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
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on to
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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.