Crowdog
12-23-2002, 07:59 AM
"Scientists" hired by environmentalist produced this report that includes recommendations to close existing roads.
Jon
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Monumental report details ‘biological crossroads’
Butterflies, migratory route cited in Siskiyou-Cascade study
By PAUL FATTIG
Mail Tribune
ASHLAND — A team of eight scientists has presented a Christmas gift to Uncle Sam in the form of an in-depth study of the flora and fauna of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
The 118-page report, titled "Protecting Objects of Scientific Interest in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument," offers the scientists’ insights and recommendations on everything from birds to butterflies that inhabit the nearly 53,000-acre monument.
The report was one of about 17,000 comments submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday. It was submitted on behalf of 33 groups, largely environmental organizations.
Thursday was the deadline for commenting on alternatives contained in the BLM’s Medford District draft management package for the monument.
The scientists used the monument’s proclamation language to guide their recommendations, explained Evan Frost, an ecologist with Wildwood Environmental Consultants and one of the report’s authors.
The monument was established June 9, 2000, under the agency’s National Landscape Conservation System, which is designed to protect some of the nation’s most biologically diverse landscapes.
According to the scientists, the monument contains one of the highest concentrations of butterflies in the West and serves as an important dispersal and migratory route for numerous fish and wildlife species, including steelhead, Jenny Creek sucker, redband trout, rainbow and cutthroat trout, deer and elk, northern spotted owl, peregrine falcon and Pacific fisher.
The study was based on extensive fieldwork and monitoring by the scientists. It also relied on satellite imagery documenting the rate of logging surrounding the monument on private and public lands.
"But there is a lot we don’t know about the resources up there in terms of what’s there and how they operate," Frost cautioned. "There is a lot of uncertainty we need to recognize. Uncertainty in this document means precaution in whatever we do in management.
"We don’t want to jump in there and do all kinds of things when we don’t know yet what the outcome will be," he added.
But the scientists also urge steps to protect the monument’s rich biological diversity.
Those recommendations include taking action to halt the invasion of noxious weeds, assessing grazing impacts and removing cattle where impacts are documented, restricting human activity around peregrine falcon sites during nesting season, developing a fire management plan that minimizes adverse effects of fire suppression while creating defensible spaces around existing homes, and working with adjacent private landowners to prevent or minimize potential impact on streams.
Southern Oregon University science professor Michael Parker, whose ancestors arrived in Jackson County in the 1850s, addressed the aquatic issue in the report.
"When you think about aquatic systems, you’re talking about headwater streams in two very different major river drainages — the Rogue and the Klamath, " he said. "They represent very different drainages with very different climates."
The ridge separating the two river systems represents one of the many contributors to creating the unique diversity of the area’s plants and animals, he said.
"You go on one side of the ridge and you’ve got one group of species," he said. "You go on the other side and you have another group."
The monument is an important "biological crossroads" that is very unique, agreed forest ecologist Dominick DellaSala, director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Program for the World Wildlife Fund and one of the contributors.
He disagrees with monument opponents who have argued that past human activity in the area, from logging to running cattle, has contributed to the biological diversity now found in the monument.
"The evidence is actually contrary to that," he said. "This monument is not biologically diverse because of logging and grazing impacts. It is under threat because of logging and grazing."
Inside the monument, about 3,500 acres have been logged since 1972, while within a 10-mile radius outside the monument the study found an average 50 clearcuts a year in the past 30 years, he said.
"That tells us that the monument is even more valuable than we previously thought since the logged and heavily roaded lands surrounding the monument are ecologically degraded," he stressed.
The scientists recommend that many of the roads within the monument that are not rights of way used by private landowners should be decommissioned to reduce erosion and the threat to wildlife. About 470 miles of forest roads have been built inside the monument, primarily for timber and grazing, according to the study.
The scientists also urge that the agency work closely with those who own property enveloped by the monument boundaries, and buy out those interested in selling their lands.
"We’re hoping that some landowners, who get a report like this and become informed about what role their property could play in maintaining that ecological integrity, have some incentive to do that," Parker said.
Other experts contributing to the study include ornithologist Pepper Trail, botanists Dennis Odion and Richard Brock, butterfly expert Erik Runquist and peregrine falcon specialist Joel "Jeep" Pagel.
Citing the extensive work contained in the document, Dave Willis, an environmental activist who has lobbied for protecting the area for decades, suggests BLM biologists review the report.
"It will stand on its own," he said.
For more information about the study, check out www.worldwildlife.org/klamathsiskiyou
Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2002/1222/local/stories/04local.htm
Jon
------------------------------------------------------------
Monumental report details ‘biological crossroads’
Butterflies, migratory route cited in Siskiyou-Cascade study
By PAUL FATTIG
Mail Tribune
ASHLAND — A team of eight scientists has presented a Christmas gift to Uncle Sam in the form of an in-depth study of the flora and fauna of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
The 118-page report, titled "Protecting Objects of Scientific Interest in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument," offers the scientists’ insights and recommendations on everything from birds to butterflies that inhabit the nearly 53,000-acre monument.
The report was one of about 17,000 comments submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday. It was submitted on behalf of 33 groups, largely environmental organizations.
Thursday was the deadline for commenting on alternatives contained in the BLM’s Medford District draft management package for the monument.
The scientists used the monument’s proclamation language to guide their recommendations, explained Evan Frost, an ecologist with Wildwood Environmental Consultants and one of the report’s authors.
The monument was established June 9, 2000, under the agency’s National Landscape Conservation System, which is designed to protect some of the nation’s most biologically diverse landscapes.
According to the scientists, the monument contains one of the highest concentrations of butterflies in the West and serves as an important dispersal and migratory route for numerous fish and wildlife species, including steelhead, Jenny Creek sucker, redband trout, rainbow and cutthroat trout, deer and elk, northern spotted owl, peregrine falcon and Pacific fisher.
The study was based on extensive fieldwork and monitoring by the scientists. It also relied on satellite imagery documenting the rate of logging surrounding the monument on private and public lands.
"But there is a lot we don’t know about the resources up there in terms of what’s there and how they operate," Frost cautioned. "There is a lot of uncertainty we need to recognize. Uncertainty in this document means precaution in whatever we do in management.
"We don’t want to jump in there and do all kinds of things when we don’t know yet what the outcome will be," he added.
But the scientists also urge steps to protect the monument’s rich biological diversity.
Those recommendations include taking action to halt the invasion of noxious weeds, assessing grazing impacts and removing cattle where impacts are documented, restricting human activity around peregrine falcon sites during nesting season, developing a fire management plan that minimizes adverse effects of fire suppression while creating defensible spaces around existing homes, and working with adjacent private landowners to prevent or minimize potential impact on streams.
Southern Oregon University science professor Michael Parker, whose ancestors arrived in Jackson County in the 1850s, addressed the aquatic issue in the report.
"When you think about aquatic systems, you’re talking about headwater streams in two very different major river drainages — the Rogue and the Klamath, " he said. "They represent very different drainages with very different climates."
The ridge separating the two river systems represents one of the many contributors to creating the unique diversity of the area’s plants and animals, he said.
"You go on one side of the ridge and you’ve got one group of species," he said. "You go on the other side and you have another group."
The monument is an important "biological crossroads" that is very unique, agreed forest ecologist Dominick DellaSala, director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Program for the World Wildlife Fund and one of the contributors.
He disagrees with monument opponents who have argued that past human activity in the area, from logging to running cattle, has contributed to the biological diversity now found in the monument.
"The evidence is actually contrary to that," he said. "This monument is not biologically diverse because of logging and grazing impacts. It is under threat because of logging and grazing."
Inside the monument, about 3,500 acres have been logged since 1972, while within a 10-mile radius outside the monument the study found an average 50 clearcuts a year in the past 30 years, he said.
"That tells us that the monument is even more valuable than we previously thought since the logged and heavily roaded lands surrounding the monument are ecologically degraded," he stressed.
The scientists recommend that many of the roads within the monument that are not rights of way used by private landowners should be decommissioned to reduce erosion and the threat to wildlife. About 470 miles of forest roads have been built inside the monument, primarily for timber and grazing, according to the study.
The scientists also urge that the agency work closely with those who own property enveloped by the monument boundaries, and buy out those interested in selling their lands.
"We’re hoping that some landowners, who get a report like this and become informed about what role their property could play in maintaining that ecological integrity, have some incentive to do that," Parker said.
Other experts contributing to the study include ornithologist Pepper Trail, botanists Dennis Odion and Richard Brock, butterfly expert Erik Runquist and peregrine falcon specialist Joel "Jeep" Pagel.
Citing the extensive work contained in the document, Dave Willis, an environmental activist who has lobbied for protecting the area for decades, suggests BLM biologists review the report.
"It will stand on its own," he said.
For more information about the study, check out www.worldwildlife.org/klamathsiskiyou
Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2002/1222/local/stories/04local.htm