How Much Money Is Cascade Siskyous National Monument Worth

Cascade-SISKIYOU NATIONAL MONUMENT: A Landmark for Biodiversity

Text & Photos: Justin Lotak · 10 min read

Airplane pilot Stone

Along the border of Oregon and California lies a special blend of ecosystems. This is where the Great Basin meets 3 distinct mountain ranges: the Cascade, the Siskiyou, and the Klamath. These come together in a small-scale region, much of which is now within the boundaries of the Pour-Siskiyou National Monument.

Originally designated in 2000 by President Clinton, and and then expanded past President Obama in 2017 to reach almost 100,000 acres, this is the kickoff national monument designated because of its biodiversity. And to this date, information technology is the only national monument to have that claim.

We visited the monument in September of this year, and we had the opportunity to interview Jeanine Moy, Outreach Director with KS Wild – a local NGO that has been working since 1997 to protect biodiversity and watersheds in the region. "Originally [the monument] was smaller than what was recommend, due to political reasons," Jeanine tells us. Pointing at a map of the monument she adds, "the original boundary is this red line, and so the vivid green is the expansion from before this year. Considering the original designation didn't include all the proposed areas, there have been several scientific studies that were initiated by local scientists who came together. They've had strategy sessions, looking at how this surface area is not fully protective of the ecological values. Fifty-fifty when they broke out into different groups they all came back and said these areas are critical for animate being migration and for biodiversity preservation at all levels: genetic to population level."

The biodiversity here is spectacular on all levels. From mammals roaming the forested mountains including northern flying squirrel, river otter, American pika, and the occasional wolf, to rare amphibians in the ponds such equally the Oregon spotted frog and the Siskiyou Mountains salamander, to over 200 species of birds including the rare Oregon vesper sparrow and the dandy gray owl. The vegetation and tree species are peculiarly worth noting, which include Oregon white oak, California blackness oak, bigleaf maple; and if y'all're in the Siskiyou Mountains, co-ordinate to Jeanine, you lot tin can observe up to 36 species of conifers, sometimes mixed with deciduous forests and the occasional oak savannah. If ane likes to search for butterflies, this is one of the all-time spots in the United States to see a wide range of them. Jeanine describes to u.s.a., "The local interpretive specialist for the monument says the butterfly is to [Cascade-Siskiyou] as the bison is to Yellowstone. There'southward upwards of up to 120 species of butterflies, which is closely linked to the floral diversity."

And new species are continually discovered. "You'll be in the monument hiking forth oaks and so you lot'll see pines, and you lot'll detect sage brush mixed in there, only this kind of botanical conundrums. And since the monument was established there'due south new species being discovered constantly." She describes a 'bio-blitz' that was performed terminal year by the Friends of Cascade-Siskiyou, where the participants searched for as many species as they could find in a curt menstruation: "In 1 day last fall we tripled the number of fungi species that are known in the monument. The BLM, the managing agency, had nigh 45 species on their list and they found over 100 species that one solar day."

western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis)

A western fence lizard basking in the afternoon sun. The blood of this species of cadger is special: ticks that bite them become purged of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease in humans as a result of the interaction with a poly peptide in the cadger's claret.

Atlantis fritillary (Speyeria atlantis)

An Atlantis fritillary gathering pollen at Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Female person Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

Asking Jeanine near whether wolves were in the expanse, she replied:"OR-7 did come through. OR-7 is the starting time wolf to enter California in about 100 years, traveling nigh i,200 miles from northeast Oregon. He's on his third litter of pups this season, and we found out he'due south a grandpa. I recollect it's a testament to how intact the Pour north-south corridor is, allowing him to travel forth that way. Every bit an individual he is a very special wolf. He resides just north of the monument's boundaries. I don't know if people know exactly where, because he doesn't accept a collar anymore, but he is an infrequent private. When he had a neckband, we knew that he traveled across the Interstate-5 at least three times. Other wolves that take been collared - they've seen them go up to the highway, look at it, and turn around."

As to the high biodiversity, it largely has to do with the local geology. Jeanine describes it in some item to united states of america: "This entire region is recognized internationally as a biological hotspot. There is incredibly dissected topography - you come across all the river drainages and all the mountains, and that's because of a subduction zone. The oceanic plate is subducting under the continental plate so there'southward a lot of physical barriers that take evolved in isolation over time. There are incredible conditions gradients, so in the high Siskiyous we can go over one hundred inches of pelting a year, and then down around the Rogue Valley, we become about twenty-five inches of rain. So at that place's just and then much variation in all sorts of ways. At that place's also really unique soils, Serpentine soils, that are uplifted ocean floor bottom, which influence the soils especially in the Siskiyous coming up. There are tons of endemic plants that abound nowhere else in the world in the Siskiyous. So you accept a very different mountain range going n-due south [the Cascades]. These are volcanic, they are much younger, in that location are very rich soils, and a lot of conifers. And so we accept those 2 different mountain range influences, and so we have the Rogue Valley basin with the oak savannah, and we accept influence from the Great Basin as well."

Each national monument has its own presidential proclamation, merely this one has 2, due to its designation and expansion nether two different presidents. The proclamation for each national monument is a great summary for the reasons why each of these places are so important for conservation. Excerpts from the two proclamations include:

"With towering fir forests, sunlit oak groves, wildflower-strewn meadows, and steep canyons, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is an ecological wonder, with biological diverseness unmatched in the Cascade Range. This rich enclave of natural resources is a biological crossroads - the interface of the Cascade, Klamath, and Siskiyou ecoregions, in an area of unique geology, biology, climate, and topography."

– William J. Clinton, Presidential Proclamation for Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument; June ix, 2000

"The incredible biodiversity of found communities in the expansion is mirrored by as stunning animal diverseness, supported past the wide variety of intact habitats and undisturbed corridors allowing animal migration and movement. Maybe almost notably, the Pour-Siskiyou landscape, including the Upper Jenny Creek Watershed and the Southern Cascades, provides vitally of import habitat connectivity for the threatened northern spotted owl. Other raptors, including the baldheaded eagle, gold eagle, white-tailed kite, peregrine falcon, merlin, great gray owl, precipitous-shinned militarist, Cooper'due south hawk, osprey, American kestrel, northern goshawk, flammulated owl, and prairie falcon, soar higher up the meadows, mountains, and forests as they seek their prey."

– Barack Obama, Presidential Proclamation for the Boundary Enlargement of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument; January 12, 2017

California'southward Mt. Shasta can be seen from various peaks within Pour-Siskiyou National Monument, despite the smoky haze from nearby forest fires.

In April of this year, an executive social club was put in place by the presidential administration requesting the Secretary of the Interior to review all national monuments designated since 1996 that were over 100,000 acres in size, to decide whether presidents overused the Antiquities Human action to create national monuments. It is important to note that national monuments are normally signed by presidents later on years, if not decades, of piece of work past local residents and organizations, with considerable input via local stakeholder meetings and annotate periods. It is besides important to note that national monuments are designated on public federal lands. They are not "federal land grabs". Their borders may encompass individual or land lands, only the land ownership does not change; rather, a management programme gets worked out over several years for how the federal lands within the monument should exist managed going forrard.

As part of the executive review, comments from the public were requested, and a total of over 2.8 million comments from individuals and organizations were received pertaining to national monuments. Although an estimated 99.2% of the public comments received were in favor of keeping all monuments as they are currently designated, including 87% of the comments specifically for Pour-Siskiyou, information technology is of import to look at the reasons why this monument has opposition. Equally we learned during our visit and during farther research into the monument, the main opposition derives from 2 reasons: timber operations and off-road vehicle use. As stated in the monument's direction plan, timber harvesting would no longer be permitted within the monument, unless it benefited the restoration of the ecosystem or could be washed to better fire resiliency; and off-road vehicles must stay on designated open roads. The reasons for these limitations is so that the objects of scientific interest – the biodiversity in this case – could be restored and protected. Contrary to what some opposition signs posted in and around the monument might have one believe, the monument is not an instance of large government closing off access to the public. The monument was declared to protect the ecosystems of the region, and low impact recreational use of the state is yet open to the public, including hiking, camping, mountain biking, rock climbing, hunting, and fishing. And the Pacific Crest Trail (Percentage) passes right through the monument, offering thru-hikers a pristine welcome into Oregon or California, depending on which management they're hiking.

Decades of fire suppression along with warming temperatures have led to a rising in "megafires", defined every bit forest fires that are larger than 100,000 acres according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Smoke from fires further west blotted out the sun on some days during our visit.

Hiking along a section of the Pct with Jeanine Moy from KS Wild

As is the example with near conversations regarding what to practise with public lands and national monuments, the economic impact of the monument gets added into the discussion. Proponents for timber harvesting will often point to the jobs and local tax acquirement that can exist gained from cutting the trees, but equally we're learning, the potential economic bear on of keeping monuments conserved can be a bigger economic boom to regions over the long run. The outdoor recreation manufacture is beginning to bear witness its economic muscle, with an estimated $887 billion dollars spent by consumers in 2016 in the United States solitary. But the regional economic impacts are not firsthand; information technology takes fourth dimension for people to hear nigh their recently-protected public lands. The K Canyon was originally protected (despite intense opposition) by Teddy Roosevelt every bit an 800,000-acre national monument in 1908. Afterwards xi years, it was designated a national park by congress, and now it'southward hard to imagine the Grand Canyon not existence the protected and iconic landscape that it about wasn't. Sure, there are jobs that go away when forestry, mining, or oil & gas drilling go prohibited on a piece of public land, but data is showing that the economy does non dwindle into a nothingness as opponents to monuments might desire us to believe. Local towns and nearby gateway communities gain new types of jobs, ones that have to do with tourism and outdoor recreation. And if the conservation area is managed right – in the case of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, that would hateful healthy ecosystems and thriving wildlife – local regions tin greatly benefit over the long run: jobs can be created, youth volition have incentives to stick around or motility to the area, and a healthier environs can provide healthy recreational opportunities for those that reside in the nearby communities.

Source: https://www.conservationatlas.org/blog/cascade-siskiyou-national-monument-a-landmark-for-biodiversity2017

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