NEWS RELEASE: Local Oak Partnerships Build Resources for Private Landowners
CONTACT:
Jaime Stephens, Director of Conservation, Klamath Bird Observatory, jlh@klamathbird.org, 541-944-2890
Steve Denney, Coordinator, Umpqua Oak Partnership, stevedenn@mydfn.net, 541-671-1803
In partnership with the Umpqua Oak Partnership (UOP), the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) has released version 3.0 of “Restoring Oak Habitats in Southern Oregon and Northern California: A Guide for Private Landowners”. The funding for this landowner guide was from the Secure Rural Schools Title II program administered by the Bureau of Land Management Western Oregon Resource Advisory Committee.
Our region holds onto Oregon’s largest remaining section of oak habitat. With the majority of it owned by private landowners. Since 2017, southern Oregon and northern California landowners have protected and restored more than 5,000 acres of oak and prairie habitat.
Northwest oak and prairie landscapes are among the most drought-tolerant, wildfire-resilient native habitats in North America and oak trees play a key role in the ecosystem. If they are not restored, protected, and maintained, important natural processes could be lost forever. With over 300 species of wildlife using oak habitats during their life cycle, continued habitat loss and degradation will result in more of these species becoming vulnerable. Currently, 45 of those oak-associated species are already considered to be ‘at-risk’. Additionally, overstocked and unmanaged oak stands present an increased risk of unnaturally severe wildfire which not only results in habitat loss but threatens residences and rural communities.
“As both a landowner located in the Umpqua Basin and one of the authors, I am excited to see this new version of the landowner guide for managing oak habitats. This version of the guide has been updated to include the latest information on managing and restoring oaks and will be a valuable resource for landowners whether you own less than one acre or thousands of acres”. – Steve Denney, Umpqua Oak Partnership Coordinator.
This landowner guide describes how to apply conservation practices for Oregon white oak and California black oak habitats on private lands in southern Oregon and northern California. The document discusses the importance and history of oak habitats across three ecoregions and provides detailed conservation guidelines for oak habitat restoration, integrating Western science and Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
The guide includes supplemental resources for the restoration-minded private landowner, including a list of organizations that will assist with private land restoration as well as step-by-step instructions for monitoring birds on your land to track the return of wildlife following oak restoration activities. An exciting opportunity exists for landowners and conservation partners to work together to restore native oak systems and their diverse wildlife communities to reverse these trends.
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The Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) is a regional collaboration between local agencies, tribes, and non-profit organizations that works to conserve oak ecosystems on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. Since 2011, KSON partners have accomplished thousands of acres of strategic ecological restoration to enhance oak habitat, build climate resilience, bolster cultural resources, and reduce wildfire risk to the ecosystem and communities.
The Umpqua Oak Partnership (UOP) is a collaborative regional partnership of landowners, tribes, agencies, and organizations working together to preserve and promote healthy oak habitats in Douglas County. UOP’s mission is to work to bring people together around oaks, help keep farms and ranches in the family, connect landowners to programs and funding, and share information.
Non-breeding season movements have never been tracked in this subspecies before, and results from these first three birds are incredibly interesting in their variation. You may have already followed the adventures of Po, Gram, and Affy in our recent series of Facebook posts, where we learned where they traveled during migration, but we will recap the highlights here and below in a video. One male (Po; in green) departed Lily Glen on Sept 19 on what appears to be a “false start” migration attempt – he spent one night about 25 km southwest of Tule Lake and then headed right back to Lily Glen – a behavior that we hadn’t recorded before, and in fact, would have been nearly impossible to observe without the GPS tag data. He left Lily Glen again on Sept 24 and sped down to his wintering grounds in just two days. This was also the only individual for whom we also captured spring migration – Po left his overwintering area on the evening of Apr 9, made two short stopovers just east of Vina, CA, and Redding, CA, and was back setting up his territory at Lily Glen by Apr 15.