June is National Rivers Month, and there are significant accomplishments to share this month around KS Wild’s effort to advance river conservation in the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion. Read this blog to get a deeper understanding of the threats and opportunities for wild rivers across the region.
Despite a 2017 ruling by the Obama Administration to put a 20-year moratorium on mining in the headwaters of the North Fork Smith River and Illinois River, a new mining company has emerged with plans to mine for nickel in the Baldface Creek watershed. Read more about KS Wild’s work protecting this region from mining here.
We spent a week hiking the Rogue River National Recreation Trail with a group of determined hikers and the raft support of our friends at ARTA. Read the full report here.
KS Wild’s Executive Director recently visited the Irongate Dam, one of four dams set to be removed by 2024 to create a free-flowing Klamath River. Read more about his experience here.
We need to protect Oregon lands from climate extremes and harness their potential as a climate solution. The Senate Committee on Natural Resources has scheduled a hearing on SB 530, common-sense legislation that will help increase carbon sequestration on our forests, agricultural lands, and wetlands and improve the resilience of our water, wildlife, and communities. Learn more about SB 530 and action you can take for natural climate solutions in this blog.
The Illinois Valley and the Wild Rivers Ranger District are at the very heart of KS Wild’s mission to protect wildlands, wildlife and watersheds. From botany to mining to logging, read about KS Wild’s recent conservation efforts in the Illinois Valley.
While Senators and the White House determine a path forward on infrastructure and other climate-related bills, efforts to expand protections for wildlands and wildlife continue on the side with Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
To be the eyes and ears of public lands defense requires KS Wild’s ForestWatch staff to be diligent in how we approach the scope of our work. Read about our plans for 2020, which defending public lands in a number of vital ways.
For five days in May, KS Wild leads a raft-supported hike along the Rogue River. This guest post by Tuula Rebhahn details the journey along the river and the adventure that awaits you!
Senator Wyden learned from the crowd at his Josephine County Town Hall that protecting the Rogue, its tributaries, and all of the wild places in Oregon, is of utmost importance to Oregonians. He also heard that his constituents here in southern Oregon see and appreciate the hard work he is doing in the nation’s capital to keep our lands and rivers pristine and protected.
With the passage of a public lands bill, Oregon will build on its Wild & Scenic River legacy and KS Wild will achieve some long sought after conservation measures. The Oregon Wildlands Act adds 250 miles of new rivers and streams to the National Wild & Scenic River system, protecting southern Oregon streams from mining!
The U.S. Senate passed the Natural Resources Management Act (S. 47), including the Oregon Wildlands Act (S. 1548), the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Act (S. 513/H.R. 1308), and the reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund,. The package now heads to the U.S. House where we are hopeful it will pass and be signed into law.
Few experiences are more evocative of the Pacific Northwest than the sight of a salmon leaping a waterfall. People gather to watch as they make their way to ancestral spawning grounds each year at Rainie Falls on the Rogue River or the mouth of Wooley Creek on the Salmon River. Some rivers of the Klamath-Siskiyou are strongholds for wild salmon, including the federally listed Northern California/Southern Oregon Coho Salmon
We are celebrating the recent victory to protect some of our most prized rivers from proposed industrial strip mining for a period of 20 years. We are hopeful that this victory will stand, even in the Trump administration.
Long fights with no reward can feel tiresome and unrewarding after awhile. That’s why this May we held the first annual Return to the Wild, a rustic retreat along the Illinois River for female activists from around Southwest Oregon. Elders told stories of past trials and triumphs, we bonded and benefited from the therapy of nature, and were reinvigorated for our work ahead.
Regularly visited by botanists, it boasts the highest wildflower diversity in Oregon. Fisher folk appreciate the habitat it provides for steelhead and cutthroat trout, and it is well known by locals for always running clear. Before entering the Wild and Scenic Illinois River, it flows through a rugged, beautiful wilderness landscape. Part of this area, the South Kalmiopsis Roadless area was recommended as an addition to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in 2004.
The public lands in the Smith River Watershed are legendary for their unique botanical diver- sity and for providing clear, cold water to the largest un-damned river system on the West Coast. It is a stunning and spectacular part of America’s natural heritage that is literally like nowhere else on Earth.
