The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon.
Bob Wick / BLM
Federal courts recently upheld the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument on the border of Oregon and California. Now, the Bureau of Land Management is working on a plan for that monument’s future.
The BLM has invited the public to learn more about several options for managing the 114,000-acre area at the intersection of the Cascade, Siskiyou and Klamath mountain ranges. The monument located on the border of Oregon and California was first created by President Bill Clinton in 2000. It was then expanded in 2017 by President Barack Obama.
Timber companies challenged that expansion, arguing the president didn’t have the power to designate a monument on Oregon and California railroad lands originally set aside for logging. In March, a federal appeals court upheld the expansion.
Kyle Sullivan, a spokesperson for the BLM, said the area’s new plan will offer a more overarching strategy for the monument.
“Probably the biggest change is the BLM is moving from three different management plans to one management plan that covers the entire monument,” said Sullivan.
There’s four options in the 600-page draft, varying by the extent to which the land will be actively managed. The BLM’s preferred plan, labeled “moderate active management,” emphasizes flexibility, according to the agency. That option would reduce the amount of land managed for recreation from 9,859 acres to 431 acres. It would also decrease the area where wildfire fuels reduction is prioritized from 29,600 acres to 10,944 acres, with a focus on land .25 miles from at-risk communities.
The number of areas of critical environmental concern, which include land with important natural resources like sensitive plant species, would be reduced from five to two.
Sullivan said the agency’s preferred option recognizes the management plan already protects those areas.
“There isn’t an additional management direction needed to protect those specific areas, because those protections are already built into the management plan,” said Sullivan.
Public meetings to learn more about the draft plan will be held at Klamath Community College in Klamath Falls on Thursday and Pinehurst School in the Greensprings community on Saturday. The public comment period ends on July 5 while the BLM is expected to finalize the plan this fall.