Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, November 15, 2017
NORMAL
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Continued from A-1
Warmer temperatures will more
quickly dry the landscape. As the region
becomes hotter and drier, stream levels in
summers will decrease and water tem-
peratures will increase. With longer and
much hotter summer seasons, soil mois-
ture decreases, trees become stressed, and
vegetation will dry out. A future of bigger,
hotter, longer-lasting fires is likely.
“Climate change generally will
reduce tree growth and make forests
more susceptible to insects and fire. This
is especially true at drier sites and lower
elevations. Forest types could change
completely, for example, from conifers
to hardwoods, or even to scrublands and
grasslands. ... and a variety of species,
from trees to wildflowers, from big preda-
tors to insects will shift in composition,
seasonal timing, and range.”
And while some weather changes are
Darlingtonia californica
already happening, the good news is that
the Klamath-Siskiyous (KS) “is better po-
sitioned to fend off climate impacts than
many regions in the West,” and “is espe-
cially well-suited to maintaining biodiver-
sity under such pressures, because of the
diverse topography, microclimates, and
habitats available to species in this area.”
However the report also says “old-
growth and mature forest (about 80 years
old or older) is the most important over-
arching climate refuge, and cautions that
only 28 percent of this forest type remains
in the KS and that “proposed solutions
must be taken seriously now, before it is
too late.”
Some species are more vulnerable
to climate change than others. Particu-
larly high elevation species that can’t
shift upslope - they’ve run out of real
estate. Also, hotter, drier conditions at all
elevations mean that wet and cold-lov-
ing species frequently won’t find spots
to survive in and this could lead to lo-
cal disappearance of many species and
possible extinctions. “Certain rare plants,
amphibians, and perhaps most tragically,
that most iconic of species, salmon,” are
most vulnerable.
One local scientist, John Roth,
who has served as Chief of Resource
Management at Oregon Caves National
Monument for many years, is involved in
climate science projects to gain precise in-
sights about weather conditions - with the
goal of helping other agency land manag-
ers make the right decisions.
Roth is currently writing the Paleo-
Climate chapter for the Rogue Siskiyou
National Forest’s Climate Vulnerability
Assessment. In this work he’s examining
both stalactites found in caves and sedi-
ment cores from Bolan Lake.
“When you do paleo-climate recon-
structions that go back hundreds to thou-
sands of years, it’s important to utilize
combined data from across disciplines to
make much more accurate predictions on
a local and regional basis,” he said. “And
right now, too much climate science relies
on generalized predictions.”
Roth also worries that “we could lose
all of our sub-alpine habitat.” But he said,
“If we can save the Mountain Beaver (the
Aplodontia) who eats conifer seedlings,
that loss may be staved off. Then we may
be able to save the sub-alpine habitat.
That’s just one local example.
“It’s like Aldo Leopold wrote in his
famous book, ‘Sand County Almanac,’”
Roth said. “It all comes down to the first
rule of intelligent tinkering, which is to
save all the parts.”
Thus protection of climate strong-
holds, refuges and vulnerable landscapes
are critical. But the report concludes that
reducing non-climate impacts is also es-
sential:
“Key examples of impacts to prevent
Page A-3
include habitat fragmentation, erosion
from roads, loss of keystone species,
introduction of invasive species, livestock
over-allocation, floodplain and coastal
development, over allocation of water,
inappropriate fire management, and post-
fire logging.”
“It knocks the air right out of my
body, to think about how we have done
so much damage to our wild places,” said
Terry Bremmer, a retired art teacher who
enjoys painting the region’s birds and
flowers. “I know we’ll never wind back
the clock on all the sins of society, but if
there’s steps we can take now, well, we
owe that to future generations to try and
preserve as much as we can.”
(File photo, Illinois Valley News)
The Biscuit Fire taken from the 8 Dollar Bridge in August of 2002.
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