RESOURCES
After four years of work, the Klamath-Siskiyou
Conservation Assessment is now complete. This
assessment is the most comprehensive evaluation of
a large ecoregion ever undertaken, and it includes
recommendations for a protected nature reserve that
has a good chance of actually saving all native
species and their habitats. The process and methods
used in the study are part of the science of
conservation biology.
Siskiyou Project contracted with Dr. Reed Noss and
Dr. Jim Strittholt of the Conservation Biology
Institute for the study back in 1995. We needed a
vision to help guide our work and we needed a
scientifically sound plan to save biodiversity that
we could encourage the Forest Service and other
land managing agencies to adopt.
The Klamath-Siskiyou Conservation Assessment is
state-of-the-art science in two respects: first
because it compiles massive amounts of data on
regional characteristics all in one place; and
second because it does something never done before.
It uses three separate approaches to analyze the
data and then integrates them to arrive at a set of
solid recommendations for the conservation of
biodiversity.
Strittholt and Noss and other workers from the
Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) encountered
many challenges in the initial phase of the study,
which was to gather data and enter it into a
computerized mapping system called GIS (Geographic
Information Systems). The data, which came from a
variety of different state and federal agencies was
of different types, some gathered by remote sensing
(from satellites or airplanes) and some from ground
surveys. It also came in different forms (vector
vs. raster) and was often collected differently in
different parts of the region (e.g. vegetation
types identified differently in Oregon vs.
California). Some of the data layers include:
vegetation types, soils and geology, precipitation,
roads, sensitive species locations, forest
clearcutting locations, and human population. CBI
spent many long hours matching these data across
state and jurisdictional boundaries before they
were ready to do any analysis.
Conservation biologists have three major ways to
determine the requirements of conservation:
- looking at the needs of focal species like
the spotted owl;
- mapping "special elements" such as known
locations of sensitive species and rare
ecosystems; and
- selecting a representative portion of each
ecosystem type in the region for preservation.
The Klamath-Siskiyou Conservation Assessment is a
synthesis of all of these approaches.
The Northwest Forest Plan for the Spotted Owl is
an example of a focal species approach. Because
they are carnivores at the top of the food chain,
any plan that saves spotted owls would also need to
save the entire web of life in the owls' forests.
In that way, a carnivore can serve as an umbrella
species for many others. Unfortunately, the
objectives of the Northwest Forest Plan were more
political than biological-in order to meet timber
targets, the plan traded off too much of the
spotted owl's habitat. Studies show that spotted
owl populations are continuing to decline by as
much as 4% a year.
CBI used the pacific fisher as a focal species in
the Klamath-Siskiyou Conservation Assessment. The
fisher needs a combination of low road density and
low elevation, so meeting its needs will also meet
the needs of a lot of other species which need the
same kind of conditions. The assessment also looked
at road density as a measure of habitat
effectiveness for other carnivores like bears,
cougars, wolverines, and some day, the wolf. These
species all have large home ranges and need large
roadless areas with roadless connection corridors
to other roadless areas so they can move about the
landscape unmolested to feed and breed.
The second approach used was to map different types
of special elements so they could be included in
the final recommendation for protected areas. These
elements were: threatened and endangered species,
old growth forests, serpentine geology (with its
concentrations of rare plants), watersheds free of
the deadly Port Orford cedar disease, and
watersheds with strong salmon runs.
The third approach was to find a way to represent a
portion (25% was the target) of every ecosystem
type in the ecoregion in a protected area. The
Klamath-Siskiyou is a highly diverse region with a
fine mosaic of different vegetation communities and
geological substrates spread out across the
landscape. This diversity is what makes it a
globally outstanding ecoregion. By combining plant
community types (e.g. doug fir forest, jeffrey pine
forest, oak woodland, mixed chaparral, wetland)
with geological and climate types, CBI identified
215 different ecosystem types in the ten million
acre Klamath Siskiyou ecoregion.
The final task in the Conservation Assessment was
to put it all together. CBI used roadless areas of
1000 acres and greater as the basic building blocks
for the assessment. There are 590 of these roadless
areas in the Klamath-Siskiyou. Each roadless area
was mapped and assessed for its conservation
potential. Did it contain a lot of special
elements? Did it have a high value of habitat
effectiveness for carnivores? Which ecosystems were
represented in it?
In the final analysis, the Conservation Assessment
recommends protecting most of the remaining
roadless areas in a reserve system. Some additional
land needs to be protected to connect up roadless
areas or because it contains special elements. This
amounts to about 50% of the ecoregion, all on
public land. 62% of the ecoregion is publically
owned and managed by Forest Service or BLM. A small
additional fraction of private land is recommended
for protection, but only voluntary measures like
conservation easements and purchases from willing
sellers are advocated. The Conservation Assessment
also makes recommendations to end all cutting of
old growth trees and to actively manage the new
protected areas to heal past damage from roads and
clearcuts.
The Conservation Assessment concludes that
protecting the remaining roadless areas as the core
of a reserve system can achieve most of the
conservation goals for the Klamath-Siskiyou region.
This conclusion is significant - before the study,
we did not know if there was enough intact wild
land left in public ownership to save the
extraordinary biodiversity of the Klamath-Siskiyou.
Now we know there is.
If you would like a copy of a CD with the full
report, color maps and GIS data layers (ESRI
Arcview software required), please send your
request along with $20 to: Siskiyou Project, 9335 Takilma Rd, Cave Junction, OR 97523. You can also download
the full text of the report below and four of the
color maps.
Warning: These files are quite large and make
take hours to download on slow connections!
View low resolution versions of a sample of maps.
Study Area
Roadless Areas
Habitat Types
Dominant Vegetation Types
Download full resolution maps of the:
Study Area (2.9 mb)
Roadless Areas (1.9 mb)
Habitat Types (1 mb)
Dominant Vegetation Types
(6 mb)
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