2 Summer 2015 Applegater
SUTA suits us, and
ATA is at it again
Discovering Pacifica:
A garden in the Siskiyous
by DIANA cOOgLE
by gAbRIELA EAgLESOME
With recreation trumping timber
for bringing money into the Rogue
Valley these days, the two trail-building
organizations in the Applegate, the Siskiyou
Upland Trails Association (SUTA) and the
Applegate Trails Association (ATA), have
important roles to play. And the roles are
looking good!
ATA just received a $10,000
grant from REI to build the East ART,
the first section of its Applegate Ridge Trail.
This trail will connect Cathedral Hills trails
in Grants Pass to the Jack-Ash Trail, which
SUTA is building between the Applegate
and Ashland and thence to the Pacific Crest
Trail. SUTA’s plans are also moving along
well, with the imminent completion of the
BLM’s Environmental Assessment. Some
time in the not too distant future, hikers
will be walking from the California border
to Grants Pass along the scenic ridges above
the towns of the Rogue and Applegate
valleys. It promises to be a popular route,
bringing hikers to the area who will happily
spend their money here. (Just think how
glad they will be to spend a night in town
after all those nights in a tent.)
One big step toward completing
these ambitious trail systems
was SUTA’s recent suggestion to the
Motorcycle Riders Association (MRA)
that they work together. “The MRA was
shocked,” said Hope Robertson, SUTA
president. After all, motorcyclists and
hikers are historical enemies.
Recognizing that as an unproductive
attitude, SUTA and MRA, under its new
president, Jack LeRoy, started looking for,
and soon found, common ground: trash
concerns, shooting ranges along their
trails, potential shared parking lots and
kiosks, shared “policing” of trails. Chuck
Steahly of MRA and Hope worked out a
formal Memorandum of Understanding
that allows the two organizations to address
those concerns together.
Then they started working on the
biggest issue: trails. SUTA is strictly
I love Pacifica. I
love hiking among its
madrones, manzanitas,
and pines. I love its vistas
of Grayback, its ponds
and hills and meadows
with horses, its ceramics
and other classes, family
night, Caterpillar
Programs for kids, and
the caring, tending, and
planting on the property.
Pacifica hits many of the
built-in receptors in my
psyche that make it feel
like it’s home, the way
life should be.
R ay a n d Pe g
Prag are humble
about having established
this wonderful place. As Peg says, “We
didn’t know what we were getting into.”
After graduating from the University
of California, Davis, in the 1970s with an
MS in horticulture, Ray, with his wife, Peg,
moved to Williams to establish Forestfarm,
a primarily mail-order plant nursery. With
an emphasis on nurturing local varieties
and providing long-term jobs for people
in the area, their business flourished.
Not having children, Ray and Peg
began thinking of a different kind of
legacy, one that would preserve the 7,500
varieties of plants they had cultivated over
the years—a botanical garden, perhaps,
and an educational and plant-preservation
facility that would also serve other purposes
to benefit the community.
In 1998 this vision found
fulfillment. At the same time that the
nonmotorized. MRA, of course, uses the
motors SUTA wants to avoid. How, then,
could they share trails?
By taking turns making
accommodations for each other,
Hope said. For instance, SUTA wanted to
use an old BLM road up Anderson Butte
currently used by motorcyclists. MRA
expressed its concern about that plan in
a meeting with SUTA. Consequently,
SUTA, working with the Medford BLM,
has proposed a different nonmotorized
route, adding one and a half miles to the
total mileage of the trail, but allowing
the motorcyclists use of the old road. In
another place, SUTA may use an historic
hiking trail currently used by motorcycles,
and the MRA can consider building a new
route for their use. Decisions can be made
on the basis of best usage. For instance, a
very steep motorcycle trail, challenging
and fun for motorcyclists, is too steep for
horses so might as well remain motorized.
“Besides,” Hope pointed out, “when the
weather is too dry, motorcyclists can’t use
the trails, and when the trails are too wet,
hikers don’t want to.”
“It was the only way to go,” Hope
said. “Otherwise, it’s all fights.” Jack added
that the agreement would benefit “all forms
of recreation in our forests.”
SUTA has also been putting
in the last of the 22 directional signs and
installing several interpretive signs on the
Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, using Title II
funds. Thanks to a grant from REI, they
will construct a small bridge across Deming
Creek on the north end of that trail and
add an interpretive sign about the historic
flumes found along the ditch.
ATA is hoping that the scoping
document for the East ART will be
ready in early summer. While they are
waiting for BLM to unravel the red
tape, they’re turning their attention to
the trails at Cantrall Buckley Park. Last
year ATA volunteers opened a loop
trail to the north along the river. This
spring a group of volunteers
SUTA board member Joy Rogalla, and cleaned and prepared the
Duane Mallams, the consummate trail finder for SUTA trails at the south end of the
and ATA, prospect for the Jack-Ash trail route park, along the river and
on the north side of the Anderson Butte ridge complex then above it. Bushes were
above the Grub Gulch trailhead.
cut back, horsetail ferns
and blackberries cleared
away, trails widened and
strengthened, cairns built on
the rocks to mark the path,
and 14 fiberglass trail-post
signs installed.
Cantrall Buckley
is the only place in the
Applegate with a public trail
along the Applegate River,
and it is lovely.
Diana Coogle
dicoog@gmail.com
Pacifica’s Summer Day Camps
Give your kids a summer to remember! You’ve seen the big green science-exploring
machine, “The Caterpillar,” traveling to your elementary schools for the past 14 years!
Your friendly Caterpillar teachers are once again offering exciting day camps at Pacifica.
More information: Vanessa at 541-621-6278 or vanessa@pacificagarden.org.
• Camp Botanica (ages 6 - 12), June
• Nature Camp (ages 6 - 13) ~ Surviving
22 - 25. For young plant enthusiasts.
the Great Outdoors, July 27 - 30.
• Family Herbal Project Day ~
• Awaken Camp (ages 8 - 15) ~ Chi/
Calendula-Lavender Sunscreen,
Prana Fusion, August 3 - 6.
June 26.
• Acting Camp (ages 6 - 12) ~ Dramatic
• Crafty Crafters Camp (ages 6 - 12) ~
Adventures, August 10 - 13.
Ready, Set, Sew, July 6 - 9.
• Music Camp (ages 6 - 12) ~ Camp
• Game and Story Camp (ages 7 - 13) ~
Jam, August 17 - 20 with Grammy-
Players and Plots, July 13 - 16.
winning engineer Dennis Dragon.
• Kitchen Camp (ages 6 - 12) ~ Cookin’ • Art Camp (ages 6 - 12) ~ Imagine,
Up a Storm, July 20 - 23.
Create, Discover, August 24 - 27.
Get published—
and support a good cause!
Handcrafted ‘Applecrates’
for sale
Beautiful planters or multi-use boxes called
“Applecrates,” built with donated local wood and
volunteer labor, are for sale. All proceeds will help
sustain the Applegater.
You can see these sturdy, useful and long-lasting
Applecrates at Applegate Valley Realty at 935 N. Fifth
Street in Jacksonville. We are looking for additional
outlets in the valley to display and sell our Applecrates
and for customers to buy or order them.
The price of a stock planter box (see photo), 12”
wide x 22” long x 14” deep, starts at $40. Applecrates can
also be customized. To buy one, get more information,
or volunteer to help, call Chris Bratt at 541-846-6988.
Handcrafted Applecrates
available for
purchase now.
old Messinger Farm was
going into foreclosure,
with the possibility that
the 420 acres would be
subdivided, a person
close to Ray and Peg
came into a large sum
of money that he wanted
to donate to a nonprofit
organization. This
combination of events
resulted in Pacifica.
Now, Forestfarm
itself has been donated
to Pacifica. The process is
almost finished. Fifteen
employees keep their
jobs at the nursery, and
the 7,500 varieties of
plants have found a
home at the new Water Gap Road site.
The land is open to the public, and
classes and other educational opportunities
are offered free of charge or for a minimal
fee. It is wonderful to see this confluence
of vision and goodwill fulfilled. Everyone
benefits.
It takes a lot to maintain the
property and to offer low-cost programs
to the public. Donations and volunteer
efforts are always welcome.
If you have not been to Pacifica, come
soon to enjoy its many events and activities
or even its solitude. If you have been to
Pacifica, please come again! The address is
14615 Water Gap Road, Williams, OR.
To learn more, visit www.pacificagarden.
org and www.forestfarm.org.
Gabriela Eaglesome
gabrielas@aol.com
All proceeds will help support
the Applegater. If you have
any questions, please email
gater@applegater.org. We look
forward to receiving your
submissions and getting this
unique book out to the world!
We’re excited about the submissions we have received so
far for From the Heart of the Applegate: Essays, Poems, and Short
Fiction by Applegate Valley Writers! We’re still looking for more,
so send us your literary masterpieces by the June 30 deadline.
Here are the details:
• Writers must be current Applegate Valley residents
(including Williams).
• Submissions can be in three categories: poetry, short fiction,
and creative nonfiction.
• Writers may submit up to three poems and/or one prose
piece. Prose pieces should fall between 800 - 2,500 words.
• Submissions should include an author’s bio and photo.
• Photographs to accompany the submission may be
included but are not required.
• Photos must be of commercial print quality (high resolution).
• There is no restriction on the topic.
• Previously published works are not eligible for inclusion.
• Copyright reverts to the writer after publication.
• Email submissions to gater@applegater.org.
