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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2011)
Applegate Applegate Valley Valley Community Community Newspaper, Newspaper, Inc. Inc. 7386 7386 Highway Highway 238, 238, PMB PMB 308 308 7386 Highway 238, PMB 308 Jacksonville, Jacksonville, OR OR 97530 97530 Jacksonville, OR 97530 Applegater Spring 2011 1 Log Log on on to to our our web web site—www.Applegater.org site—www.Applegater.org Photo by Teya Jacobi SPRING 2011 Volume 4, No. 2 Applegate Valley Community Newspaper Postal Patron Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 9,000 Bear sightings on the rise: What you need to know By Tamara rousso Last summer, returning from a long day in town doing errands, my mind run- ning through the things I needed to get done once home, a large black object ran in front of my vehicle a short distance from the gate leading to my property. It took my mind a few seconds to comprehend that it was a bear. Just as I was contemplating that bears must be smaller than I thought, I no- ticed a small black figure zipping down the neighbor’s plum tree. A cub! And as I was congratulating myself on the good luck to have seen a mama and cub I became aware of cub #2 trying to get down from the tree were killed on damage, 6 on safety, and 5 and join his family. In desperation he flung on nuisance issues in the Rogue Watershed himself from a branch a good ten feet off the (Jackson and Josephine Counties), consid- ground, picked himself up, and scurried off erably more than in past years. In 2009, to join his family. 23 bears were killed on As I started re- in 2010 the rogue Watershed damage, 2 on safety, counting my story (of office (Central Point, OR) had and 1 on nuisance. In what I considered a received 477 bear complaints, 2008 5 bears were killed Wild Animal Kingdom as compared to an average on damage, 4 on safety, moment) to others it be- of 203 complaints per year and 2 on nuisance. Prior came apparent that lots over the course of the last to 2008, numbers were of folks saw bears last seven years—over a two-fold even lower, but formal year. Some considered increase. records were not kept it good fortune also, but (Information provided others were not as amused. I heard stories by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife of bears being hit by vehicles, and bears [ODFW]). raiding barns. What was going on? So why was 2010 such a bad year It turns out the number of bear for bears? According to Rosemary Stussy sightings did indeed increase in 2010 from of ODFW the strange weather was a big years past. In 2010 the Rogue Watershed factor. Bears came out of their hibernation office (Central Point, OR) had received late. Bears in southwestern Oregon don’t 477 bear complaints, as compared to an hibernate in the classic sense of the word, average of 203 complaints per year over but they do sleep and rest a lot in winter the course of the last seven years—over a and very few complaints are received in cold two-fold increase! Also in 2010, 43 bears see BEar, page 20 The Pacific Fisher By DaviD ClayTon The Pacific Fisher is a rare for- est carnivore native to our neck of the woods here in the Applegate. It is a mammal, in the fam- ily mustelidea, related to the weasel, marten, and wolverine. Fisher are sleek animals up to three feet long with luxurious pelts. Males can weigh up to 12 pounds in our area and females about half that. The Pacific Fisher was recently petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act, it is currently listed as a sensitive species in Cali- fornia and Oregon, as well as by Forest Ser- vice and BLM. The fisher was once widely distributed in North America and Canada, but now due to trapping and habitat loss it is only found in northern California and extreme southern Oregon, primarily the Applegate, Ashland, Illinois and Chetco Valleys as well a reintroduced population in the Southern Oregon Cascades. This Cascade population was reintroduced in the hopes that fisher, widely known for hunting porcupines, would control that species, which at the time was damaging young conifer plantations. Fisher are associated with older, complex forests with snags, large down wood, cavities or platforms for denning and rest sites. Fisher have large home ranges, up to four square miles for females and twice that for males. They are generalist predators, eating small mammals, birds, porcupines and whatever they can catch and eat. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has recently been monitoring fisher in the Ashland watershed adjacent to the Applegate watershed in association with the Ashland Forest Resiliency (AFR) see FisHEr, page 12 USFS biologist Greg Colligan and a female fisher. Photo by Kelli Van Norman. MEET THE NATIVES WEB EXCLUSIVE Siskiyou Mountains Salamander—page 13 The Snakefly—page 9 The Postman column, “Can you go gridless for 30 days? Part 2, Food off the grid” by Dr. Richard Alan Miller and Yvonne-Marie Zancanaro can be found on the Applegater website: www.applegater.org.