The Applegater

14 Fall 2018 Applegater Applegaters are proud of the fact that our valley is located in the Siskiyou Mountains, a mountain range known for its world-class biodiversity. Many areas of the Applegate portion of the Siskiyou Mountains have an official designation because of their special ecological and social values. Further your discovery of what makes the Applegate unique and explore some of the Applegate's special ecological areas. Below is a select compilation of officially designated areas within the Applegate Watershed that you can explore. Except for the Red Buttes Wilderness, most of these official designations provide only limited protection. Botanical Areas (US Forest Service) A Botanical Area is an area that contains rare plants or unique plant communities that are significant because of their occurrence, habitat, location, life history, arrangement, ecology, rarity, or other features. • Big Red Mountain Botanical Area • McDonald Peak Botanical Area • Dutchman's Peak Botanical Area • Observation Peak Botanical Area • Lyman Creek/Doe Hollow Botanical Area • Scraggy Mountain Botanical Area • White Mountain Botanical Area • Cook and Green Botanical Area • Whisky Peak Botanical Area • Hinkle Lake Botanical Area (see photo) • Miller Lake Botanical Area • Grayback Mountain Botanical Area Inventoried Roadless Areas (US Forest Service) e 2001 Roadless Rule established prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands. e intent of the 2001 Roadless Rule is to provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System. • Collings-Kinney Roadless Area • Little Grayback Roadless Area • Condrey Mountain Roadless Area • McDonald Peak Roadless Area • Kangaroo Roadless Area Backcountry Nonmotorized Areas (US Forest Service) Backcountry Nonmotorized Areas provide semiprimitive nonmotorized recreation opportunities with low numbers of users. e areas are managed to provide remote and quiet recreation with little to no facilities. • Grayback Mountain Nonmotorized Backcountry Area Special Interest Areas (US Forest Service) Special Interest Areas (SIA) are areas that should be managed principally for recreation use, substantially in their natural condition. ey are managed for their unique scenic, geologic, historical, archaeological, botanical, cultural, or other memorable features. • Condrey Mountain Special Interest Area Research Natural Areas (US Forest Service) A Research Natural Area (RNA) is defined as a physical or biological unit in which current natural conditions are maintained insofar as possible. ese conditions are ordinarily achieved by allowing natural physical and biological processes to prevail without human intervention to provide a baseline against which human-caused changes elsewhere can be measured. RNAs are established specifically to preserve a representative example of an ecological community primarily for scientific and educational purposes. • Oliver Mathews Research Natural Area Special ecological areas in the Applegate BY SUZIE SAVOIE Hinkle Lake Botanical Area. • Big Red Mountain Research Natural Area Late Successional Reserves (US Forest Service) e objective of Late-Successional Reserves (LSR) is to protect and enhance conditions of late-successional and old- growth forest ecosystems, which serve as habitat for late-successional and old-growth related species, including the northern spotted owl. • Johnny O'Neil LSR Wilderness (US Forest Service and BLM) Excerpt from e Wilderness Act of 1964: "In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness." • Red Buttes Wilderness Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (BLM) Areas of Critical Environmental C o n c e r n ( A C E C ) d e s i g n a t i o n s h i g h l i g h t a r e a s w h e r e s p e c i a l management attention is needed to protect important historical, cultural, and scenic values, or fish and wildlife or other natural resources. • Sterling Mine Ditch Trail ACEC Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (BLM) For an area to qualify as Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWC), it must possess sufficient size, naturalness, and outstanding opportunities for either solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation. • Roundtop LWC • Burton-Ninemile LWC Important Bird Areas (Audubon Society) • Siskiyou Crest IBA • Anderson Butte-Sterling Ditch IBA • China Gulch IBA Roadless Areas (Uninventoried) e following uninventoried roadless areas are not officially designated but are large, roadless tracts of land worthy of special status and protection. • Elliott Ridge Roadless Area • Boaz Mountain Roadless Area • Buncom Roadless Area • Dakubetede Roadless Area • Wellington Butte Roadless Area • Whisky Ridge Roadless Area • Stricklin Butte Roadless Area Suzie Savoie Conservation Chair, Siskiyou Chapter Native Plant Society of Oregon klamathsiskiyou@gmail.com A sponsor of the Applegater's annual fundraiser at Valley View Winery on October 14, 2018.

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