Applegater Summer 2024
USFS prepares for summer
BY THE US FOREST SERVICE-SISKIYOU MOUNTAINS RANGER DISTRICT
Happy summer,
Applegate community
and partners!
Employees at the Siskiyou
Mountains Ranger District
(Star Ranger Station) have
been busy this spring preparing
for another great summer
of recreation, surveys, and
implementation. Fire and
Recreation crews have been
busy clearing roads of downed
trees and fallen rocks. Wildlife
crews are busily surveying for
owls, Siskiyou Mountains
salamander, and bumblebees.
Timber and Fuels crews have been working
with various partners, including Lomakatsi,
to remove dead and dying Douglas fir
and other ongoing treatments in the
Upper Applegate Watershed Restoration
Project (UAWRP).
In keeping our promise made in the
last edition of the Applegater, here are
some updates related to various projects
and a reminder on where you can find
additional information.
UAWRP Environmental Analysis (EA)
The Decision Notice for this 52,000-
acre project, signed in August 2020,
was a unique collaborative approach
between stakeholders and federal agencies
aiming to restore ecological conditions
resilient to disturbances and climate
change. For information about the project,
including maps, please visit fs.usda.gov/
detail/rogue-siskiyou/landmanagement/
projects/?cid=fseprd662282.
Progress to date. Commercial cutting
and yarding wrapped up on April 8 in
units 41, 42, 54, 60, 61, 63, 67, 68, 110,
and 111, totaling approximately 650 acres.
Tentatively, felling and yarding work via
helicopter will resume in January 2025.
Grayback Shaded Fuel
Break Categorical Exclusion
This project aims to reduce hazardous
fuels along strategic linear features such as
roads, trails, ridgelines, or key access routes.
This project would provide and maintain a
shaded fuel break, allowing firefighters to
safely engage with wildfires and provide a
safer ingress and egress for the public. For
more information about the project, visit
fs.usda.gov/project/?project=63141.
Progress to date. As mentioned in the
last Applegater, this fuel break was not
incorporated into the Yellowjacket EA (see
below). Specialists have begun surveying
and assessing the project area to develop
the treatment areas. This will continue
through the summer, and we hope to have
a signed decision in fall 2024.
Yellowjacket EA
(formerly Little Applegate EA)
The proposed footprint of this project
bridges the landscape between the
UAWRP and Ashland Forest Restoration
project footprints. The primary focus
will be to address the unprecedented
Douglas-fir mortality through fuel-
reduction treatments along main roads
(Forest Service roads 20 and 22, and any
roads designated with four digits), around
infrastructure and communication sites,
and adjacent to private and state property.
21
Pipe dream becoming a reality
on the Upper Phillips Ditch
BY LUKE WIMMER
Illegal outhouse and trench built adjacent to
Tamarack Meadow. Photo: US Forest Service.
Progress to date. Over the past several
months, our team of specialists have
been refining the scope of work within
the project area. This prioritization and
discussion will continue into the summer
as site visits and surveys are conducted.
Once we have narrowed the scope of
the work, we plan to organize multiple
public-involvement opportunities prior
to formal public comments during the
scoping period.
Tamarack Meadow
Restoration Project
During the 2023 field season,
one of our employees noticed a
recreational vehicle pad site created in
the meadow, along with an outhouse
(see photo). This meadow system on the
Siskiyou Crest is home to a variety of
sensitive and unique plant species. We
plan on restoring the meadow and helping
prevent other camps from becoming
established there.
Where can you find information?
GovDelivery. This is a primary method
of communication. GovDelivery is a web-
based email subscription system that allows
anyone to receive information on specific
topics and projects that interest them.
Subscribers receive an email whenever
USFS makes information available.
Subscribers may customize and manage
their subscription profiles to receive exactly
the types of information desired, and
subscriptions may be canceled at any time.
To subscribe, visit public.govdelivery.com/
accounts/USDAFS/subscriber/new. If you
need help signing up for GovDelivery,
please contact Amanda Merz at amanda.
merz@usda.gov.
Constant Contact. Another primary
form of communication, Constant
Contact is a web-based email subscription
that allows a member of the public to
subscribe to our news release mailing list.
Sign up for forest updates at fs.usda.gov/
rogue-siskiyou.
RRSNF web page. To view current and
recent projects across the Rogue River-
Siskiyou National Forest (RRSNF), please
visit fs.usda.gov/projects/rogue-siskiyou/
landmanagement/projects.
RRSNF Facebook page. Information
shared here is of a general nature that
highlights forest projects, events,
announcements, and employees. Go to
facebook.com/R6RRSNF.
jennifer.sanborn@usda.gov
US Forest Service
Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District
The Applegate
Partnership and Watershed
Council (APWC) has been
working in partnership
with the Jackson Soil
and Water Conservation
District (JSWCD) on the
Upper Phillips Fish Passage
and Irrigation Efficiency
Project. This years-long
project aims to upgrade an
irrigation ditch in the Little
Applegate in order to restore
instream flows of the Little
Applegate River and provide
infrastructure upgrades
to irrigators.
Originally built in the
mid-1800s, the Upper
Phillips ditch required
substantial annual
maintenance to clear
vegetation, repair rodent
holes, and install the push-
up dam in the channel to
allow water to flow. Some
years, downstream users
would not receive water
at all. Seepage from the
unlined ditch also caused
overly saturated areas
downslope—a concern for
several landowners whose residences and
farming operations are in close proximity
to the ditch.
The project comprised multiple phases.
The first phase focused on improving
fish passage at Upper Phillips Dam by
enhancing a side channel to enable flow
around the dam. This involved strategically
placing boulders and logs in the stream to
direct water toward both the side channel
and the irrigation ditch, ensuring that
irrigation water rights were met while
allowing sufficient flow for fish to navigate
around the diversion. Completed in 2021,
this structure eliminated the need for a
push‐up dam and now helps provide fish
passage to critical spawning and rearing
habitat. By directing water into the side
channel, we have made the stream passable
year‐round to adult and juvenile fish,
allowing them to bypass the dam entirely.
In addition, we installed a new headgate,
fish screen, and measuring device at the
intake to the irrigation ditch.
Currently underway, phase two
involves the installation of nearly 7,000
feet of solid wall HDPE pipeline along
the Upper Phillips ditch. This type of
piping has a life expectancy of over 100
years and the flexibility to be bent into the
original ditch footprint along the hillside
contours, saving time and costs over
other pipe options. A local construction
company, C&C Constructors LLC,
began construction in early March and
estimates completion by the end of June
2024. Upon completion, the project
should reduce water-diversion rates and
volumes, allowing more water to remain
instream, while increasing the amount
of water available on-farm for the over
100 acres of irrigated land. Additional
JSWCD engineer Paul DeMaggio explains
the new turnouts to irrigators. Photo: APWC.
Irrigation pipeline ready to be buried
along Little Applegate Road. Photo: APWC.
benefits include reduced labor for ditch
maintenance, improved flexibility, and
reliability of irrigation deliveries.
Proposed phase three involves removing
the Lower Phillips Dam and using the new
Upper Phillips Ditch Pipeline to convey
water to the Lower Phillips Ditch.
This irrigation efficiency project was
funded by the Oregon Department
of Water Resources and utilizes the
Allocation of Conserved Water Program.
Under this program, water users agreed
to permanently return 75 percent of the
conserved water back instream to the Little
Applegate River to directly benefit fish
habitat. The remaining 25 percent is split
among the water users.
This project would not have been
possible without the ongoing support
for the water users who championed it
through many years of planning and
logistical challenges. It is the result of a
long-term partnership of more than 13
years between the Upper Philips Ditch
Water Users, JSWCD, and APWC.
Additional project partners include
Oregon Water Resources Department,
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
fish biologists and the Fish Screens and
Passage Program, Adkins Engineering
and Surveying, Cascade Stream Solutions,
Middle Rogue Steelheaders, Rogue Basin
Partnership, US Forest Service, the
Bureau of Land Management, Laird
Norton Foundation, Pacific Power Blue
Sky Habitat Fund, Trout Unlimited, and
American Rivers.
Luke Wimmer
Aquatic Restoration Project Manager
Applegate Partnership and
Watershed Council
luke@apwc.info