Shannon Browne, Director of Community Outreach (Friends of CSNM) is invited to attend Patagonia’s Tools for Grassroots Activists Conference in late September 2017 at the Stanford Sierra Camp near South Lake Tahoe, California. Only 85 participants from around the country are invited to attend this 5-day conference.  

Since 1994, Patagonia began offering these gatherings bi-annually in order to expand its support of grassroots environmental groups beyond its grants program. The goal of a Tools Conference is to provide practical training in skills that will help invited participants become more effective in their grassroots environmental efforts. Patagonia’s Tools conference organizers believe in the importance of sharing ideas and best practices that really work. The value of attending the conference comes both from the workshops and speakers and from networking opportunities with a truly inspirational group of participants.

Congratulations to Shannon! 

          “I will walk an easel and supplies up the trail each day and make a juicy oil painting…”
–Mabrie Ormes, painter, 2017 Artist-in-Residence at Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Three Visions of the Cascade-Siskiyou is on exhibit at the Ashland Art Center through Saturday, September 30, 2017.  

Mabrie Ormes, Darlene Southworth and Matt Witt are each an Artist-in-Residence 2017 at the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Their artworks on exhibit bring attention to the monument, established for its biodiversity, and yet still under threat from the president-ordered review.

Matt Witt, photographer, was named Artist in Residence at Crater Lake National Park, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and PLAYA in Summer Lake, Oregon. He says, “Much has been said in recent months about the monument in terms of biodiversity, climate change, at-risk species and reconnecting habitat for wildlife mobility, but perhaps not enough about its beauty.” See Matt’s monumental art (Mail Tribune) story and photos.

Ashland Art Center artist member Darlene Southworth is professor emeritus at Southern Oregon University and mycologist. At the monument she recently led citizen scientists at the 2016 BioBlitz: Fungi. She was watercolor painting, when Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke stopped to see her work during his site review.

Mabrie Ormes, painter, hiked and carried her art materials up the trail. Despite injuring her back during her residency, she is still committed to completing a multi-panel painting, scheduled for an exhibition in 2018.

Artists have been instrumental in the creation of national parks such as painter Thomas Moran and his majestic paintings of landscapes in Yellowstone National Park. Ansel Adams signature images of Yosemite and Denali are now recognized worldwide. Mabrie, Darlene and Matt are the inaugural group in this monument’s first year Artist-in-Residence program.

If you go: The Ashland Art Center is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

In memoriam

Artist Harriet Rex Smith (May 3, 1921 – July 20, 2017) encouraged care for the environment and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. From her studio located next to the Greensprings Inn, she painted many landscape scenes.

August 16, 2017 Update
Effective Immediately:
Grizzly Peak Trail System Back Open
Closure signs and caution tape are no longer at the Grizzly Peak trailhead or its tributary trails. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Medford District jointly with the Oregon Department of Forestry Southwest Oregon District have decided the area is now safe for public access.
Fire and forestry managers quickly closed the trail system August 11th, both to allow fire cleanup efforts to finish and to account for public health and safety. The series of five fires on Grizzly Peak are now 100% contained. Aerial recon will continue as the temperatures warm up in southern Oregon this week.

The Grizzly Peak Trail is on federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management out of its Medford District office. It is a popular hiking area that attracts several visitors during the summer months. Therefore, we are pleased to reopen the trail system in such a timely manner in order to allow the community the chance to get out and enjoy the remainder of the summer out on the trails.

For additional information, please reach out to the
BLM Medford District office at (541) 618-2200, or the
Oregon Department Southwest Oregon District Medford Unit at (541) 664-3328

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
August 12, 2017 Notice to Close.

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY:

Grizzly Peak Trail System CLOSED to Protect Public Health and Safety

With increased fire activity on Grizzly Peak near Ashland, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Medford District jointly with the Oregon Department of Forestry Southwest Oregon District have decided that a temporary closure of the Grizzly Peak Trail system is necessary in order to protect public health and safety. The closure is effective immediately and will be in place until the area is deemed safe for public access.

Currently, firefighters are still engaged on Grizzly Peak; however, only three of the five fires initially reported are still actively burning. The first two fires were knocked down and 100% contained by early afternoon. Both are less than an acre in size. Firefighters are engaged on the final three fires tonight. The fires range from ¼ acre to 2 acres, and are each at least 30% mopped up and 100% lined. We will continue to work on these fires swiftly and efficiently in order to eliminate any further risk to public and firefighter safety.

Closure signs will be placed at main entry points to the area; however, maps of the closure area can be obtained through the BLM Medford District Office. The Grizzly Peak Trail is on federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management out of its Medford District office. It is a popular hiking area that attracts several visitors during the summer months. Therefore, we hope this precaution keeps both visitors and firefighters safe as crews continue to make progress on the series of fires on Grizzly Peak.

See the full Emergency Closure Notification.

For additional information, please reach out to the

BLM Medford District office at (541) 618-2200, or the
Oregon Department Southwest Oregon District Medford Unit
at (541 664-3328.

Stay up to date on the latest monument press and media:

Howard Hunter, Advocacy Chair article in Mail Tribune – July 30, 2017
Guest Opinion: No shortage of vehicle access in the monument.

Michael Parker, Pepper Trail, and Jack Williams opinion in Oregon Live – August 13, 2017
Scientists urge no changes to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

Gov. Kate Brown Tours Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and Urges Protection…
Text and link to photos July 16, 2017

Michael Parker, SOU Biology Department Chair, and Dave Willis, Soda Mountain Wilderness video interview on July 24, 2017 KOBI Five on 5.
About the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, Secretary of Interior Zinke visit, the monument biodiversity, wilderness, road access, and public input.

BioBlitz 2017: Herpetology survey led by Dr. Michael Parker and SOU Biology students with citizen scientists in the monument. Daily Tidings – June 5, 2017.
BioBlitz Tallies Monument Creatures. 

#Cascade-Siskiyou on Twitter: What people are saying or showing about the monument.

#MonumentsForAll on Twitter: An attack on one monument is an attack on all. An unprecedented review on 26 monuments. 

The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument originally covered almost 53,000 acres across southwestern Oregon. On January 12, 2017 President Barack Obama, expanded the monument boundaries by roughly 47,000 acres. This expansion included some local watersheds, as well as broadened the range of altitudes found within the monument. For our July Hike & Learn, we set out with Dr. Michael Parker, biologist and professor at Southern Oregon University.

At the Friday night talk, Dr. Parker previewed the areas that we would be exploring on our Saturday hike. He explained why some of these places were recommended by scientists to be included in the expansion. This included some private land behind Emigrant Lake and around Grizzly Peak, managed by the Selberg Institute for conservation purposes and providing lower elevation ecosystems not previously included in the monument. It also included higher altitude ecosystems, like the area around Vulture Rock and some of the headwaters of Jenny Creek.

Dr. Parker explained that these areas further represent why the monument is such a special place, encompassing such broad and different ecosystems within its borders. Biodiversity needs the protection of larger landscape and enlarged borders; global change threatens species at lower elevations. The actual expansion has reductions from actual scientific recommendations.

On the morning of our hike, we departed for the Green Springs trailhead. From there, we hiked out to our first scenic vista, overlooking the land managed by the Selberg Institute below us, now included in the monument. Green rolling fields, with scattered white oaks cascaded down to Sampson Creek. As we continued around the Green Springs Loop, Dr. Parker stopped to encourage us to look overhead. Scenic vistas are not just broad sweeping views from high places, but can also be peering through interlacing branches of Douglas-fir trees or down across moss-covered logs in the forest. It was on this stretch of trail that we came across recently appointed Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, visiting Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument as part of a Trump review.  

We made our way towards Vulture Rock. We drove up past Hyatt Lake and parked at the base of an old forest service road. We were greeted by a spring surrounded by wildflowers, with dragonflies buzzing overhead and more than one rough skinned newt swimming in the water. We walked up the road and then cut into the forest. Finally, after pushing through some mangled golden chinquapin, we broke out of the forest and onto a rocky outcrop.

As we took a moment to rest and eat some lunch, the lone call of a pika rang out across the clearing. Among our group was SOU graduate student Suphasiri Muttamara, who is researching pika call dialects of populations in the monument and nearby areas; this project is funded by the 2017 Friends Research Fund.

Pika are of a group of animals called lagomorphs. These animals are hind-gut fermenters, meaning that the bacteria that break down much of the food that they eat lives in the last portion of their digestive tract. To get more nutrition from their food, lagomorphs will occasionally produce cecotropes, which are moist, soft pellets, different from their fecal pellets. These cecotropes are eaten to gain the nutritional value that would have otherwise been lost.

We put our food away and stowed our packs to begin our ascent. Helping each other along the scramble, we steadily climbed towards the top. The pile of rocks we were clambering about atop of were remnants of an old igneous intrusion. Softer material that had surrounded the pile of rocks has been washed eroded away leaving a tall spire of rock and providing us with a wonderful vista. From atop Vulture Rock, we had a 360-degree view of the monument and many of it’s newly included acres. On one side, we were flanked by Surveyor Mountain, on the other we looked out to see Pilot Rock tucked into place near Mt. Ashland. These landscapes encompass a wide swath of diverse ecosystems that are home to many species of plants, animals, fungi, and more. Some areas are protected by our monument, and its recent expansion, for the sake of these species. Others are trusted to private landowners in hopes that they will manage them properly.

We took our time soaking in the views and then headed back down the slope.  We found our packs, cut back through the woods, and then wrapped our trip with one last scenic vista, looking out from our deck chairs at the Green Springs Inn at some cold brews and warm pie.

by John Ward, Hike & Learn Coordinator
Friends of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Gallery of photos by John Ward, except where noted. 

We Need Your Help!
Volunteers are invited to participate in a Starthistle Control Project at the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument on National Public Lands Day – September 9, 2017. Since 1994 National Public Lands Day promotes volunteer service for conservation on public lands. Register to volunteer for this project.

Starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) is a pernicious and persistent invasive weed of a number of grassland and oak woodland areas within the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument (CSNM). Starthistle is an important and balanced part of the ecosystems in Eurasia, where it is kept in check by an assortment of natural enemies and plants that have co-evolved with it in its native habitat. Unfortunately, these natural enemies are not present in other areas of the world where it has been accidentally introduced in Australia, Argentina, Chile, and the USA.

In many of these regions it has become an invasive species and noxious weed and has altered the native ecology of the areas. It is a deep concern for land managers.

Project Description There is an area with a large infestation of starthistle along the Green Springs Loop Trail within the CSNM. We will manually control starthistle in this area using gloves and large heavy-duty plastic garbage bags. We will need to be careful not to spread the seed by bagging primarily the flower and seed head of the plant. The plant can be yanked out of the ground by hand or the seed heads cut with a knife or pruner. Since it is an annual plant it will not regrow after simple cutting of the plant.

Project duration: We will work for 4-6, hours starting at 9am at the Green Springs Loop Trailhead. A bag lunch will be provided at the trailhead.

Level: Easy walk, with ability to bend and weed pull, along gradual slope. Children (aged 12+), accompanied and supervised by parent or guardian are welcome. Appropriate for family or group service in outdoors.

Sign-up for this FREE event: Register at Eventbrite and indicate your name(s) and sandwich preference.  

Directions to the Green Springs Trailhead: From I-5 Exit 14 to Hwy 66 (Green Springs Hwy) to Little Hyatt Prairie Road (14.6 miles), on left. Follow Little Hyatt Prairie Road (.7 mile) to the first left-hand road (39-3E-32). Follow this road to the Green Springs Trailhead parking area. Look for NPLD signage.

What to bring:  Leather gloves, pruners or knife, hat, water, and sunblock.
BLM will provide plastic garbage bags.

For more information:
Contact Charlie Schelz, BLM Monument Ecologist
Tel: 541-618-2244
Email: cschelz@blm.gov

Leave What You Find. Leave No Trace principles are practiced on monument lands, so that we can minimize our impacts on the landscape. This includes “leave the things as you found them.”
     Monument staff marks trails with signs and posts, and not rock cairns (or piles of rocks). If you see cairns along any trail, feel free to dismantle them and gently disperse the rocks back onto the ground.
    Remember: take only photos, leave only footprints! We can all take care of our monument’s biodiversity.

Go with Interpretive Interns! Rangers Elizabeth, Becky and Morgyn continue to attract more and more CSNM visitors to the information station at the Greensprings, and to their interpretive programs. Ranger Elizabeth had 30 folks at her recent evening program. Everyone in attendance learned more about the monument’s geology and how it sets the stage for its unparalleled biodiversity!  Go on guided walks or listen in at an evening program. Kids can earn Junior Explorer badges. See free program offerings for the remainder of the summer, through September 3, 2017.

Sign in at Trailheads. CSNM’s outdoor recreation planner, Kathryn Lloyd, and park ranger, Rick Bishop are installing trailhead registers at popular trails. So the next time you’re starting the Grizzly Peak, Pilot Rock or Hobart Bluff trails, be sure to sign in!

Grizzly Peak trail has had a delightfully long wildflower season. Visitors on the trail constantly comment on nature’s brilliant display of paintbrush, sunflowers, larkspur, and fleabane daisies, among others. 

See Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke’s video tour (July 2017) of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

Look for 2017 Artists-in-Residence work. Photographer Matt Witt presents an public presentation (August 18) of his work in the monument and the expansion. Read and see the photographs in Mail Tribune. In September 2017 the Group Show of Artists-in-Residence will be featured at the Ashland Art Gallery, 2nd Floor.

Report and photos by
Christine Beekman, Interpretive Specialist
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
BLM Medford

The Friends of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument thank the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council and KS Wild for organizing efforts to show U. S. Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke the community’s continuing Monument support during his recent visit (July 14-16, 2017). 

When Secretary Zinke walked the Greensprings Loop on Saturday (July 15) he met many monument users, including artists, birders, equestrians, and family hikers.  

Most notably, an estimated 300 local residents showed support Sunday afternoon outside the BLM Medford office while Secretary Zinke held meetings inside. It was evident on that hot afternoon, on a parking lot no less, that our monument has abundant public support.  

It was unfortunate that monument supporters, especially Oregon’s Governor Brown, were afforded so little time with the secretary relative to the time he spent with Congressman Walden and other monument opponents. 

The Friends were part of a 30-minute time slot in which 20 different people spoke in support of the monument. Those invited to speak in this very brief meeting included scientists, locally elected officials, business representatives from within the monument, and others. A short meeting was also granted to the Klamath Tribes. All up, it was a very short amount of time discussing the monument with those who value and want to protect the unparalleled biodiversity found here.

The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is part of BLM’s National Conservation Lands, comprising BLM’s most ecologically rich and culturally significant lands. Owned by all Americans, these are our nation’s newest collection of protected public lands—standing proudly alongside our National Parks, National Forests and National Wildlife Refuges.

We still have a few weeks before the Secretary releases his final review, scheduled for August 24. We remain hopeful that we were effective in showcasing the great importance the 113,000 acres of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument hold and why they deserve, and were granted, the highest level of protection. Of the millions of public land throughout the United States, we will continue to advocate on behalf of this monument and others. We wish to thank all those who have worked to share your voice in support of biodiversity throughout this process. Stay tuned, more to come August 24th.

Gallery: July 16, 2017 – Monument supporters rally at BLM Medford. Photos by www.dasjadolan.com

We gathered round as she examined the plant protruding from the rocky substrate. Botanist Sheri Hagwood, of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, had been guiding our group of 15 aspiring naturalists through the Horseshoe Ranch Wilderness Management Area, but had now stopped as something special caught her eye. There was a small plant with green ovate leaves and a pinkish-red stem; its sepals closed tightly around its hidden flower bloom, which would open in the afternoon, giving this plant its name. We had found a rare Four o’clock flower, Mirabilis greenei, of the family Nyctaginaceae.     

Our adventure started in the Casa Ramos parking lot in Yreka, CA. We were meeting for our first ever Hike & Learn event focused on the monument expansion into Northern California. We had a great group with many of our Ashland regulars making the trip to join some new faces from the Yreka area. As soon as we all got together and organized our carpool, we struck out for the trailhead.     

Our drive took us around Iron Gate Reservoir, to the mouth of Scotch Creek. It was to be a warm day, and the cool blue pools of the creek were already very enticing. As we made our way along, we took time to stop periodically and identify different species like white and black oak, milkweed, desert paintbrush, mock orange, and many others. Our hike along Scotch Creek was accompanied by a melody of birds including goldfinches, grosbeaks, and Lazuli’s buntings.   

Hiking along, Sheri took several opportunities to inform us about the anthropogenic uses of some of the plants. The flowers of desert paintbrush can be plucked and eaten, the bark of willows can be made into a tea to sooth headaches, and the straight branches of many trees could be used in basket weaving or to craft shafts for arrows.     

We eventually left the cool company of the creek to make our way across a grassy field, through a sea of California sunshine – Oregon sunshine if we had been a bit farther north. We then made our way up into an oak savannah. These precious habitats, important to many plant and animal species, are few and far between. They have been encroached upon for years by agriculture and western juniper trees.     

We began our way back to the trailhead, making our way along Slide Creek. Along the way we found many interesting plant species, including the rare four o’clock wildflower. Two of my personal favorites from the day were the desert sage and yellow monkey flower. Finding ourselves back where we had begun, we said our goodbyes, thanked Sheri for a wonderful hike, and made our way home.

John Ward
Hike and Learn Coordinator