Ask the Forest Service to Implement the AFR Without Roadless Logging

Click here to Ask the Forest Service to Implement the AFR Without Roadless Logging

Ashland's forest watershed arguably is the most important federal old-growth reserve in the Pacific Northwest for threatened wildlife, and it is the primary source of Ashland's domestic water. Accidental human-ignited fires spreading from town into the mountains, as occurred last month near Tolman Creek, pose a significant risk to the town's livability and to globally outstanding ecological values of the eastern Siskiyou Crest.

Fire is an essential natural disturbance that can rejuvenate forests suffering from decades of well-intentioned but misguided fire suppression. Often, suppression activities do more environmental damage than the fire itself. KS Wild supports fuel reduction in Ashland's urban-wildland interface to secure the City's water and encourage long-term restoration of fire to the watershed.

Since 2003, KS Wild has collaborated with the City of Ashland on a plan to reduce fire hazard in the watershed. The City finalized our plan in 2004, but in five years, the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest has not acted on it because the agency wants to log more than 1,000 acres in the MCDonald Peak Roadless Area, which is subject to litigation over how backcountry forests are managed nationwide.

It is time to move forward with the Ashland Forest Reiliency fire hazard reduction plan. Roadless area logging is the least important part of the AFR plan, and the Forest Service can implement fuel reduction closer to town now if it chooses to split the non-roadless portion of AFR, totaling more than 6,000 acres, into a final decision that defers activity in the roadless area.

Please click here to send a quick, automated letter asking decision makers to expedite fire hazard reduction in Ashland by separating the decisions (non-roadless and roadless) to implement the AFR project. Time is of the essence.