodlands, Jeffery pine on serpentine soils, oak woodlands, and very dry white fir, Large stand-
replacement fires can occur under certain weather conditions but are rare events (i,e, every 200
years or more), It is more probable that fire will occur frequently and be of low intensity, and
most of the dominant trees are adapted to resist such fires, One such adaptation is the develop-
ment of thick bark at a young age, This adaptation means that a fire will affect mostly small
trees in the understory, limiting overstory mortality. Fires in a low-severity regime are associat-
ed with ecosystem stability, as the system is more stable in the presence of fire than in its
absence (Agee 1990), Frequent, low-intensity fires keep sites open, which are then less likely to
bum intensely even under weather conditions conducive to severe fire,
Fire Regime #2: 0-35 years between fires, which are usually stand-replacing. This cate-
gory includes true grasslands (Columbia basin, Palouse, etc,) and savannahs, where fire typical-
ly returns every ten years or less, It also includes mountain shrub communities (bitterbrush,
snowberry, ninebark, ceanothus, Oregon chaparral, etc,) where fire returns every 10-25 years,
Fire severity is generally high to moderate, Grasslands and mountain shrub communities are not
completely killed in a fire but are usually only top-killed, and they usually resprout without dif-
ficulty,
Fire Regime #3: 35-100 or more years between fires, which are of mixed severity. This
regime typically results in heterogeneous landscapes, Large, stand-replacement fires may occur,
but rarely, Such fires may destroy large areas of vegetation (10,000-100,000 acres), but subse-
quent mixed-intensity fires are important for creating heterogeneity in the landscape. Within
these landscapes a mix of ages and sizes is important~ generally the landscape is not dominated
by one or two age classes,
Fire regime subcategory of#3: Fires occur every 50 years or less and are of mixed
severity, Typical plant communities include mixed conifer, very dry westside Douglas fir, and
dry grand fir, Lower severity fire tends to predominate,
Certain species of plants and animals in southwestern Oregon have been able to exist
here for millennia because of their adaptations for fIre survival . adaptations to a particular
ecosystem and its specific fire regime (Kauffman 1990), lfthe regime is altered, the capacity
for that species to survive in the environment may be greatly changed. Hence, if an area has a
fire regime of frequent fire and if through suppression that regime has been altered, then the
hazard of catastrophic fire has been increased, and such a fire poses a greater risk to adjacent
land and to the inherent value of the land itself
Fire has been identified as the key natural disturbance within the Applegate River water-
shed, most of which has historically experienced a low- to mixed-severity fire regime. Fire fre-
quency at elevations below 3,500 feet is estimated to have been, before suppression strategies
became the norm, between seven and twenty years (Applegate Adaptive Management Area
Guide, 1998). Prolonged fire exclusion in ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest ended the pat-
tern of frequent, low-intensity fires which used to keep the forest free of dead limbs, downed
48
r
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trees, and over-abundant understory vegetation. Years of fire suppression have created a trend
towards increasing amounts of fuel in the forests and higher intensity, stand-destroying fires
rather than the historic low-intensity, stand-maintenance fires,
Condition Classes
Historically, wildland fire frequently burned in most areas of the Applegate watershed,
In recent decades, however, the nature of fire on these lands has changed, and, due to fire
exclusion and other human activities such as grazing and timber harvest (Kaufmann et. aI.,
1994), the ecosystems have also changed dramatically, The extent and impact of this change
can often be correlated to the fire regime itself Thus, fire exclusion would have less impact on
the ecology of an area characterized by a combination of infrequent crown fires and severe sur-
face fires than on an area that typically experienced light surface fires every one to twenty-five
years. An aggressive fire suppression program that has been in place for approximately one
hundred years would have more impact on an area where fire historically occurred at low inter-
vals than on an area that historically hosted fire every 100 to 300 years, The detrimental effects
of fire suppression in these latter regimes will take longer to appear, Old, dense stands, covering
a large portion of the landscape in these higher frequency regimes, can dramatically increase
the size and severity of wildfires (Barrett et al. 1991) and insect epidemics (Mutch 1994).
Fire exclusion has created vegetation and fuel conditions for large and catastrophic fires
that are more difficult to suppress than smaller fires, Throughout the watershed, our forests
present a continuous fuel supply both vertically, in small, thin trees and dead branches (ladder
fuels), and horizontally, in an abundance of dead and down material. When a fire gets started in
such a forest, the dead branches, sticks, twigs, and other material increase fire intensity and,
with ladder fuels present, provide great opportunity for the fire to reach the forest canopy,
resulting in a stand-killing crown fire. These conditions also affect the means in which pre-
scribed fife and fuels treatment are applied to the landscape.
A series of Condition Classes has been developed, based on changes in the species com-
position, structure, age, and density of a stand, to describe the extent the current fire regime has
deviated from "normal" (Hardy et al, 2000) and to quantify the condition of the land resulting
from fire exclusion and other influences (timber harvesting, grazing, insects, disease, and the
introduction and establishment of non-native plant species), This analysis attempts to quantify
the extent of the fire management problem and the degree of required restoration and mainte-
nance treatments, What follows is a summary of the three condition classes, the attributes of
each class, and general management options.
In Condition Class 1, fire regimes are within or near the historical range~ fire frequen-
cies differ from historical rates by no more than one return interval, and the vegetation's species
composition and structure are intact and functioning within the historical range. The risk of los-
ing key ecosystem components is low. Where appropriate, these areas can be maintained within
the historical fire regime by treatments such as fire use,
In Condition Class 2, fire regimes have been modemtely altered from their historical
range; the frequency of fire differs from historical rates by more than one return interval. This
change results in modemte changes to landscape patterns and/or to fife size, frequency, intensi-
ty, and severity, Vegetation has been modemtely altered from its historic state, The risk of los-
ing key ecosystem components has increased to moderate. Where appropriate, these areas may
49
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need moderate levels of restoration treatments, such as fire use and hand or mechanical treat-
ments, to be restored to the historical fire regime,
In Condition Class 3, fire regimes have been significantly altered from their historical
range; fire frequency is greatly different from its historical pattern. This change results in dra-
matic changes to landscape patterns and/or to fire size, frequency, intensity, and severity,
Vegetation has been significantly altered from its historic state, and the risk of losing key
ecosystem components is high. Where appropriate, these areas need high levels of restoration
treatments, Hand or mechanical treatments may be necessary before fire is used to restore the
historical rue regime.
50
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How Bad Will It Be
F ire Hazard Ratings
Why do some fires spread faster than others? A number of factors important to a fire's
ability to spread determine the "fire hazard" of an area and also affect the difficulty or ease we
have in suppressing the fire, Various schemes for rating fire hazard have been developed; the
one used in this analysis is based on five elements chosen by all agencies: vegetation, canopy
cover, slope, aspect, and elevation.
Vegetation directly influences rate of spread, flame length, fireline intensity, heat per
unit area, and other elements of concern in the suppression of wildland fire, A hillside with lots
of highly volatile ceanothus, for instance, has a higher hazard rating for vegetation than one
with more fire-resilient species.
Canopy closure relates to the presence of ladder fuel. A greater percentage of canopy
means a greater likelihood of a surface fire moving into the crown canopy, increasing the diffi-
culty of suppressing the fire, Thus an area with a thick shrub cover has a higher hazard rating
than a grassy area, Likewise, a conifer or conifer/hardwood mixed forest has a higher hazard
rating than a hardwood forest
Gravity dictates that many if not most things travel downhill faster than uphill. Not so
with fire, which defies gravity in obedience to other laws of physics (warmer air rises), Thus,
slope is a factor in the rate of fire spread, As the slope becomes steeper, fire increases in speed.
On flat terrain, the spread of fire relies more on wind.
Aspect affects fire spread in that southern aspects are drier and warmer, promoting a
more active fire, whereas the typically cooler and damper northern aspects have a lower level of
fire behavior.
The last element to consider in rating fire hazard is elevation. Lower elevations get a
slightly higher rating than higher elevation because they receive less precipitation, A number of
factors come into play with elevation such as length of fire season, variations in weather condi-
tions (cool, damp, wann, wet), density of vegetation, etc.
Once all five elements have been determined for an area, it can be given a hazard rating:
the higher the rating, the worse the hazard. Thus an area dominated by a thick canopy of shrub
with a steep, south slope at a lower elevation would have a higher hazard rating than a grass
meadow with a slight northerly slope at a high elevation. Hazard, combined with other consid-
erations such as risk and value-at-risk, can be useful in understanding and planning for fire
management problems, identifying opportunities, and prioritizing areas to meet goals, objec-
tives, and desired future conditions for the watershed.
51
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52
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IV. How To If You Want To
Strategies for Fire Prevention
53
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54
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Living in a Biocracy
Paying Attention to Soil, Plants, and Animals in Relation to Fire Prevention
In The Dream a/the Earth, writer Thomas Berry suggests that it isn't enough, as we
move into the Ecological Age, to live in a democracy but that we must live in a biocracy, an
earthly home where all creatures have a voice. "As humans," he says, "we need to recognize
the limitations in our capacity to deal with these comprehensive issues of the earth's function-
ing. So long as we are under the illusion that we know best what is good for the earth and for
ourselves, then we will continue our present course, with its devastating consequences on the
entire earth community....We need only listen to what the earth is telling us,"
What this means in relation to this document is that in our efforts to right the wrongs
from years of fire exclusion, we don't want to, well, jump out of the frying pan into the fire,
We don't want to make worse the land; we want to listen to its needs for healing, The following
items dealing with various elements of our ecosystem should help us do what's right in our
attempt to develop a fuel reduction strategy for our lands,
A Preliminary Caution to the Steward of the Land
It's true that most of the Applegate Watershed has a problem of fuels build-up due to
100 years of fire exclusion that makes it a high hazard for catastrophic wildfire, However, you
don't have to go overboard in thinning your land to reduce the fire hazard around your home.
Do you still want to have songbirds around? Do you like seeing deer and smaller
wildlife on your property? Do you want the stream that runs through your property to be a
healthy home to fish and other aquatic life? Well, put down your loppers and chain saw for a
moment and consider a lighter touch in making a fuels reduction plan for your property.
You've probably heard that thinning ladder fuels from your woodlands will prevent a
ground fire from climbing into the canopy and becoming a crown fire and that providing a fuel
break where trees are thinned so that canopies don't touch will cause an intense crown fire to
stop spreading and drop down to become a low intensity ground fire that won't harm large
trees, It is important to do these things, particularly at the perimeter of your property, around
your structures, and along the roadways leading into your property so that fire crews will not be
afraid to drive their trucks in and protect your house,
However, you can still leave islands of dense foliage for wildlife habitat. Critters need
places to hide where they don't feel exposed to predators. The key is to provide fire breaks
around these denser clumps of habitat so that if they begin to burn, the fire won't spread. Also,
55
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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
you don't want the denser places to be close to your house or the property line where fire may
spread to (or from) your neighbors.
A Ceanothus brush field is a tremendous fire hazard. Ceanothus contains volatile oils
that make it bum like roman candles on the 4th of July! However, instead of clearing your
whole brush field and turning it into a large dead zone, leave some bushes here and there scat-
tered in clumps, Little birds love this kind of habitat and won't stick around if you don't pro-
vide it. Deer also will eat Ceanothus and similar shrubs if they can find the tender new shoots,
A 30-year-old Ceanothus bush is made up of mostly dried up dead branches that deer don't like,
Prune it down so that new shoots grow all around the outside. Your added bonus - it won't bum
as well now.
A riparian zone (or the area of dense foliage that naturally exists alongside streams) can
be a natural fire break, (However, if you have created a "fire safe" landscape everywhere except
in a narrow riparian area, a fire will still bum most intensely there, where the most fuel lies, )
Streams occupy the lowest places in the landscape, and groundwater comes to the surface there,
The bushes and trees that live there have their feet wet, so to speak, and stay moister (even
when streams are dried up in the summer) than upland foliage, These wetter plants provide
important shade and a moister microclimate that keeps the stream cool for fish and other aquat-
ic creatures, You don't need to thin riparian foliage at all (please don't), but you can provide a
fire break to prevent fire in the uplands from reaching the riparian areas (and vice versa),
Typically, fires go out when they reach riparian zones (particularly if there's water in the
stream). Also, please don't use herbicides or other chemicals anywhere near streams or ditches.
Aquatic life is much more sensitive to chemical pollutants than is terrestrial life,
Many people like to have hedges and trees around their homes for privacy, As long as
you provide some kind of fire break or thinned area between the outlying forest or shrub lands
and your hedge or vegetative screen, it probably won't be a problem as far as fire goes, But
don't forget to do this between your vegetative screen and your house, too!
Finally, another way to look at whether or not you've done too severe a thinning job for
fire hazard reduction as far as wildlife is concerned is this: suppose a dozen kids are playing
hide and seek in the lands around your home. If there are lots of kids who can't find hiding
places behind bushes, logs, or clumps of trees, then you've probably gone too far (and wildlife
won't like it either)!
Soils
To mitigate soil compaction: Operate large or heavy equipment only when soils are dry
(late spring through early fall, typically),
To mitigate surface erosion: Ensure that soils are protected before the wet season begins
with either established vegetative cover or mulch (weed-free straw, erosion control mats, etc.).
Port Orford Cedar
The following points should guide land owners or managers perfonning forest opera-
tions where Port Orford cedar root disease is a concern:
56
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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
(1) Separate operations in disease-free locations from those in diseased stands both in
space and in time.
(2) Perform forest management projects in stands with Port Orford cedar, especially in
uninfested areas, when conditions are unfavorable for pathogen spread, Work between June 1
and October 1 in order to complete the operations in the warm, dry months, Discontinue opera-
tions when wet conditions develop, even if that happens prior to the end of the season,
Likewise, operations may be allowed outside of the normal season if especially dry conditions
prevail, though such exceptions should be carefully regulated,
(3) Avoid repeated entries onto vulnerable microsites.
( 4) Schedule work to proceed from healthy to infested sites, not visa versa,
(5) Do not move equipment from a contaminated area into a clean one or from a clean
area into a contaminated area and back again.
(6) Wash equipment (or vehicles) operating in a diseased area prior to leaving the area
(Washing is complete only when all soil and organic matter is removed from the equipment.)
Wash equipment in areas designated solely for that purpose. Do not allow wash water to drain
into ditches or stream channels,
(7) Whenever possible, plan access to project areas along routes with the least occur-
rence of infested sites.
(8) Where possible, coordinate all root disease prevention and management activities
with adjacent landowners,
Rare Plants
Seek out and take advantage of opportunities to treat mixed conifer, hardwood, and
chaparral stands containing rare plants both to improve habitat for the species and to reduce
fuels and the risk of catastrophic wildlife. Some species closely associated with more closed
canopy and late successional conditions may need to be buffered from activities. The kind of
fuel treatment used (e.g., how much if any of the canopy cover is removed) and the methods
used (manual thinning vs. mechanical thinning) may need to be modified in some areas contain-
ing rare plants, depending on the species and habitat conditions present.
Since spring bums can kill emerging rare plants, it's best to treat stands containing rare
plants in the late summer through late winter, during the dormant season. However, it is diffi-
cult even for professional land managers to bum safely at this time of year, and such activity is
not advocated for non-professionals,
Minimize soil disturbance in areas containing rare plants to prevent damage to under-
ground roots and bulbs.
Before treating areas, evaluate them for listed noxious weeds, such as yellow star-thistle,
Canada thistle, etc. In doing any work in areas in close proximity to or containing such weeds,
you might need to use manual, cultural, chemical, or biological controls to prevent an invasion
of the noxious weeds prior to the action. You'll probably have to do follow-up treatment for a
few years, too, especially if a noxious weed seed bank: is present. Always use noxious weed
prevention techniques: wash all equipment and vehicles before entering a weed-free area and
wash all equipment and vehicles when moving from a weedy area to another area,
Sow native grasses in disturbed areas where appropriate, especially in oak woodlands
and open mixed conifer communities that historically had open understories dominated by grass
57
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""-~'~'-""~"-'---"'-'--" ......
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
and herbaceous species. If non-native grasses are used on private lands, use short-lived non-per-
sistent species (e.g, cereal rye, annual rye, etc,), Avoid the introduction of persistent non-native
grass or herbaceous species whenever possible,
Although surveys for rare plants are not required on private lands, as they are prior to
"disturbance-causing" activities on federal lands, they are recommended, If you are a private
land owner, you are encouraged to coordinate with the US Fish and Wildlife service for popula-
tions of any federally listed plants (e.g, Gentner's fritillary) and to develop conservation strate-
gies or habitat conservation plans prior to beginning serious fuel reduction work. However, you
should know that if you do this and a rare plant is found on your land, you will lose some dis-
cretion over the use of the land, Private timber companies with spotted owl nests on their land
have had experience with such restrictions of use,
Riparian Areas
Perennial or intermittent streams that currently have adequate numbers of large trees and
good canopy generally need very little if any treatment. Vegetation management is also general-
ly not necessary at such streams, where the wet soil, combined with increased sunlight when
trees are cut, will usually lead to an explosion of new growth, which is counterproductive for
fire management. Therefore it's best to thin out smaller trees to allow bigger trees to grow.
Mature hardwoods and conifers are preferable in these environments, so try to increase the
abundance of large-diameter conifers and important hardwoods like black cottonwood, Oregon
ash, and big-leaf maple, Manage for larger individual alders while reducing alder stand density,
allowing colonization by other tree species, On drier sites, you may have to settle for madrones
and oaks in addition to the large conifers,
Beyond 25' from the stream, you face a trade-off situation, If you reduce ladder and
ground fuels but leave a dense canopy, you are taking the chance of a crown fire, If you reduce
the density of the canopy, you risk damage to the riparian zone. Where dense brush or small-
diameter trees predominate, thin to produce large, fire-resistant trees as quickly as possible, On
sprouting hardwoods such as maples, oaks, and madrones, thin new growth to favor the three
largest sprouts per plant. Cutting these species to the ground will cause them to sprout again,
often with many individual stems on one plant, and the plant will remain in an extremely bushy
condition for many years, rather than reaching a size that is more likely to be able to withstand
a ground fire.
Eliminate noxious weeds using methods that will not degrade water quality. Pay particu-
lar attention to get rid of the obnoxious Himalayan blackberry.
Riparian areas need large down wood, Although woody material of all sizes is critical
for maintaining surface stability, the largest wood will stay wetter, even in drought years, than
smaller materials. Large wood is genemlly not a primary carrier of a fire, but if it ignites and is
low in moisture, this material will bum intensely and for a long time, frequently burning so hot
that underlying soil is damaged. In deciding which large woody materials to leave in streams,
mimic nature. Listen to the earth.
The best fire safety plan for these areas, where moisture produces vigorous vegetation,
is to make sure the surrounding uplands are not overloaded with dense vegetation, especially
ground and ladder fuels. At the edges of riparian areas where dense vegetation gives way to
more open conditions, pay particular attention to brush and other ladder fuels that could carry a
58
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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
ground fire into the crowns of the larger trees in the riparian area, These "edges" may be a pri-
ority for treatment of ladder fuels,
Some cautions: Be careful not to concentrate or channelize the water, which leads to
erosion and gullies. Be aware of the value of vegetation in these streams in preventing channel-
ization and sedimentation. Remember that some soils erode easily if exposed and that removing
forest litter by burning or other forest management practices can accelerate the erosion of soil
and rock particles
Ephemeral and intermittent streams and draws that are usually dry from spring through
fall need a different kind of attention, A primary objective for these areas is to have large, weII-
spaced trees along the stream with little ladder fuel to allow a ground fire into the canopy,
Avoid removal of plants and trees with roots that help to stabilize stream banks and channels,
Remove brush and thin vegetation as you do in the surrounding uplands, and eliminate noxious
weeds without degrading water quality (e,g" don't use chemicals),
Swales and draws that show no evidence of recent flow (no scour marks or deposits
from water) or that do not have a definable channel should be treated like the surrounding
uplands, though special care should be taken not to cause erosion and gullies through ground
disturbance,
Three points from the perennial streams also apply to these lesser streams: vegetation in
the streams prevents dangerous channelization and downstream sedimentation, large down
wood is important, and burning and other forest management practices to remove litter from the
forest floor can accelerate the erosion of soil and rock particles,
It is strongly recommended not to use earth-moving equipment to establish fire lines
within riparian zones as part of emergency fire suppression activities, Construction of fire lines
should be accomplished outside of the area, preferably on ridgetops or other natural control
points, rather than in draw bottoms or parallel to streams, If it is absolutely necessary to con-
struct a fire line within a riparian zone, it should be done perpendicular to the stream, to result
in the lowest level of disturbance possible, though it is preferable to have the riparian area burn
because the line was placed beyond it rather than have the soil disturbance associated with line
construction within the riparian zone itself On the Quartz Fire, both the U.S. Forest Service
and the Bureau of Land Management reported that the damage to riparian and aquatic resources
resulting from operation of heavy equipment in riparian areas was far greater than any damage
caused by the fire itself
Fisheries
The fish would prefer that you not use mechanisms that increase sediment within 100
feet of any stream. That way you will prevent channels, furrows, trails or any other way for dirt
to reach the stream. Coho salmon would also appreciate a no-cut buffer within the first 25 feet
of a stream to allow brush stems or trunks to cover the edges of the stream for spawning. Not
only will this maintain shade to keep the water cool; it will also allow young conifers, maples,
and alders to grow so they can replace older trees. If there is any understory burning on the land
above a stream, you should allow grasses to filter out any sediment. Between 25 and 50 feet
from the stream's edge, you should use a "lop and scatter" strategy or use hand piling outside
the 50-foot distance to allow for the release of conifers, maples, and alders.
Finally, the fish need small and large logs in the riparian area and streams for cover and
nutrients, so don't take out the woody material.
59
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--'-,."-., _.'-~.- ~...
---,----.-.
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
Wildlife
If you are broadcast burning in riparian areas, minimize the number of acres to mini-
mize the impact to neotropical migrants and other species that may be reproducing, If fuel
reduction is carried out in riparian areas, hand piles would be favored over broadcast burning
for spring burns.
Use hand piles for fuel reduction in late successional habitat to minimize the impact to
smaller late successional species, Do not allow piles to remain in position more than one year
prior to burning, This will help minimize species' moving in and utilizing piles as woody habi-
tat.
For fire suppression, locate potential drafting sites for engines away from known turtle
populations, osprey nest sites, bald eagles nest sites, and heron rookeries. Identify late succes-
sional vegetation and when possible use "minimum impact" suppression tactics or "light hand"
tactics for fires in these areas,
F or pre-September fires avoid helicopter operations directly over known nest sites for
bald eagles, osprey, herons, etc,
Rangeland
One of the most important things you can do on rangeland to treat for fire is to prevent
noxious weed invasions, Reduce or eliminate activities, especially mechanical treatments, that
disturb the ground and open new sites for noxious weeds, Reseed disturbed sites.
When using prescribed burns and mechanical treatments for fire management, be sure to
avoid damage to fences, springs, ponds, and other rangeland improvements, When using live-
stock grazing to reduce fine fuels and the risk of fire, remember that passive and continuous
season-long grazing rarely improves or maintains uplands and riparian systems. Consider live-
stock distribution, water availability, and the timing, duration and frequency of grazing treat-
ments in selecting grazing management strategies,
Provide sufficient rest to the land to encourage plant vigor, regrowth and storage of
energy, Avoid grazing during the wet season to prevent compaction of soils.
Finally, in treating wet areas, be sure to retain sufficient vegetation to protect stream
banks, to dissipate energy, and to trap sediment during periods of high stream flows (winter sea-
son).
60
...._.,_._,_...w...._....._."_...-..-.---____.'".,_.~....,"""'~_''''~~''"""".,,^___,, _
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
Making It Bum Slow and Low
Suggestions for Reducing the Catastrophe Level
Fire cannot burn without fuel. Anything that bums is potentially fuel, including our
homes. There's a lot we can do when selecting a home site and building structures to "fIre
proof' these places: using fIre resistant roofmg and other appropriate materials, landscaping
with fIre-adapted native plants and avoiding higWy volatile species, building on comparatively
"fIre safe" sites, separating our buildings from other available fuels, and so forth, What and
how much of the fuel surrounding our homes and in our forests we should "reduce" is up to the
individual concerned with any particular site,
In these pages, we will suggest methods for reducing the bulk: and spread of fuel. Two
of these methods, chemical and biological, are not used to any great degree because the former
is considered socially unacceptable and the latter is ineffective on the typical fuels under con-
sideration, Therefore, we will look only at the other methods, fIrst at the mechanical and manu-
al treatments suitable for homeowners and then at prescribed bums used by professional agency
people,
The mechanical methods for reducing fuel hazards include thinning and pruning, crush-
ing, grinding, piling, chipping, and raking, These treatments use hand tools, such as axes or
chainsaws, or heavy equipment, such as bulldozers and backhoes. Several mechanical treat-
ments may be used on the same unit.
The purpose of thinning is to increase the distance between the tree crowns, lessening
the probability that a fIre will spread through the crowns, and to reduce ladder fuels to prevent
surface fIres from turning into crown fIres. Thinning is done with hand tools or with heavy
equipment whereas pruning, the removal of lower branches to a specifIed height, is usually lim-
ited to hand tools. Pruning increases the distance between the surface fuels and the tree crown,
decreasing the likelihood of a crown fIre. The resulting fuel is usually piled and burned. When
large trees are thinned to increase the distance between tree crowns, the limbs and tops of the
cut trees are usually cut off and the boles (trunks) are either cut into more manageable pieces
for piling or removal or are left more or less intact The cost for thinning non-commercial-size
material with hand tools depends on site access and the size and amount of material to be
thinned, Prices range from $230.00 to $850.00 an acre, The higher costs are associated with
thinning in oak: woodlands and brush fIelds, Pruning costs depend on pruning height and the
number of trees per acre to be pruned. Prices range from $50.00 to $250,00 an acre,
The fuel treatment called crushing uses a piece of heavy equipment to "walk" across the
fuel to pack it so densely the fire can't bum well, Crushing is most effective on dead and down
woody material but can be used on some live fuels. The fuel should be so brittle it snaps and
61
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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
breaks into smaller pieces when the machine walks over it. These pieces then nestle closer to
each other in the fuel bed Crushing is mostly used on brush and is usually done with tracked
equipment, such as a bulldozer. To be effective the equipment must cross all the fuel, often
more than once.
The primary target of grinding, as opposed to crushing, is live fuels, such as brush and
small trees, Grinders usually consist of a rotating head attached to an articulated arm on a
tracked vehicle or a vehicle with self-leveling cabs, The teeth on the rotating head bite into the
fuel, breaking it into smaller pieces and leaving a chewed-up fuel bed less than six inches in
depth, which can be burned later, The cost of grinding ranges from $200,00 to $480,00 an acre
depending on accessibility to the site, on the amount, type and size of material targeted for
grinding, and on the slope of the area being treated,
Piling is done by hand or by machine, usually in places where the size of the trees and
their species make broadcast burning undesirable, Hand piling generally removes smaller mate-
rial than machine piling, since it's hard to pile large, down wood by hand, especially material
greater than eight inches in diameter, Grapple piles are constructed with a variety of devices
designed to grab bundles of fuel and stack them using an articulated arm, usually bulldozers or
grapple pilers attached to backhoes or excavators. Because the grapple piler lifts the fuel to pile
it, piles are virtually dirt-free, and the operator can be very selective about the material he grap-
ples with. Grapple pilers can operate on a skid-trail system,
Piling specifications, whether for piles built by hand or by machine, deal with the size
of the material to be piled, the minimum and maximum sizes of the piles, and the minimum dis-
tance of piles from each other and from tree boles. Piles are usually left to be burned at a later
date, Handpiling could cost anywhere from $250,00 to $1,300,00 an acre, depending on site
accessibility and the amount of material to be piled,
Finally, there are the chipping and raking treatments, Chipping uses a stationary device
to grind material into small pieces. The largest chippers can handle material up to seventeen
inches in diameter. Chips may be blown into a dump truck and hauled away or blown back onto
the land, This type of operation is generally limited to gentle slopes and areas that have good
access; it costs between $575.00 to $1,600,00 an acre, Raking is a limited type of treatment that
uses hand tools to reduce the fuel around the base of trees remaining in a unit that will be
underburned, The area mayor may not be raked down to mineral soil, but material is generally
reduced to at least two inches or less. The accumulated material is raked away from the tree
bole. Raking is gentle on the land and also reduces the potential heat load to fine roots on the
residual trees, If fewer than twenty trees are raked, the cost can be as low as $40 an acre; three
times this number of trees will cost twice as much,
Federal agencies also use prescribed fire to reduce fuel loads, either by broadcast burn-
ing or by pile burning, In broadcast or jackpot burning scattered surface fuels or concentrations
of fuels are set on fire. Broadcast burning (also called underbuming) is used when fuels are
more or less evenly distributed across the project area, It is called broadcast burning when there
is no overstory, as in meadow burning or clearcut burning, and underburning when it is done
with an overstory present. Jackpot burning is the term used when fuels are not evenly distrib-
uted.
Most broadcast burning requires some sort of control line, or frreline, around the burn
block. Roads, major streams, rocky areas and other natural or human-made barriers serve as
control lines when they are available, Otherwise, a barrier must be constructed, The most com-
62
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
mon barrier is handline, a fire line constructed with chainsaws, pulaskis, shovels and other hand
tools that pare the ground down to mineral soil for a width of one to three feet. In light fuels
such as grass or duff the line is more narrow; in heavier fuels such as large amounts of down
woody material and brush, the line is wider. The topography and the position of the fire on the
slope also determine the size of the handline,
The next most common barrier is the dozer line, a fireline constructed with a bulldozer
or sometimes with a blade on a skidder, Usually the smaller bulldozers are used, The width of
the line is usually equal to the width of the blade mounted on the dozer or skidder, The dozer
line is restricted by slope,
Another type of fireline is a wetline, No lines are built down to mineral soil in this tech-
nique, Instead, fuels are wetted slightly in advance of the actual ignition, using either water or,
more often, foam, since foam penetrates deeper and lasts longer. In order to construct a wetline,
vehicles need access along the edge of the burn block, such as flat ground with light fuels, A
wetline is sometimes used in conjunction with other barriers, such as a narrow road, to increase
the effectiveness of the barrier,
The time of year is important to the cost of broadcast burning because it determines the
amount of mop-up needed, Other factors that influence cost are difficulty of access to the site,
the size of the unit, the type and size of material to be burned, the type of equipment needed,
and the proximity of private property, Prices range from $60,00 to $400.00 an acre,
Another type of prescribed fire, pile burning, is self-descriptive: fuels are piled, and the
piles are covered so they can be burned in wet or snowy weather, Most hand piles burn within a
few hours, The cost of pile burning depends on the ease or difficulty of access and the number
of piles per acre to be burned. Prices range from $26,00 to $140,00 an acre,
63
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~~
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
But What Can I Do about It, Anyway?
Hand and Mechanical Techniques to Reduce Fire Hazard
The following chart should be useful to any landowner - or land manager - interested in
reducing the risk of catastrophic fire in a particular site by reducing the build-up of fuel. The
methods described apply to both surface fuels (those on the ground or close to the ground) and
aerial fuels (tree crowns), and they address the type, amount, size, and distribution of fuel, the
height of a tree from its bottom to its crown, and the amount of crown fuel within a given area,
They are classified into three categories: methods using hand tools in the Manual category~
methods using large machinery in the Mechanical category; and prescribed fire and other meth-
ods (such as grazing) in the category of that name, Each of these methods may treat one or
more of these elements of hazardous fuels, Depending upon the site, only a few might be con-
sidered complete treatments in that they can be used to treat most (if not all) of a site's haz-
ardous fuels, Most are partial treatments in that they must be used with other treatments in
order to effectively reduce fuel hazard,
Prior to deciding to use any particular treatment, the landowner should understand clear-
ly his or her objectives for the land and consider many other aspects of land management. It
would be a good idea to consult with a professional in fire prevention and vegetation treatment
before designing any hazardous fuel reduction project. Following are some issues - not all, but
the major ones - that a landowner might wish to consider when deciding on a treatment strate-
gy:
Treatment objectives (the overall objective and any site-specific objectives)
Site conditions (access; topography; type, amount and distribution of fuel or vegetation~
soils; existing site development; etc,)
Cost of treatment
Source and amount of available funds
Time available to complete the project
Size of area to be treated
Concerns about resources and values (For example: How much damage to residual
trees, lawns, soils is acceptable?)
Acceptability of risk to landowner (How much risk am I willing to accept if something
goes wrong: damage to residual trees, escaped fire, etc.?)
Availability of liability insurance, etc.
Personal interest, experience, and physical capability and skill in use of the equipment
(How much, if any, of the work do I want to do myself?
64
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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
V. Too Hot To Handle Alone
Emergency Communications
In rural Southern Oregon, every emergency preparedness program emphasizes the same
thing: You must be prepared to be on your own for at least 72 hours in case of a local disaster
such as a flood, fire or earthquake, That's not to say help may not arrive sooner, but if a disaster
is widespread, it may take that long for sufficient resources to arrive,
You and your neighbors need to know how to respond to an emergency and how to get
information, If you know these things before an emergency strikes, you'll be better prepared to
protect your life and property, To the greatest extent possible, every resident of the Applegate
should know what will happen in an emergency, which agencies will be responding and when,
which neighbors to contact, who can provide help and who needs help, how to get and how to
give out information, The goal of the Emergency Communications component of the Applegate
Fire Plan is to help you know these answers. Having a neighborhood plan that can identify, for
example, ailing neighbors, small children, valuable livestock, water sources, folks with medical
training, or even a bad bridge could greatly assist resource agencies, fire departments, the Red
Cross - and you and your neighbors.
We emphasize to residents that this will be your plan, for your use in an emergency, The
Emergency Communications chapter of the Applegate Fire Plan will be tailored to the desires of
each neighborhood. We fully understand that some people will want to organize and plot and
plan, cataloguing everything they can think of that might be needed in an emergency situation,
Other neighbors may not want to share even their own telephone numbers, The Emergency
Communications chapter can help organize neighborhood groups by providing personal infor-
mation sheets, guidelines for designing a telephone tree, sample telephone trees, county emer-
gency pamphlets, guidance from local emergency personnel, and local maps showing structures,
roads and topography,
The Applegate Fire Plan will be distributed to every household in the valley. We will
present the plan in a three-ring binder so that items can be added or subtracted to suit individu-
als or neighborhoods. The Emergency Communications chapter will provide maps of emer-
gency response areas, lists of emergency phone numbers (local, county, state), and reference
guides for emergency response measures.
Details of our emergency communications chapter are currently being developed by
individual neighborhoods and will be complete in our final version of this fire plan, We also
plan to have a watershed-wide "Update Day" each year, before folks start leaving on vacation
and before the summer fire season begins, to update this emergency information, Look for "One
Day in May" to be outlined in the fmal plan,
67
,-,,'.. ',.'---.---_. _.., "..",.- ,._~--'" ..,...-
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
68
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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
VI. Glossary
69
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.. ...."----..--.,-.,,--~~.<. "'_""""_,__,....__c
70
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"'!'
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
alluvial - soil deposited by water
Aquatic Conservation Strategy (ACS) - a centerpiece strategy within the Northwest Forest Plan
designed to restore and maintain the ecological health of watersheds and aquatic ecosys-
tems for salmon and steelhead on public lands
aspect - the direction a slope faces (e,g" a slope that faces north has a northern aspect)
balds - areas without much vegetation that occur at high elevations below, at, or above tim-
berline,
basal area - the cross-sectional area occupied by tree boles as measured at 4.5 feet, which is
diameter at breast height or dbh,
biomass - total mass or weight of vegetation on a site
boles - tree stems or trunks
canopy gaps - vertical "holes" in forested areas where there are fewer trees and more sunlight
canopy layers - tree top vegetation that forms an aerial layer
cavity dependent species - wildlife species that live in or utilize hollow trees or logs
climax dominant - a species that maintains itself indefinitely on a site in the absence of distur-
bance
condition class - the degree of departure from historic fire regimes, resulting in changes in
species composition, structure, age and density of stands,
decadency - old vegetation that has stopped growing or has very little growth
dispersal and migration pathways - wildlife routes of expansion and travel
endemic - restricted to a particular locality or region
Environment Assessment (EA) - a document for federal actions (like timber sales, prescribed
burns, etc,) required for land altering activities with potentially negative impacts
fire hazard - the type, arrangement, volume, condition, and location of fuels
fire intensity - refers to the behavior of fire: flame length, rate of spread, heat generated, etc.
fire regimes - frequency, intensity, seasonality, duration, and extent of fires within a given area
fire risk - the chance of a fire starting as determined by the presence and activity of causative
agents such as human activities or natural events
71
~''''_'_~_.~_..............._...-......_.,..-....-.--~-_... ..-...............-..
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
fire severity - refers to the degree of the effect of fire on the vegetation or soil
forbs - non-woody, broad-leaved plants and herbs that are not grasses
fuel load - the amount, structure and type of vegetation that can feed a fire
granitic - soils derived from granite
matrix, patches, and corridors - A matrix is federally owned land in which the majority of silvi-
cultural or other management activities occur, Patches are polygons (irregularly shaped
parcels) and corridors are long, narrow strips of a particular type of plant community,
Patches and corridors are often used in reference to continuity of wildlife habitat.
mortality salvage - harvesting dead trees that still have economic value
mosaic - patchwork of different vegetation types
natural succession - change in dominant plant species over time in the absence of disturbance
neotropical migrants - species that migrate between North America and Central or South
America
salvaging trees - cutting trees for value following a fire or other damaging disturbance.
series - a name given to describe the commonly occurring plants on a site, The series is named
for the most dominant tree species.
sera! stages - (see "succession")
species composition - the way species are grouped in a given area
stocking levels - number of trees in a given area
succession - the gradual replacement of one community of plants by another; the sequence of
communities being termed a sere and each community a seral (successional) stage. The
endpoint of succession is a stable, climax community
tree vigor - a measure of health defined as the ratio of annual stemwood growth to the area of
leaves present to capture sunlight
ultramafic - soils derived from serpentine or peridotite rock; characteristics include chemical
imbalances, toxic levels of some heavy metals, low site productivity and unique plant
communities
understory habitat - vegetation below tree tops, including shrubs, grasses, forbs, logs, etc,
vegetation mosaics - patterns of vegetation (size, age, species composition) across the landscape
72
--~---"". ''''-'''"-'''-"'''"'--_.-'~'---~''--'- -,.' ~"-"""-----'^'~~
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
VII. References, Maps, and Charts
73
-.--.- ".- .'- - ..-..----.-".- .~'... ._......_._-",.,...~ ....-.'..-",'
"-.. .~._..._"~,._~.-._,-._,,._",.-._.....~_._.,-...,__... ...__m.....' __.,,,_.
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
74
-~-, ~, _.,-,,".,-,~-~, "-~-'-~~ ~ f...,.....,~__"~________.<_~.~____.,'__~...."."',.,_, .._..........'k.._.. .
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
Literature cited for "From Then till Now"
Oetting, L. E, 1961. The Chaparral Formation of southwestern Oregon, with considerations of
its postglacial history. Ecology 42:348-357
Haefuer, A. Chaparral areas on the Siskiyou National Forest. Society American Foresters
Proceedings 7:82-91; 1912,
Hansen, P. Postglacial forests in south- central and central British Columbia. Am, J. Sci, 253-
.540-603; 1955,
Hickman, Eugene, Ecological site descriptions for Big Butte coordinated resource
management plan, U.S, Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service; 1972.
Lieberg, John B. Cascade Range and Ashland Forest Reserves and adjacent regions, U. S,
Geological Survey 24stAnn, Rep. 1899-1900, Part 5, Forest Reserves; 1900:4II-498,
Munz, p, A.; Keck, 0, O. A California Flora University of California Press, Barkley; 1959. 1981
Vail, S. G, Geology and geochemistry of the Oregon Mountain area, southwestern Oregon and
northern California. 'In investigation of the origin and development of a Jurassic Ophiolite in
the Klamath Mountains, Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University; 1977, 135 p, Ph.D, Thesis,
References for "Sick Neighbors"
Hansen, E.M" and P.B. Hamm, 1996. Survival ofPhytophthora lateraIis in infected roots of
Port-Orford-cedar, Plant Disease 80:1075-1078,
Harvey, RD" J.H. Hadfield, and M. Greenup. 1985. Port-Orford-cedar root rot on the Siskiyou
National Forest in Oregon. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region. 17 p,
KIiejunas, J, T. 1994, Port-Orford-cedar root disease, Fremontia 22:3-11.
Kliejunas, IT., and D,H. Adams. 1980. An evaluation ofPhytophthora root rot of Port- Orford-
cedar in California, USDA Forest Service, Region 5 Forest Pest Management Report No. 80-1.
16 p.
Murray, M,S., M, McWilliams, and E.M. Hansen, 1995, Survival ofPhytophthora lateraIis in
chlorine bleach. Oregon State University, 8 p, (unpublished).
Roth, L.F., E.J, Trione, and W,H. Ruhmann, 1957, Phytophthora induced root rot of native Port-
75
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
Orford-cedar. Journal of Forestry. 55:294-298.
Roth, L.F" H.B. Byn~ and E.E, Nelson. 1972, Phytophthora root rot of Port- Orford-cedar,
USDA Forest Service, Forest Pest Leaflet 131. 7 p,
Roth, L.F., RD. Harvey, and J.T. Kliejunas. 1987, Port-Orford-cedar root disease. U.S,
Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, R6 FPM-PR-294-87, IIp
References for "At the Water's Edge"
US, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Medford District, 1995, Middle
Applegate Subbasin Analysis, Medford, OR
US, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Medford District, and US,
Department of Agriculture, US, Forest Service, Rogue River National Forest and Siskiyou
National Forest, June 1995, Applegate River Watershed Assessment: Aquatic, Wildlife, and
Special Plant Habitat. Medford, OR
Bibliography for ''Fish on the Hook"
USDI and USDA.
USDI and USDA.
September 1994.
USDI. Middle Applegate Watershed Analysis. August 1995.
USDI and USDA Little Applegate River Watershed Analysis. May 1995.
USDI, Little Applegate River Pilot Watershed Analysis: Stream Ecosystem Report.
April 1995.
USDI.
USDA.
USDA.
Applegate Adaptive Management Area Guide. September 1998,
Applegate Adaptive Management Area Ecological Health Assessment.
Applegate-StarlBoaz Watershed Analysis. September 1998.
Beaver and Palmer Creek Watershed Analysis, 1994,
Middle Fork Applegate River Watershed Analysis. February 1998.
Reference note for "Equal Rights for All Species": Many parts of this article were taken closely
from Chapter VI of the Applegate River Watershed Assessment, 6/6/95,
76
"- ..-.....-.--,..-,.,". ~.,,,.,-"~".,.,..__.*._--_..,._.,,,.._"'~."~..,. ~ -"._-'-'-'-"-'~"'- ~
Table Xl. Applegate Watershed Rare Vascular Plants: Vegetation associations
Medford BLM & Rogue River National Forest Rare Species
d d d . h ' 'th. h 1 h d (4 h d
Base on ocumente SIgJ bngs WI mt e entIre AllpJegate waters e t co e IIDC).
Coarse Vegetation Types:
BA = Barren/Rock; CH =
BLM/FS Global State Conifer/Hardwood mix; HD =
Status 1 Ran~ Rank3 Hardwoods; GF = Grass/Forb; MC =
Mixed Conifer; SC = Shrub/Chaparral;
TF = True fir; WA = WaterlWetlands
(includin4 wet meadows)
SpeCies Common BA CH HD GF MC SC TF WA
Name Name
Arabis koeWeri KoeWer's BTO/FSW G3 S3 X X X
var, stipitata rockcress
Arabis modesta Rogue Canyon BAO G2 S2 X
rockcress
Callitriche winged water- BTO G4 S2 X X X
marf!inata starwort
Calochortus Shasta star FSS G3G4 S2 X
nudus tulip
Camissonia hill suncup FSSIBAO G3 S2 X X X
If!jaciliflara
Cardamine dissected BTO G5 SU X X
nutallii var, toothwort
dissecta
Carex gigas (C Siskiyou sedge BAO/FSS G3 S2 X X
scabriuscula)
Carex integra smooth-beaked FSR G4G5 S2 X X
sedl!e
Carex livida livid sedge BAO G5 S2 X X X
Carex nervina nerved sedge FSS G4 SI X X
Carex two-tooth BAO/FSS G4 S2 X X
serratadens sedl!e
Castilleja split-hair FSS G3 S2 X X X
schizatricha paintbrush
CimicifUga Tall bugbane BSO/FSS G2 S2 X X X
elata
Cirsium Ashland thistle BTO G3 S3 X
cilialatum
Clarida mountain BAO/FSS G4 SI X X X X
heterandra cIarkia
Crumia latifolia wideleaf BAO G3 S2 X X
crumia moss
Cryptantha Milo Baker's BAO/FSS G3 SI X X X
milobalceri crvotantha
I BAO = Bureau Assessment Oregon; BSO = Bureau Sensitive Oregon; BTO = Bureau Tracking Oregon
FSS = Forest Service Sensitive; FSR = Forest Service Review, FSW = Forest Service Watch
FE = Federally Endangered
2 Global Ranks:
I = Critically imperiled worldwide because of extreme rarity or because it is somehow especially
vulnerable to extinction or extirpation;
2 = Imperiled worldwide because of rarity or because other factors demonstrably make it vulnerable to
extinction or extirpation,
3 = Rare, uncommon., or threatened worldwide, but not immediately imperiled,
4 = Not rare and apparently secure worldwide, but with cause for long-term concern
5 = Demonstrably widespread. abundant, and secure worldwide,
3 State Ranks: Same criteria as above but at a State scale.
77
Coarse Vegetation Types:
SA = Barren/Rock; CH =
SLM/FS Global State Conifer/Hardwood mix; HD =
Status 1 Ran~ Rank3 Hardwoods; GF = Grass/Forb; MC =
Mixed Conifer; SC = Shrub/Chaparral;
TF = True fir; WA = WaterlWetlands
including wet meadows)
Species Common SA CH HD GF MC SC TF WA
Name Name
Cupressus Baker's BAOfFSS G2 SI X
bakeri cypress
Cypripedium clustered BSOfFSS G3G4 S2 X X X
ifasciculatum ladv's-slipper
Cypripedium mountain BTO/FSW G4G5 S4 X X X
montanum lady's-slipper
Delphinium red larkspur BAOfFSS G4 S2 X X X
nudicale
Dicentra few-flowered BAO/FSS G3 Sl X X
pauciflora bleedingbeart
Draba howel/ii Howell"s BSO/FSS G4 S2 X
whitlow-grass
Epilobium Siskiyou FSS G3 S2 X
siskiyouense willowherb
Erigeron cliff erigeron FSS G4 S2 X X
petro phi/us var,
viscidulus
Eriogonum Jaynes Canyon FSW G3 S2 X X X
diclinum buckwheat
Eucephalus wayside aster STO G2 S2 X
via/is (Aster
via/is)
Euonymus western BTO/FSW G3 S3 X
occidenta/is burnin~ bush
F estuca e/meri Elmer's fescue BAO/FSS G5 Sl X X
Fritillaria Gentner's FE Gl SI X X X X
gentneri fritillary
Fritillaria Siskiyou BAO/FSS G4 S2 X X
g/auca fritillary
Gentiana bristley BAO/FSS G3 Sl X X
IP/eurisetosa gentian
Hazardia Whitney's BAO/FSS G4G5 S2 X X
whitneyi spp, haplopappus
discoideus
Hedwigia starry BTO G3 SI X
stellato hedwigia moss
Hieracium Bolander's BTO/FSW G4 S2 X X X X
bolanderi hawkweed
Hieracium Green's BTOfFSR G4 SU X X X X
greenei hawkweed
Hierochloe Vanilla grass BTOIFSR G5 S? X
odorata
Horkelia Henderson's FSS G2 S2 X X
hendersonii horkelia
Isopyrum Siskiyou false BAOIFSS G4 S2 X X X
stipitatum rue anemone
Lewisia Howell's BTO/FSW G4 S3 X X X X
cotyledon var, lewisia
hawel/ii
Lewisia leana quill-leaf BAO/FSS G4 S2 X X
lewisia
78
._.~.._-_.,,,....~..,..~. -,",-. -.- - ----,~,~-_....--"~-,,. "_"..~"".~--,_.-...~ """9If
Coarse Vegetation Types:
BA = Barren/Rock; CH =
BLMlFS Global State ConiferlHardwood mix; HD =
Status 1 Ran~ Rank3 Hardwoods; GF = Grass/Forb; MC =
Mixed Conifer; SC = Shrub/Chaparral;
TF = True fir; WA = WaterlWetlands
l(includin wet meadows)
Species Common BA CH HD GF MC SC TF WA
Name Name
Limnanthes slender BSO G3 S2 X X
graci/is ssp. meadow-foam
lozracilis
Linanthus Baker's BTOIFSR G5 S? X X X
bakeri linanthus
Lithophragma hillside BTOIFSR G4 SU X X X X
heterophyllum woodland-star
Lotus stipu/aris balsam bird's- BAO G5 S2 X X
foot trefoil
Mecone//a white BSO G2 SI X X
oregana fairypoppy
Mertensia be//a beautiful BTOIFSR G4 S? X X
bluebells
Mimu/us Bolander's BAOIFSS G4 SI X X X
bo/anderi monkey-
flower
Mimu/us brownies BTOIFSW G4G5 S2 X X X
dou~/asii
Mimu/us Kellogg's BTO/FSW G4 S3 X X X
ke//o~~ii monkeyflower
Pedicu/aris Howell's FSS G3 S2 X X X
howe//ii lousewort
Pellaea coffee BAO G4 S2 X X
andromedifolia cIiftbrake
Pe//aea birdfoot BAO G5 SI X X X
mucronata ssp. cIiftbrake
mucronata
Perideridia Howell's BTOIFSW G4 S3 X
howel/ii vampah
Pinus sabiniana digger pine BTOIFSR G4 SI X X X
Poa bo/anderi Bolander's BTO/FSR G5 S? X X
bluegrass
Poa piperi Piper's BTO/FSW G4 S3 X X
bluewass
Po/ystichum Lemmon's BTOIFSW G4 S4 X X
/emmonii hollyfern
Rhamnus hollyleaf BAOIFSS G4 SI X X X
i/icifolia redberry
Ribes inerme Klamath BTO G5 SU? X
var, gooseberry
kJamathense
Scirpus drooping BAO/FSS G4 SI X X X X
Ipendulus bulrush
Sedum laxum Heckner's BAO/FSS G5 S3 X X X X
spp, hec/cneri stonecrop
Sedum oblongleaf BSO/FSS G3 S2 X X X X
oblanceolatum stonecrop
Sedum Purdy's BTO/FSW G4G5 S3 X X X X
spathulifolium stonecrop
79
---. T""
Coarse Vegetation Types:
BA = Barren/Rock; CH =
BLM/FS Global State Conifer/Hardwood mix; HD =
Status 1 Ran~ Rank3 Hardwoods; GF = Grass/Forb; MC =
Mixed Conifer; SC = Shrub/Chaparral;
TF = True fir; WA = WaterlWetlands
lfincludin wet meadows)
Species Common BA CH HD GF MC SC TF WA
Name Name
ssp, purdyi
Silene lemmonii Lemmon's BTOIFSR G5 S2 X X
catcbfly
Smilax California BTOIFSW G4 S3 X X X
californica I greenbrier
So/anum Parish's BTOIFSR G4 S? X X X
Iparishii nightshade
Sophora western BSO G2 S2 X X
leachiana necklacepod
Tauschia Howell's FSS Gl Sl X X
howellii tauschia
Th/aspi Siskiyou BTO G5 S3 X X
montanum var, pennycress
siskiyouense
Tortu/a awl-leaved BTO G4 SI X X
subulata tortula moss
Trite/eia /axa Ithuriel's spear BAOIFSS G4 Sl X
80
H'_ "'P
Coarse Vegetation Types:
BA = Barren/Rock; CH =
BLM/FS Global State Conifer/Hardwood mix; HD =
Status 1 Ran~ Rank3 Hardwoods; GF = Grass/Forb; MC =
Mixed Conifer; SC = Shrub/Chaparral;
TF = True fir; WA = WaterlWetlands
IUncludin wet meadows)
Species Common BA CH HD GF MC SC TF WA
Name Name
Smilax California BTO/FSW G4 S3 X X X
californica greenbrier
Solanum Parish's BTO/FSR G4 S? X X X
Iparishii nightshade
Sophora western BSO G2 S2 X X
leachiana necklaceood
Tauschia Howell's FSS Gl SI X X
howellii tauschia
Thlaspi Siskiyou BTO GS S3 X X
montanum var, pennycress
siskiyouense
Tortu/a awl-leaved BTO G4 SI X X
subulata tortula moss
Triteleia laxa Ithuriel's spear BAO/FSS G4 SI X
Table X2
Applegate Watershed Survey and Manage Species4 by Coarse vegetation associations
Medford BLM & Rogue River National Forest S&M Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP)
documented occurrence list
Coarse Vegetation Types:
BA = Barren/Rock; CH =
Conifer/Hardwood mix; HD =
Hardwoods; GF =
Grass/Forb; MC = Mixed
Conifer; SC = Shrub /
Chaparral; TF = True fir; WA
= WaterlWetlands
Species Name Common Name Life Form NWFP BA CH HD GF MC SC TF WA
Status5
Bryoria tortuosa yellow twist Lichen D X X
horsehair
Buxbaumia viridis Buxbaum's green Moss D X X
moss
Cantherellus Chanterelle Fungi D X
subalbidus
Clavariadelphus club coral Fungi B X
truncates
Collybia racemosa collybia Fungi B X X
Craterellus Fungi D X
tubaeformis Chanterelle
Cypripedium clustered lady's- Vascular C X X X
fasciculatum slipper Plant
4 Species listed as 'Survey and Manage" under the Northwest Forest Plan 1994, as modified.
5 Status; A = Survey and manage all sites, B = Manage all known sites, but no new surveys required, C =
Survey and Manage all high priority sites, D = Manage all high priority sites, E = manage all known sites,
F = Strategic surveys
81
,----....,...--" --,,"--
Coarse Vegetation Types:
BA = Barren/Rock; CH =
Conifer/Hardwood mix; HD =
Hardwoods; GF =
Grass/Forb; MC = Mixed
Conifer; SC = Shrub /
Chaparral; TF = True fir; WA
= WaterlWetlands
Species Name Common Name Life Form NWFP BA CH HD GF MC SC TF WA
Status5
Gypripedium mountain lady's- Vascular C X X X
montanum slipper Plant
Dendriscocaulon northern Lichen B X X
intricatulum moonshrub
Eucepha/us via/is (Aster wayside aster Vascular A X
vialis) Plant
Gomphus floccosus Chanterelle Fungi F (CA) X
(GA)
Gyromitra esculenta false morels Fungi F X X
Mycena montico/a mycena Fungi B X X
Gtidea onotica rabbit ears Fungi F X X
Gtidea smithii rabbit ears Fungi B X X
Pannaria saubinetti pink-eyed mouse Lichen F X
Pithya vulgaris common pithya Fungi D X X
P/ectania me/astoma jelly-like black Fungi F X X
urn
P/ectania milleri black urn Fungi B X
ptilidium ca/ifomicum Pacific fuzzwort Lichen A (CA) X
[(GA)
Ramaria coral fungi Fungi B X
rubrievanescens
Ramaria coral fungi Fungi B X X
rubriJJ8rmanens
Sarcosoma mexicana giant gel-cup Fungi F X X
Tremiscus he/vel/oides Tremiscus Fungi B X
82
-.""'..-.-.--......... ~_...-~._,._--"_._._----"" ",."""._..--...".",.,'-,..........~ .........
Table X3
Noxious weeds Documented for the Applegate Watershed on public lands6
S ecies
Centaurea diffusa
Centaurea maculosa
Centaurea ratensis
Centaurea solstitalis
Cirsium arvense
Ciresium vul are
Conium maeulatum
Cyno lossum officinale
Cytisus seo aris
H ericum erforatum
Lythrum salicaria
Ono ordum acanthium
Rubus discolor
Senecio. acobaea
Tribulus terrestris
Xanthium spinosum
6 Noxious weed species documented just on public lands. Other listed noxious weeds are likely to occur on
private lands, and other species known in the region are likely to colonize the Applegate valley in the near
future,
83
'-'-- .....
Table I. Little Applegate River
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 14,164
Young/Mid Seral Closed Canopy 13,160
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 19,486
Hardwood Stands 519
Brush Fields 6,808
Grass/Meadows 2,261
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 6,880
Total Acres Classified 63,279
Total Acres 72,243
Table 2. Upper Applegate River
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 29,119
Young/Mid Seral Closed Canopy 45,699
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 46,776
Hardwood Stands 0
Brush Fields 17,344
Grass/Meadows 732
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 2,500
Total Acres Classified 142,170
Total Acres 142,171
Table 3. Thompson Creek
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 3,970
Young/Mid Sera I Closed Canopy 2,264
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 7,256
Hardwood Stands 113
Brush Fields 368
Grass/Meadows 33
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 1,521
Total Acres Classified 15,526
Total Acres 20,029
84
Table 4. StarlBeaverIPalmer
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 11,527
Young/Mid Seral Closed Canopy 14,871
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 13,493
Hardwood Stands 71
Brush Fields 7,579
Grass/Meadows 1,694
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 2,665
Total Acres Classified 51,899
Total Acres 52,244
Table 5. Forest Creek
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 4,961
Young/Mid Seral Closed Canopy 209
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 2,693
Hardwood Stands 371
Brush Fields 533
Grass/Meadows 532
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 1,714
Total Acres Classified 11,012
Total Acres 22,529
Table 6. Middle Applegate River
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 7,475
Young/Mid Seral Closed Canopy 293
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 6,695
Hardwood Stands 1,384
Brush Fields 2,088
Grass/Meadows 665
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 5,099
Total Acres Classified 23,699
Total Acres 41,038
85
._.,...._,.-...........--._-;"......."'-..".'''....".-.~- _....~---_.. .._~""., ,..-.-.--
Table 7, Lower Applegate River
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 9,521
Young/Mid Sera I Closed Canopy 65
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 9,607
Hardwood Stands 192
Brush Fields 211
Grass/ Meadows 1,534
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 1,674
Total Acres Classified 22,805
Total Acres 62,162
Table 8, Slate Creek
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 4,907
Young/Mid Seral Closed Canopy 7,597
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 6,983
Hardwood Stands 0
Brush Fields 790
Grass/Meadows 108
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 20
Total Acres Classified 20,404
Total Acres 28,399
Table 9. Williams Creek
Vegetation Classification Acres
Early Seral/Open Canopy 12,849
Young/Mid Seral Closed Canopy 809
Late Successional/Mature Closed Canopy 13,413
Hardwood Stands 174
Brush Fields 181
Grass/Meadows 440
Rock/Sparse Veg/Low Site 212
Total Acres Classified 28,077
Total Acres 51,914
86
,.", ~,._"O-',_".L-..._,.',." .,"~...,,_... .........----.--.--~---"---'""'-~...-.~~.......-..,-_...---. ,_._._--~ 'Ill\'
Table 1. Applegate River Watershed Special Status Species
Common Name Scientific Name Presence Status Survey level
Gray Wolf Canis lupus Absent FE,SE None To Date
White-Footed Vole Aborimus a/bipes Unknown FC,SP None To Date
California Red Tree Vole Aborimus pomo Suspected FC None To Date
Fisher Martes pennanti Present FC,SC Limited Surveys
California Wolverine Gu/o gu/o /uteus Suspected FC,ST Limited Surveys
American Marten Martes americana Present SC Limited Surveys
Ringtail Bassacriscus astutus Present SU Limited Surveys
Townsends Big-Eared P/ecotous townsendii Present FC,SC Limited Surveys
Bat
Fringed Myotis Myotis thysanodes Present FC,SV Limited Surveys
Yuma Myotis Myotis yumanensis Present FC Limited Surveys
Long,Eared Myotis Myotis evotis Present FC Limited Surveys
Long,Legged Myotis Myotis vo/ans Present FC Limited Surveys
Pacific Pallid Bat Antrozous pallidus Present SC Limited Surveys
Peregrine Falcon Fa/co peregrinus Present FE,ST Limited Surveys
Bald Eagle Ha/iaeetus Present FT,ST Limited Surveys
/eucocepha/us
Northern Spotted Owl Strix occident/is Present FT,ST Extensive
Surveys
Marbled Murrelet Brachyramphus Unlikely FE,SC Limited Surveys
marmoratus
Northern Goshawk Accipiter genti/is Present FC,SC Limited Surveys
Mountain Quail Oreortyx pictus Present FC ODFW Surveys
Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pi/eatus Present SC I nci denta I
Lewis' Woodpecker Me/anerpes /ewis Present SC Incidental
87
'",,,-- "..<
Table 25. Applegate Watershed Special Status Species (continued)
Common Name Scientific Name Presence Status Survey level
White-Headed Picoides albolarvatus Suspected SC None To Date
Woodpecker
Flammulated Owl Otus flammeolus Present SC Incidental
Purple Martin Progne subis Unknown SC None To Date
Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa Present SV Limited Surveys
Western Bluebird Sialia mexicana Present SV None To Date
Acorn Woodpecker Melanerpes Present SU Incidental
formicivorus
Tricolored Blackbird Agelaius tricolor Unknown FC,S None To Date
Pygmy Nuthatch Sitta pygmaea Suspected None To Date
Black-Backed Picoides arcticus Suspected None To Date
Woodpecker
Northern Pygmy Owl Glaucidium gnoma Present SU I ncidenta I
Grasshopper Sparrow Ammodramus Unknown S None To Date
savannarum
Bank Swallow Riparia Riparia Migratory SU None To Date
Western Pond Turtle Clemmys marmorata Present FC,SC Limited Surveys
Foothills Yellow-Legged Rana boylii Present FC,SU Limited Surveys
Frog
Red-Legged Frog Rana aurora Suspected FC,SU Limited Surveys
Tailed Frog Ascaphus truei Present SV Limited Surveys
Del Norte Salamander Plethodon elongatus Present FC,SV Limited Surveys
Siskiyou Mtn Plethodon stormi Present FC,SV Limited Surveys
Salamander
Clouded Salamander Aneides ferreus Present SC Limited Surveys
Southern Torrent Rhyacotriton variegatus Present FC,S Limited Surveys
Salamander (Variegated
Salamander)
Black Salamander Aneides flavipunctatus Present SP Limited Surveys
88
Status Abbreviations:
FE--Federal Endangered
FT--Federal Threatened
FP,-Federal Proposed
FC--Federal Candidate
SE..State Endangered
ST,-State Threatened
SC..ODFW Critical
SV..ODFW Vulnerable
SP--ODFW Peripheral or Naturally Rare
SU--ODFW Undetermined
BS--Bureau Sensitive
AS--Assessment Species (BLM)
89
,.'.,._~ '11II1 ...... '_...._"-~,.~....."...-.,_.."._,-,......_,_.
Table 1. Applegate River Watershed Habitat of Special Status Species
Species Habitat Special Habitat Concern
(Common Name) Association Feature
Gray Wolf Generalist Large Blocks Of Extirpated
Unroaded
Habitat
White-Footed Vole Riparian Alder/Mature Naturally Rare,
Riparian Modification/Loss of Habitat
from Development
California Red Tree Vole Mature/Old Mature Douglas- Declining Habitat
Growth Conifer fir Trees Quality/Quantity from Logging
Fisher Mature/Old Down Declining Habitat
Growth Wood/Snags Quality/Quantity &
Riparian Fragmentation From Logging
California Wolverine Generalist Large Blocks Of Declining Habitat
Unroaded Quality/Quantity &
Habitat Fragmentation from Logging and
Road Building, Human
Disturbance
American Martin Mature/Old Down Wood, Declining Habitat
Growth Living Ground Quality/Quantity &
Cover Fragmentation
Ringtail Generalist Rocky Terrain, Northern Limit Of Range
Caves, Mine
Adits
Townsends Big,Eared Generalist Mine Adits, Disturbance to Nurseries,
Bat Caves, Bridges Hibernacula & Roosts, Closing
Mine Adits
Fringed Myotis Generalist Rock Crevices & Disturbance to Roosts and
Snags Colonies
Yuma Myotis Generalist Large Live Trees Limited Mature Tree
With Crevices In Recru itment
The Bark &
Long-Eared Myotis Generalist Large Live Trees Limited Mature Tree
With Crevices in Recruitment
the Bark
Long-Legged Myotis Genralist Large Live Trees Limited Mature Tree
With Crevices in Recruitment
the Bark
90
.'.._....~.._..w,._.,,~ "l
Species Habitat Special Habitat Concern
(Common Name) Association Feature
Pacific Pallid Bat Generalist Snags, Rock General
Crevices Rarity/Disturbance/Snag Loss
Peregrine Falcon Generalist CI iff Faces Low Numbers, Prey Species
Contaminated with Pesticides
Bald Eagle Lacustrine/Rive Large Mature Populations Increasing
rs Trees With
Large Limbs
Near Water
Northern Spotted Owl Mature/Old Late Declining Habitat
Growth Successional Quality/Quantity &
Mature w/ Fragmentation
Structure
91
._._.. '__'_"_".<A. ,_"d__., .' __""_'__'_'__~OM___"""_'_" .,._.",_.", <.. ,~.._,_, .........
Table 26. Applegate Watershed Special Status Species (continued)
Species Habitat Special Habitat Concern
(Common Name) Association Feature
Marbled Murrelet Mature/Old Large Limbed Declining Habitat
Growth Trees, High Quality/Quantity, Habitat
Canopy Closure potential slight in Applegate
(maximum 50 miles from
ocea n)
Northern Goshawk Mature/Old High Ca nopy Declining Habitat
Growth Closure Forest Quality/Quantity &
for Nest Sites Fragmentation, Human
Disturbance
Mountain Quail Generalist Brush Fields No Concern in the Watershed
Pileated Woodpecker La rge Trees Large Diameter Snag and Down Log Removal
Snags from Logging, Salvage & Site
Prep
Lewis' Woodpecker Pine/Oak Large Oaks, Declining Habitat
Woodlands Pines & Quality/Quantity Fire
Cottonwoods Suppression, Rural &
Adjacent To Agriculture Development,
Openings Riparian Modification
White-Headed Pine/Fir Large Pines Limited Natural Populations,
Woodpecker Mountain Living and Dead Logging of Large Pines and
Forests Snags
Flammulated Owl Pine/Oak Pine Stands & Conversion of Mixed-Aged
Woodlands Snags Forest to Even-Aged Forests
Purple Martin Generalist Snags in Burns Salvage Logging After Fire and
with Excavated Fire Suppression
Cavities
Great Gray Owl Pi ne/Oak/True Mature Forest Declining Quality/Quantity of
Fir/Mixed With Adjoining Nesting And Roosting Habitat
Conifer Meadows
Western Bluebird Meadows/ Snags in Open Snag Loss/Fire Suppression
Open Areas Areas Competition with Starlings for
Nest Sites
Acorn Woodpecker Oak Woodlands Large Oaks Declining Habitat
Quality/Quantity
Tricolored Blackbird Riparian Wetlands, Limited & Dispersed
Cattail Marshes Populations, Habitat Loss from
Development
92
H.._____,___".~.__.".'"".___. "'_""_"_"."..,,^~~,,__.__._..-.... '. " __.._.._~___."...,__..~
Species Habitat Special Habitat Concern
(Common Name) Association Feature
Pygmy Nuthatch Pine Forests Large Dead & Timber Harvest of Mature
Decayi ng Pi ne Trees, Salvage Logging
Black-Backed Pine Snags And Pine Removal of Mature Insect
Woodpecker Infested Trees, Naturally rare.
Williamsons Sapsucker Montane Trees with Removal of Heartrot Trees,
Conifer Forest Advanced Wood Snag Removal, Conversion to
Decay Managed Stand. Naturally
rare,s
Northern Pygmy Owl Mixed Conifer/ Snags Snag Removal, Depend on
Woodpecker Species to
Excavate Nest Cavities
Grasshopper Sparrow Open Savannah Grasslands with Limited Habitat, Fire
Limited Shrubs Suppression, Conversion to
Agriculture
Table 26. Applegate Watershed Special Status Species (continued)
Species Habitat Special Habitat Concern
(Common Name) Association Feature
Bank Swallow Riparian Sand Banks General Rarity, Declining
Near Open Habitat Quality
Ground or Water
Western Pond Turtle Riparian/Uplan Marshes, Alteration Of Aquatic and
d Sloughs Ponds Terrestrial Nesting Habitat,
Exotic Species Introduction
Del Norte Salamander Mature/Old Talus Declining Habitat
Growth Quality/Quantity &
Fragmentation
Siskiyou Mtn, Closed Canopy Talus Declining Habitat
Salamander Forest Quality/Quantity &
Fragmentation
Foothills Yellow-Legged Riparian Permanent Water Diversions,
Frog Streams with Impoundments, General
Gravel Bottoms Declines in Genus Numbers
Red-Legged Frog Riparian Marshes, Ponds Exotic Species Introduction
& Streams with Loss of Habitat from
Limited Flow Development
Tailed Frog Riparian Cold Fast Sedimentation And Removal of
Flowing Streams Riparian Vegetation Due to
93
~'__','~".e_.'_
Species Habitat Special Habitat Concern
(Common Name) Association Feature
in Wooded Area Logging, Grazing & Road
Building
Clouded Salamander Mature Snags & Down Loss of Large Decaying Wood
Logs Due to Timber Harvest and
Habitat Fragmentation
Southern Torrent Riparian Cold, Clear Water Diversions &
Salamander Seeps & Spri ngs Sedimentation From Roads ,&
Loggi ng
Black Salamander Generalist Down Logs, Limited Range, Lack of Data
Talus
Sharptail Snake Valley Bottoms Moist Rotting Low Elevation Agricultural and
Low Elevation Logs Development Projects That
Remove/Limit Down Wood
California Mountain Habitat Habitat Edge of Range, General Rarity,
Kingsnake Generalist Generalist Collectors
Common Kingsnake Habitat Habitat Edge of Range, General Rarity,
Generalist Generalist Collectors
Northern Sagebrush Open Brush Open Forests or Edge of Range, Fire
Lizard Stands Brush With Suppression
Open
Understory
Since the writing of the above information, in 1995, the status of some of these
species has changed. Many of the current species of concern will be dealt with during
planning, Several of these species will be located on a GIS layer, which has identified
sections where the species or its habitat is located.
94
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Below is a current listing of sensitive species for the watershed:
2002 Applegate River Watershed Special Status Species
Common Name Scientific Name Presence Status Survey level
Gray Wolf Canis lupus Absent FE,SE None To Date
White,Footed Vole Aborimus a/bipes Unknown SP None To Date
Red Tree Vole Aborimus /ongicaudus Present S&M Extensive
Surveys !
Fisher Martes pennanti Present FS limited Surveys
California Wolverine Gu/o gu/o /uteus Suspected FS,ST limited Surveys
American Marten Martes americana Present SC limited Surveys
Ringtail Bassacriscus astutus Present SU limited Surveys
Townsends Big-Eared P/ecotous townsendii Present FC,SC limited Surveys
Bat
Fringed Myotis Myotis thysanodes Present FC,SV limited Surveys
Yuma Myotis Myotis yumanensis Present FC Limited Surveys
Long-Eared Myotis Myotis evotis Present FC limited Surveys
Long-Legged Myotis Myotis vo/ans Present FC limited Surveys
Pacific Pallid Bat Antrozous pallidus Present FS, SC Limited Surveys
Peregrine Falcon Fa/co peregrinus Present FS, ST limited Surveys
Bald Eagle Haliaeetus Present FT,ST limited Surveys
/eucocepha/us
Northern Spotted Owl Strix occident/is Present FT,ST Extensive
Surveys
Marbled Murrelet Brachyramphus Unlikely FE,SC Extensive
marmoratus Surveys
Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis Present SC Limited Surveys
Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pi/eatus Present SC Incidental
Lewis' Woodpecker Me/anerpes /ewis Present SC Incidental
95
'."., ._~....,---_..._,.'"...>.,.....--..._"-,. ,....~-_., ,-,..,..-
Common Name Scientific Name Presence Status Survey level
White-Headed Picoides albolarvatus Suspected SC None To Date
Woodpecker
Flammulated Owl Otus f1ammeolus Present SC I ncidenta I
Purple Martin Progne subis Unknown SC None To Date
Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa Present S&M, SV Limited Surveys
Western Bluebird Sialia mexicana Present SV None To Date
Acorn Woodpecker Melanerpes Present SU Incidental
formicivorus
Tricolored Blackbird Agelaius tricolor Unknown FS, SU None To Date
Northern Pygmy Owl Glaucidium gnoma Present SU Incidental
Grasshopper Sparrow Ammodramus Unknown S None To Date
savannarum
Bank Swallow Riparia Riparia Migratory SU None To Date
Western Pond Turtle Clemmys marmorata Present FS, SC Limited Surveys
Foothills Yellow-Legged Rana boylii Present FS, S? Limited Surveys
Frog
Red-Legged Frog Rana aurora Suspected SU Limited Surveys
Oregon Spotted Frog Rana pretiosa ?? FS
Tailed Frog Ascaphus truei Present SV Limited Surveys
Del Norte Salamander Plethodon elongatus Present FS,SV Limited Surveys
Siskiyou Mtn Plethodon stormi Present FC,SV Limited Surveys
Salamander
Clouded Salamander Aneides ferreus Present SC Limited Surveys
Southern Torrent Rhyacotriton variegatus Present FC, S? Limited Surveys
Salamander (Variegated
Salamander)
Black Salamander Aneides f1avipunctatus Present FS,SP Limited Surveys
California Slender Batrachoseps ?? FS
Salamander attenuatus
Van Dyke's Salamander Plethodon vandykei ?? FS
Southern Torrent Rhychotriton variegatus 11 FS
96
. ....."_...--~_... ,.... ,- '_.,,_.--.,..-.---_.<~._.~--...-.-...-...-
Common Name Scientific Name Presence Status Survey level
Salamander
Common Kingsnake Lampropeltus getula Present FS No Surveys
Mollusk Spp S&M
Mollusk S&M
Mollusk S&M
FE--Federal Endangered SC--ODFW Critical
FT..Federal Threatened SV--ODFW Vulnerable
SE..State Endangered SU..ODFW Undetermined
ST--State Threatened BS--Bureau Sensitive
FS..Forest Service Sensitive AS..Assessment Species (BLM)
SP--ODFW Peripheral or Naturally Rare
S&M..Survey and Manage
97
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Access Description of Description of VQO/SIO
Viewpoint Viewshed
Forest Service Road Siskiyou Crest Zone with Nearly 360 degree views of RetentionlHigh
2000000 and Pacific Crest viewpoints from Siskiyou several peaks in the Cascade
National Scenic Trail Peak, Siskiyou Gap, Wrangle and Siskiyou Mountains,
#2000 Gap, Jackson Gap, highlighted by views of Mt.
Observation Gap, and Shasta, Preston Peak, and Mt.
Dutchman Peak. McLoughlin. Geologic color
contrasts are impressive with
marble, peridotite, and
granite outcroppings. Elliott,
Yale, Glade, and Little
Applegate Watersheds are
viewed from the Siskiyou
Crest Zone.
Upper Applegate Road/FS Applegate Lake Recreation Highly photographed is the PreservationlVery High
Road 1075000; System Area with views from view of the Red Buttes with
Trails #941 and #943 Swayne and Leaping Frog Applegate Lake in the
Viewpoints, Hart-tish Park, foreground, primarily the
Watkins Campground, and Butte Fork: and Middle Fork
trails on the west side of the Watersheds.
lake.
FS Road 2200000 and Wagner Butte This is a former lookout site RetentionlHigh
System Trail #1011 with 360 degree views of
mountain peaks in the
background, and AshJand and
Little Applegate Watersheds
in the middle and foreground.
FS Road 1075000 Squaw Lake Recreation Area Views are primarily RetentionlHigh
with views from Muligan foreground views with
Bay and Squaw Creek middle ground forming the
Bridge. backdrop within the Squaw
Creek Watershed.
FS Road 105500 and Red Buttes Views are nearly 360 degrees PreservationIV ery High
Pacific Crest National with the Red Buttes
Scenic Trail #2000 Wilderness the focus of
attention, primarily the Butte
Fork Watershed.
FS Roads 1035000, Whisky Ridge Viewpoint and Highlight of Whisky Ridge PreservationIV ery High
1035350, and System Trail Whisky Peak Viewpoint is the engraved within the wilderness
#910 rocks locating each peak on and along the
the crest of the Red Buttes Boundary/Craggy Crest
Wilderness. Whisky Peak is Zone; Partial
a former lookout site with Retention/Moderate
360 degree views of the elsewhere
western portion of the AMA,
including Whisky Creek,
Steve Fork, and Upper
Middle Fork: Watersheds.
FS Roads 1005000, Boundary/Craggy Crest Zone Views are generally 360 Generally Partial
1020000, 1020400, with views from Cold degrees with views of Steve Retention/Moderate
1030000; System Trails Springs, no name point near Fork, Sturgis Fork, and except for crest areas
#902, #900,#903, and Lake Mm., viewpoint above Obrien Creek Watersheds. that are RetentionlHigh
#1207 Miller Lake, and Craggy
Mm.
98
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