Applegater
Community Calendar
Applegate Valley Garden Club meets at 1:30 pm
on the third Wednesday of the month from
September through May. For meeting locations
and programs, call Sandra King at 541-899-9027
or Betty Lou Smith at 541-846-6817.
Applegate 4-H Swine Club meets on Tuesday
following the third Wednesday of every month
at 7 pm. For more information contact
Charles Elmore at 541-846-6528 or Barbara
Niedermeyer at 541-846-7635.
Applegate Christian Fellowship. For service times,
call 541-899-8732, 24 hours/day.
Applegate Friends of Fire District #9 meets on
the third Tuesday of each month at the Fire
Station—1095 Upper Applegate Road—at
6:00 pm. New members are welcome. For more
information, call Bob Fischer 541-846-6218.
T.O.P.S. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every
Monday morning at Applegate Church, 18960
North Applegate Road (at the corner of Hwy.
238 and N. Applegate Road). Weigh-in starts at
8:30 am; the meeting starts at 9:00 am. Come
join us!
Josephine County Soil and Water Conservation
District (SWCD) meets Thursdays at 6 pm.
For meeting information, call 541-474-6840.
Applegate Valley Community Forum (AVCF) meets
the third Thursday of each month, location
alternating between Applegate and Ruch. For
more information, call Pat Gordon at 541-
899-7655.
American Association of University Women
(AAUW) Grants Pass Branch meets monthly
from September through June. Days, times, and
locations vary. All those who hold an associate
of arts, a baccalaureate or higher degree from an
accredited college or university are welcome to
join. Contact Sylvia Rose at snrjrose2@charter.
net or 541-479-0277 or Georgia Applegate at
gkapple@apbb.net or 541-787-7175.
AA Meeting There is an open meeting of Alcoholics
Anonymous every Wednesday at 7:00 am at the
Williams Community Church Fellowship Hall
on East Fork Road in Williams. This meeting
is open to those who have a drinking problem
and have a desire to stop drinking, and also to
anyone interested in the Alcoholics Anonymous
program of recovery from drinking.
Applegate Library Hours
Sunday.......................................closed
Monday.....................................closed
Tuesday...........................2 pm - 6 pm
Wednesday................................closed
Thursday....................................closed
Friday .............................2 pm - 6 pm
Saturday........................10 am - 2 pm
(Storytime will be held Tuesdays at 2:30 pm.)
Ruch Branch Library Hours
Sunday.......................................closed
Monday.....................................closed
Tuesday.........................11 am - 5 pm
Wednesday................................closed
Thursday.........................1 pm - 7 pm
Friday ........................................closed
Saturday.......................12 pm - 4 pm
(Storytime will be held Tuesdays at 11 am.)
Friends of Ruch Library Board of Directors meets
monthly. Check with the Ruch Library for
schedule. 541-899-7438.
Food & Friends Senior Nutrition Program invites
local 60+ seniors to enjoy a nutritious, hot meal
served at 11:30 am Monday through Friday at
the Jacksonville IOOF Hall located at the corner
of Main and Oregon Streets. A donation is
suggested and appreciated. Volunteers help serve
meals or deliver meals to homebound seniors.
For information about volunteering (it takes
40 volunteers to keep the Jacksonville program
going) or receiving meals, call Food & Friends at
541-664-6674, x246 or x208.
Upper Applegate Grange #239 Business meetings:
second Thursday at 7:30 pm. Potluck/Social
meetings: fourth Friday at 7:30 pm, open to
the public. Join us for informative meetings,
fun and involvement in community service.
Sponsors of Cub Scout Pack Troop #18. Call
541- 899-6987.
Williams Rural Fire Protection District Meetings:
fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm at the
Williams Fire Department.
Williams Creek Watershed Council Meetings:
fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm at
the Williams Creek Fire Station. The Public
is welcome. For more information, call 541-
846-9175.
Williams Grange Pancake Breakfast, second
Sunday of each month, 8:30 to 11:00, followed
by the Bluegrass Jam, 11:00 to 1:00. Closed
July and August. 20100 Williams Hwy, near
Tetherow Rd. Information 541-846-6844.
Williams Grange #399 Business Meeting, second
Tuesday of each month, 7:00 pm. 20100
Williams Hwy, near Tetherow Rd. Information
541-846-6844.
Applegate Fire District Board of Directors meets
on the third Wednesday of each month at
Station 1 – 18489 N. Applegate Rd. at 7:30
pm. Except for the months of March, April and
May, which are held at Headquarters – 1095
Upper Applegate Rd. For more information,
call 541-899-1050.
Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN) meets on
the last Wednesday of every month at the Ruch
Library. All interested persons are welcome to
attend. ANN is a community organization
dedicated to protecting , preserving , and
restoring the Applegate watershed. For more
information about ANN, call Duane Bowman,
541-899-7264.
Women Helping Other Women (WHOW) meets
the second Tuesday of the month at 10036
Hwy 238 (Gyda Lane) at 6:30 pm for a potluck
meeting to plan work parties at each other’s
homes. New members are welcome. For more
information, call Thalia Truesdell at 541-899-
8741 or Sioux Rogers at 541-846-7736.
Applegate Lake Cub Scouts Pack #18 (Ruch
Region) Outdoor activity (fishing, rafting,
hikes, etc.) the first Friday of each month;
regular meeting the third Friday of each month.
Upper Applegate Grange from 10 am to 1 pm.
All boys in grades first through fifth including
homeschoolers, Ruch students, and non-Ruch
students are welcome. For more information,
contact Cub Leader Vic Agnifili at 541-899-
1717.
Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council
meets the 4th Thursday of the month at the
Applegate Library. For more information call
541-899-9982.
The Southern Oregon Beekeepers Association
meets the first Monday of each month, 7:30 pm,
at the OSU extension. For more information,
please contact sobeekeepers@gmail.com.
Sanctuary One is open to the public for farm
tours every Wednesday and Saturday at 11 am.
Recommended donation is $5. Please check out
our website for details: www.SanctuaryOne.
org and call to reserve a spot. 541-899-8627.
Greater Applegate Community Development
Corporation meets the second Wednesday
of each month at 6:00 pm at Applegate Fire
District Station 1 on North Applegate Road.
For more information, call 541-245-4741 or
go to www.gacdc.org.
Ladies Spring Luncheon at Applegate Community
Church, April 30 at 10:00 am. All ladies invited
to come and enjoy special music, speaker and
salad luncheon. Any questions contact: 541-
846-6100.
Wonder Neighborhood Watch Meetings: second
Tuesday of each month, 6:30 pm, Wonder
Bible Chapel.
Williams Library Hours
Sunday.......................................closed
Monday.....................................closed
Tuesday.....................1:30 pm - 4 pm
Wednesday...............1:30 pm - 4 pm
Thursday....................................closed
Friday.........................................closed
Saturday.......................12 pm - 4 pm
Send your calendar
information to gater@
applegater.org. Be sure
to keep the gater updated
with any changes to these
Community Calendar listings.
Summer 2011 3
Progress update on the
Middle Applegate Pilot
By John geRRitsma
By the time
you read this article,
the Environmental
Assessment (EA)
describing Bureau of
Land Management’s
(BLM) initial Middle
Applegate Pilot
(Pilot) projects and
their environmental
effects will be available
for your review. The
BLM will be assessing
and reviewing
the public comments, sharing those
concerns with our cooperators, providing
additional information, as needed, and
moving us toward a decision on the Pilot
proposals that can be implemented this
fall. The efforts being made by BLM
staff, our collaborative partners in the
Applegate Partnership and the Southern
Oregon Small Diameter Collaborative,
interested community members, and
our technical experts Jerry Franklin and
Norm Johnson are helping to bring the
Pilot to a reality. Therein lays the more
pertinent story of the Pilot, at least until
on-the-ground results become a reality.
Part of the Pilot demonstration
has been to explore and deepen
collaboration. We can debate a long
time about how well collaboration over
forest management issues has gone.
Perhaps, it can simply be said that
the Pilot is the culmination of some
extraordinary events and opportunities.
The puzzle pieces that are allowing a high
degree of collaboration and stakeholder
involvement have come together.
The road to the Pilot was much
like baking a cake. So, what was the
occasion for needing to bake that “cake”?
The Secretary of the Interior withdrew the
decision to implement the revisions of the
BLM’s District Resource Management
Plans (known as the WOPR). A
new way forward (a new “cake”) for
managing BLM lands was needed.
Ingredients were slowly added to
the mix. In February 2010, the Applegate
Partnership and the Southern Oregon
Small Diameter Collaborative wrote the
Secretary to request a landscape level
project to demonstrate forest restoration
principles to be collaboratively developed.
In the meantime, political
interests were looking for ways to keep
an important wood-products industry
alive in Southern Oregon, and began
conversations with Jerry Franklin and
Norm Johnson, highly regarded experts
in the ecology and forestry fields.
All the while, a series of litigation
outcomes and political events resulted
in a narrow set of criteria by which
timber sales could still be developed on
the Medford District. This will likely
better align forest management practices
and options among the environmental
community, interested stakeholders,
and the BLM. Then, community
interest from across the Applegate and
Rogue valleys championed the idea of
a conference (held last October 2010)
to discuss forest restoration to help
inform on alternative approaches to
restoring forest health while providing
wood products. Finally, the tremendous
local, collaborative capacity was added
to the mix to hold all the ingredients
together, and with the Secretary
of the Interior’s declaration, the
Middle Applegate Pilot was begun.
To increase collaboration, we
(collaborative partners and the BLM)
needed to build trust, which meant
having transparency and sharing in
the development and in the many
decisions of the project. To that end,
we (the collective “we”) provided
public involvement early and often
in developing the criteria for selecting
restoration units; in reviewing and
amending marking guidelines; in
developing a multi-party monitoring
plan; in placing a community
member on the Interdisciplinary
Team; and in providing project notes
and information in near real time
on the website (www.blm.gov/or).
What lies ahead? The desire is
to continue improving and building
on the collaborative aspect. The next
big push is creating a monitoring
strategy and detailed monitoring plan.
A steering group of local citizens,
project partners and BLM staff have
taken on that task with a goal to
have a monitoring plan in place by
the end of July. This goal will allow
us to set up the necessary baseline
information on the ground prior to
implementing the first Pilot project.
The next phase of the Pilot
is already ongoing. BLM resource
specialists are assessing owl habitat
and restoration needs of stands in the
Thompson Creek drainage, in the
vicinity of Cantrall-Buckley Park, and
on the remaining lands within the
initial Pilot project. In the near future,
we will invite the public to participate
in a transportation assessment and
planning session to take a look at roads
and trails in the Middle Applegate
Pilot, opportunities for restoration of
unneeded or highly impacting roads
and trails, and future needs. This
fall and winter will provide continual
public interaction opportunities.
If you wish to stay informed
on the aforementioned and other
opportunities related to the Pilot,
please use the website comment section,
or contact Stephanie_Kellerher@
blm.gov, or call 541-618-2205.
John Gerritsma
541-618-2438
Field Manager
Ashland Resource Area
Medford District BLM
John_Gerritsma@blm.gov