Applegater., May 01, 2025, Image 1

Applegater Spring 2025
1
Photo
by by
Linda
Kappen
Photo
Linda
Kappen
SPRING 2025
Applegate Valley Community Newsmagazine
Volume 18, No. 1
Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 13,500
~31~
Years
Applegate Valley:
Past, present, future
Thanks to you,
we met our goal!
BY MEGAN FEHRMAN
A huge thank you to everyone
who donated to the Applegater
in November-December 2024.
Because of your generosity,
we reached the $15,000 matching goal,
which will be doubled by the NewsMatch
program of the Institute for Nonprofit News.
Your support keeps the Applegater
going strong, bringing local stories and
connections to our community.
We appreciate you, Applegaters!
Wildfire risk in the
Applegate: An origin story
BY NATHAN GEHRES
Looking with dismay at the dead
and dying conifer trees in the hills of
the Applegate Valley, residents may be
asking themselves, “How did we get
here?” The current state of our forests
is the consequence of over a century of
fire exclusion, questionable management
practices, and changing growing
conditions. As the woodlands depart
from their historic makeup, the quality
of the habitat they provide degrades, and
the risk of an uncharacteristically severe
wildfire increases.
First, we need to recognize the factors
that led to the situation that our forests
and communities are now in. Wildfire
shaped southwestern Oregon. The plant
and animal species that call this area
home evolved with fire and, in some
cases, are dependent on it. Naturally
occurring fires and Indigenous burning
utilized by the first residents of the
Applegate created a mosaic landscape
that consisted of open meadows, oak
savannahs, and mixed-age conifer stands.
These landscapes provided a wide variety
of habitats that supported healthy plant
and animal communities. The onset of fire
exclusion, introduced by Euro-American
settlers, disrupted this delicately balanced
regime. In the absence of regular, low-
intensity wildfires, the forest composition
changed. Douglas fir trees encroached
into lower elevations and drier areas, and
shrubby species grew rapidly, all of which
Celebrating
added to the fuels that feed increasingly
intense wildfires.
As timber harvesting progressed in the
20th century, monocultural Douglas-fir
stands replaced the original native forest
that consisted of many species and age
classes. Replanting efforts after timber
harvest or wildfire have focused on Douglas
fir because it is prized for lumber. The
unforeseen consequences of those actions
are now evident throughout the Applegate.
Vitality and resilience have become core
principles for A Greater Applegate’s (AGA)
community-building work. Vitality is the
capacity for continuing a meaningful or
purposeful existence—the power to live
or grow. Resilience is the ability of people
and their communities to anticipate and
adapt amidst change. Vital and resilient
communities enjoy a high quality of
life, reliable systems, economic stability,
and resources for present and future
generations. These concepts have been at
play here for generations.
Past
In pre-settler days, the Applegate,
known as the S’bink (Beaver River),
was home to the Dakubedete and other
nearby and traveling Indigenous groups,
bands, or tribes. They took fish and
game and gathered acorns, nuts, and
berries. They camped along streams,
building temporary pole-frame dwellings
covered with brush matting or bushes and
ferns (Fowler and Roberts, 1994). They
stewarded the land with low-intensity
fire to enhance the productivity of food-
gathering areas shared by multiple groups.
They also gathered and traded, thanks to
the waterways that made travel possible
from the coast to the inlands. Many of
these groups were nomadic and only
stayed in any specific area for short periods
(Lewis, 2021).
Large swaths of these plantations are dying
due to a combination of stresses such as
drought, insect attacks, and disease. Max
Bennett, a retired Oregon State University
Extension forester, documented in his
2023 publication, “Trees on the Edge,”
that southwestern Oregon has the highest
Douglas fir mortality in the nation.
Moreover, more trees died in the four years
between 2015 and 2019 than died in the
four previous decades. Those same four
decades, from 1979 to 2021, represent a
significant change in growing conditions
in the Applegate Valley: average annual
precipitation decreased by 1.6 inches,
while summer temperatures increased by
3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a big change
Celebrating
60 years of
community
achievement
See WILDFIRE RISK, page 14.
Current conditions on an Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council
project site, before fuels reduction work begins. Photo: Nathan Gehres.
See APPLEGATE VALLEY, page 13.
BY LAURA B. AHEARN
In 1985, the future of McKee Bridge
looked grim. After spending $43,000
on partial repairs (the equivalent of
$126,000 today), Jackson County
Commissioners decided they would no
longer commit road funds for the bridge.
Public Works Director Joseph Strahl
explained that “the bridge isn’t significant
to the transportation system anymore.”
The bridge had been closed to vehicles
in 1956 when the “modern” concrete
bridge was built across the Applegate
River a quarter mile upstream. Even
after the stopgap repairs in 1985, engineers
predicted that the bridge would be
unsafe for pedestrians by 1990. Strahl
told the commissioners that their
choice then would be to invest another
$15,000 or let McKee Bridge crumble
into the river “of its own weight in a
strong breeze.”
But the community did not let a strong
breeze take her down! They reached back
to the 1965 model of community and
nonprofit collaboration to replace the
roof, which had collapsed under the heavy
snows that triggered the Christmas Flood
of 1964. Reporter Tam Moore, who served
as County Commissioner during 1974-
79, today reflects that “the bridge had
friends in the county Roads Department
ISSUE
See MCKEE BRIDGE, page 22.
HISTORY - HERITAGE
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