20 Summer 2017 Applegater
OPINIONS
20 years of BLM failure
BY JACK DUGGAN
The 1995 Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) Resource Management Plan
(RMP) listed areas to be managed for
off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation.
“Timber Mountain/John’s Peak (TM/JP)
16,880 acres” was one of them. No written
description or maps defined any of these
areas. These 43 characters within those
quotation marks set off a controversy about
issues of trash, trespass, noise, and erosion
that has impacted Applegate residents for
more than two decades. Major players
include BLM, local residents, and the
Motorcycle Riders Association (MRA).
For five years this undefined area was
included in BLM and Oregon Department
of Parks and Recreation brochures. In
2000, leaflets declaring that motorcycles
were taking over the mountains were
distributed throughout the valley. BLM
had issued a permit to the MRA to hold
a three-day event with routes that would
include county roads and private property.
The permit was pulled.
In 2003 BLM began an environmental
review for the TM/JP with a scoping
(public comment) period in which the
public could say what issues should be
included in the environmental impact
statement (EIS). At the first public meeting
for that process, Kristi Mastrofini, now
BLM’s Ashland field manager, Medford
District Office, presented slides of the
MRA logo and began promoting the
organization.
In 2006, while BLM was in the process
of developing a draft EIS, area residents
finally saw maps of the proposed OHV
area. The name and acreage have changed
many times since. The draft EIS, released
in 2009, was widely criticized for failing to
consider scoping issues, failing to show a
full range of impacts, and failing to account
for the costs of implementation. In 2012
the BLM held a six-month “alternative
dispute resolution” process that resulted
in an agreement to disagree.
While the draft EIS was in development,
the BLM issued a categorical exclusion
(CX) to repair damage to an area known as
Bunny Meadows. There were no objections
to this CX until BLM put up a sign naming
it a “staging area” and posted a kiosk map
that included the MRA logo and showed
trails across private property. The next CX
came in 2014, a proposal to “maintain
and rehabilitate” 72 miles of OHV trail
over a period of five years. The CX did not
meet the criteria for a CX nor for a trail
designation and was appealed by numerous
individuals and organizations.
In 2016 BLM issued a new RMP
that presented an interim plan to be
used for “existing roads and trails.” No
definition of existing roads and trails was
provided. That should mean the roads and
trails considered existing must be legally
established. There are no legally established
OHV trails in the Applegate.
Now comes another CX to “maintain”
65 miles of trails over two years. It is little
different from the 2014 CX, meeting
neither the criteria for a CX nor the criteria
for trails. The very damage BLM seeks to
repair was caused by their promotion of
user-created trails. Many of us see this
as an attempt to legitimize user-created
OHV trails that have never been legally
and appropriately evaluated.
It is clear to me that BLM is biased
toward off-road machine recreation. At the
time of those 43 characters in 1995 and
during the development of the draft EIS,
BLM’s recreation coordinators were both
OHV enthusiasts. The Medford District
has the highest number of proposed OHV
areas of any BLM District in Oregon.
Hikers and bicyclists must pay their own
way to do an environmental review before
building trails to meet BLM specifications,
but OHV enthusiasts get to create trails
wherever they like with no cost to them
and no environmental review. It is no
wonder residents are ignored.
Residents are once more preparing
appeals to the latest CX—our First
Amendment promises that “Congress shall
make no law…abridging the right of the
people to petition their government for a
redress of grievances.” (Unfortunately, this
article will be published after the deadline
for appeals has passed.)
So let’s petition our government. Let’s
spread the word that this is no way to
be a good neighbor or a good member
of our community. We may have to live
with BLM, but they have to live with us.
Together we might all get them to take a
more balanced view.
Jack Duggan
shanachie@hughes.net
Jack Duggan lives in the Applegate where
he would be surrounded by the proposed
OHV area.
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From the Siskiyou Crest to
the Rogue River: Federal land
management in the Applegate Valley
BY LUKE RUEDIGER
The scope and scale of currently
proposed or approved federal land-
management projects in the Applegate
Valley are staggering. The region we love
and call home could be significantly altered
by the cumulative impact of federal land
timber sales, new roads, off-highway
vehicle (OHV) trails, and increased
livestock grazing on the Siskiyou Crest.
From the mouth of the river and through
the foothills to the Siskiyou Crest, our
neighbors managing federal land have big
plans—some good, some bad, some ugly.
In an attempt to produce timber
volume, the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) has recently proposed a flurry
of timber sales in the Applegate Valley,
some bad and some ugly. They have either
proposed or approved timber sales from
Wilderville to Williams, Thompson Creek
and throughout the Middle Applegate, to
Little Applegate and Upper Applegate.
The BLM has approved, but not yet
logged, the Pilot Thompson Timber Sale,
extending the length of Thompson Creek.
They have also approved, but not yet sold,
the controversial Nedsbar Timber Sale in
the Little and Upper Applegate Valleys.
That sale would cut some of the last low-
elevation, late seral forests in the Little and
Upper Applegate watershed, build new
logging roads, and generally reduce both
forest health and fire resilience by logging
large, old trees and dramatically reducing
canopy cover. The BLM has proposed “re-
packaging” the sale for auction in the fall.
The Grant Pass BLM is proposing the
Pickett West Timber Sale in the western
Applegate Valley near Wilderville, Murphy,
and North Applegate Road. The sale would
log healthy, fire-resilient old forest and
build numerous new roads into relatively
intact native habitats. Many logging units
are located along the proposed Applegate
Ridge Trail, and two new roads would be
built on top of the proposed trail corridor.
Recently, the BLM also proposed a new
timber sale in the Middle Applegate and
has identified the entire area from Ruch to
Thompson Creek for potential logging and
“vegetation management.” This includes
places like the Wellington Butte Roadless
Area, China Gulch, Forest Creek, Humbug
Creek, Ferris Gulch, and Slagle Creek.
The BLM also recently approved a
categorical exclusion (CX), allowing
OHV trail maintenance and de facto
designation on 23,000 acres and 65
miles of unauthorized motorcycle trails.
The project covers a vast region from
Forest Creek, China Gulch, and Upper
Humbug Creek to Jacksonville, Central
Point, and the Rogue River. Despite the
massive scale of the project, the CX shields
the agency from environmental analysis
and public comment. All 65 miles of
unauthorized OHV trails have been built
without authorization or attention to trail
standards, creating extreme environmental
impacts. The BLM has approved motorized
use on “existing” trails (with no definition
of “existing”) that impact the endangered
Gentner’s fritillary (the official flower of
Jacksonville), northern spotted owl nesting
habitat, riparian areas, the Wellington
Butte Roadless Area, and the proposed
Applegate Ridge Trail, a broadly supported
nonmotorized trail. The CX can only be
described as ugly and is being appealed by
numerous community organizations.
On US Forest Service (USFS) land, the
agency is updating its grazing management
plans for the first time since the 1960s.
The project is known as the Applegate
Grazing Complex and covers 166,452
acres in the Little and Upper Applegate
watersheds, including the high meadows
of the Siskiyou Crest. The agency is
considering grazing in long-ungrazed
areas, including the Red Buttes Wilderness
Area and numerous botanical areas. Public
land grazing is currently impacting water
quality, biodiversity, and a multitude of
other resources.
Meanwhile, the BLM and USFS are
proposing a joint project in the Upper
Applegate. The project is being planned
under the Applegate Adaptive Management
Area (AMA). The concept is to promote
innovative and ecologically balanced public
land management through collaboration
and public input. Currently the project
is developing into a comprehensive plan
encouraging outdoor recreation, improving
pollinator habitat, reducing watershed
impacts from damaged or unnecessary
forest roads, reducing fuel risks, and
maintaining resilient forest conditions
through the use of prescribed fire, fuel
reduction thinning, and commercial
thinning in both natural (but previously
logged) and plantation stands. Many in
the community are hopeful that the final
proposal is one we can support.
Through the good, the bad and the
ugly, Applegate Neighborhood Network
will be here representing community and
conservation interests. Join us. There is a
lot to do.
Luke Ruediger
541-890-8974
Applegate Neighborhood Network
Applegate Lions Club members go back to school
Members of Applegate Lions Club
recently completed work on a new swing
set at Applegate School, bringing with them
their expertise, tools, heavy equipment,
and lots of opinions about how to proceed!
“These guys were lots of fun,” said
Darrell Erb, principal. “They all had ideas
about the best way to do things. I did my
best to stay out of the way as they do great
work!”
The Applegate School staff and students
want to shout out a giant thank-you to our
local Lions Club!
Lions Club members volunteered at
Applegate School. Top photo: Larry Hogan.
Bottom photo: Stephen Rapp.