The Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion is a globally significant biodiversity hotspot and area of conservation concern, with some of the most extensive remaining oak ecosystems in the western United States. Oaks here are most threatened by conifer encroachment, fire suppression, agricultural development, incompatible grazing practices, non-native species, and severe fire.
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. This handout highlights the power of collaboration and a decade-plus of successful oak habitat restoration.
Large mature oak tree with spreading limbs (c) Frank Lospalluto
This press release was originally posted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) HERE.
ODFW, in partnership with the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON), received a $2.78 million federal grant from America the Beautiful Challenge program to conduct oak-prairie habitat restoration in the Upper Rogue watershed.
The funding comes from multiple federal agencies and complements match funding from private donations designated for landscape-scale conservation work directed by the state, tribal, nonprofit, and working-lands partners.
“Building on a decade of collaboration, restoration, and a body of science to inform future actions, we are excited to embark on a project of this scale to protect oak for the benefit of people and wildlife,” said Jaime Stephens, Klamath Bird Observatory Science Director, and KSON Coordinator.
Large oak with spreading limbs (c) Bob Altman
The federal grant will help support two ongoing oak restoration initiatives. The Upper Rogue Oak Initiative builds on a recently awarded $7 million investment from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and $3 million matching funds to KSON’s Little Butte Oak Initiative. Support for both initiatives will create landscape resiliency and wildlife connectivity.
The additional investment expands the initiatives’ geographic reach by restoring 800 acres of oak habitat using prescribed fire, ecological thinning to reduce conifer encroachment, noxious weed reduction, and native understory planting.
For time immemorial, oak ecosystems have provided and continue to provide culturally important plants and other resources that sustain indigenous communities. Over the past century, oak-prairie ecosystems have experienced dramatic loss and degradation.
Through Lomakatsi’s Tribal Partnerships Program and the Inter-Tribal Ecosystem Restoration Partnership, tribes and inter-tribal crew members have supported oak habitat restoration as part of KSON and related initiatives for over two decades. A central part of the grant application focuses on engaging with tribes and tribal communities with ancestral ties to the project area to ensure indigenous voices and the incorporation of culturally beneficial resources and subsistence “first foods” into restoration planning.
KSON partners anticipate equally distributing restoration actions across both private and BLM-administered public lands. Restoration treatments on BLM-administered lands are planned under various environmental analyses, including the Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands (IVM-RL) Environmental Assessment (EA).
“The BLM designed and developed the assessment with a desire to help streamline collaborative projects and increase competitiveness,” said BLM Medford District Manager Elizabeth Burghard. “We recognize the importance of an all lands, all hands approach to ecosystem restoration and fuels reduction projects.”
White-breasted Nuthatch (c) Karl Schneck
It is estimated that less than 25 percent of historic prairie-oak habitat remains across Oregon. The most significant percentage of remaining oak habitat in the Pacific Northwest is in southwest Oregon. Both land conversion and human-induced ecosystem process alterations threaten these remaining habitats. Oak habitat loss is a significant threat to wildlife species in Oregon, including Oak Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and game animals such as deer and elk.
ODFW’s Habitat Division, created by the Legislature in 2021, worked with the Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture, Oregon Wildlife Foundation, and Klamath Bird Observatory to secure funding through America the Beautiful Challenge and will work with KSON starting in 2023 to implement restoration work.
Additional grant funds from the America the Beautiful Challenge were also awarded to projects in Oregon:
The Nez Perce Tribe was awarded $5 million for restoring sockeye salmon habitat connectivity at the Wallowa Lake dam.
Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw will receive $3.5 million for tidal wetland restoration for Oregon Coast Coho Salmon habitat restoration in the Siuslaw River estuary.
North Fork John Day Watershed Council was awarded $509,000 for the mine tailing and water quality restoration of Bull Run Creek in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
Curry County Soil and Water Conservation District was awarded $700,000 for treating invasive gorse and English ivy to protect the Siskiyou National Forest.
For more information about how ODFW connects conservation partners and communities with once-in-a-lifetime federal infrastructure funds and other opportunities, visit ODFW’s Investing in Oregon (IIJA) webpage.
The Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) is a non-profit organization that advances bird and habitat conservation through science, education, and partnerships. Working in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the ranges of migratory birds, KBO emphasizes high-caliber science and the role of birds as indicators to inform and improve natural resource management. KBO also nurtures an environmental ethic through community outreach and education.
We are excited to announce that the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) has received funding from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB)’s Focused Investment Partnerships grant program for the Little Butte Oak Initiative. KSON partners plan to restore 2,480 acres of oak habitat within the Little Butte Creek Watershed and Table Rocks using ecological thinning, prescribed fire, noxious weed abatement, and native understory planting.
With a seven million dollar investment from OWEB and nearly three million dollars secured in matching funds, this Initiative will catalyze tribal, federal, and private landowner collaboration, support, and capacity for important oak restoration over the next six years. KSON partners anticipate equally distributing restoration actions across both private and BLM-administered public lands. Restoration treatments on BLM-administered lands are planned under various environmental analyses, including the Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands (IVM-RL) Environmental Assessment (EA) and the Lost Antelope Environmental Assessment.
“The BLM designed and developed the IVM EA with a desire to help streamline collaborative projects and increase competitiveness,” said BLM Medford District Manager Elizabeth Burghard. “We recognize the importance of an all lands, all hands approach to ecosystem restoration and fuels reduction projects.”
The project will include several opportunities where the public can learn more about these restoration efforts. Public engagement will include demonstration treatments at Table Rocks and will complement ongoing programs of interpretation, public education, and volunteer stewardship.
KSON’s Little Butte Oak Initiative was selected through a highly competitive, state-wide process, that saw grants awarded to a total of five projects across the state. OWEB, which is funded primarily through state lottery revenue, has the mission to help protect and restore healthy watersheds and natural habitats that support thriving communities and strong economies.
“Shovel-ready projects are important to be competitive for large restoration funding sources such as this one. KSON partners have done an immense amount of work to be well positioned for an opportunity like this, including developing restoration best practices and a strategic conservation plan, building relationships with partners and landowners, and completing federal planning processes like the BLM’s Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands Environmental Assessment.” Jaime Stephens – Klamath Bird Observatory Science Director and Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network Coordinator.
For time immemorial, oak ecosystems have provided and continue to provide culturally important plants and other resources that sustain indigenous communities. Over the past century, oak-prairie ecosystems have experienced dramatic loss and degradation. Restoration action is essential, climate-smart, and will benefit wildlife and people. KSON is a collaborative regional partnership with a mission is to conserve oak habitats on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. Guided by the KSON Strategic Conservation Action Plan, the Little Butte Oak Initiative will reduce the two highest ranked threats – fire exclusion and conifer encroachment – through restoration actions and strengthen partnerships to support future work.
Other research has shown that over 50% of forest-dependent birds in the West are in decline, one of the steepest declines of any bird group. This sobering statistic has sounded the alarm that landscape-level conservation actions are needed now more than ever. Landscape-scale forest structure has moved away from its natural range of variability, resulting in unnaturally severe fire, diminished freshwater supplies, and bird declines. The suite of birds associated with oak habitats are among those most at-risk. This Initiative is part of a regional and national response that is underway to address the Three Billion Birds Crisis, which identifies the urgency for conservation actions to consider declining species in the hopes of keeping species off the federal endangered species list.
This Initiative’s targeted ecological outcomes are to support stable populations of oak-prairie-dependent wildlife species sustained by habitat structure and native plant species composition and to maintain oak-prairie ecosystems resilient to habitat loss and degradation from climate, extreme fire, insects, and disease. A central part of the grant application focuses on engaging with tribes and tribal communities with ancestral ties to the project area, to ensure an indigenous voice and the incorporation of cultural beneficial resources and subsistence “first foods” into restoration planning.
“We are excited to be a part of this incredible opportunity to restore oak habitat in partnership with tribal, agency, and non-profit partners,” said Marko Bey, Executive Director of Lomakatsi Restoration Project. “We believe this application was successful because of the demonstrated track records, capacity, and long-term relationships of the partners involved, the emphasis on involving tribal partners and implementing ecocultural restoration, and the focus on oak habitat – one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the West that is unfortunately in rapid decline.”
Core KSON partners are Klamath Bird Observatory, Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture, Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative, The Nature Conservancy, Understory Initiative, Bureau of Land Management Medford District, Jackson Soil and Water Conservation District, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and US Forest Service Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Additional Initiative partners include Rogue River Watershed Council, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, the Inter-Tribal Ecosystem Restoration Partnership, and others.
The Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) is a non-profit organization that advances bird and habitat conservation through science, education, and partnerships. Working in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the ranges of migratory birds, KBO emphasizes high-caliber science and the role of birds as indicators to inform and improve natural resource management. KBO also nurtures an environmental ethic through community outreach and education.
Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network is a collaborative regional partnership that works to conserve oak habitats on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. This presentation’s speaker was Jena Volpe, a KSON steering committee member and Fire Ecologist with the Medford BLM. She discussed the Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands Environmental Assessment (IVM-RL EA), which creates a toolbox for the BLM to increase the scope, scale, and pace of proactive treatments over a 10 year period.
The Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) is holding its second quarterly meeting of 2022 on Thursday, April 28th from 9-10:30 am. This collaborative regional partnership works to conserve oak habitats on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. Our speaker this month is Jena Volpe, a KSON steering committee member and Fire Ecologist with the Medford BLM. She will be discussing the Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands Environmental Assessment (IVM-RL EA), which creates a toolbox for the BLM to increase the scope, scale, and pace of proactive treatments over a 10 year period. Please email mlm@klamathbird.org for the Zoom link.
This collaborative regional partnership works to conserve oak habitats on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. This KSON quarterly meeting includes an introductory presentation on the partnership.
Oak ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest are highly biodiverse and host more than 300 vertebrate species; yet a significant proportion of historic oak ecosystems in the region have been lost, and most remaining habitat is in a degraded state. Songbirds that are closely associated with oak ecosystems have experienced concerning declines, which is one of the reasons why research and restoration in oak habitats are priorities in our region.
Klamath Bird Observatory has announced several new position openings. We are currently recruiting for field technicians for the upcoming 2018 field season, citizen scientist volunteers for a new Short-eared Owl survey project, and a meeting facilitator to work with the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network. Links to the position announcements on KBO’s website are below—where you with find details about the positions and instructions on how to apply.
KBO is seeking to fill two Field Technician positions in our bird monitoring and research program at several riparian restoration sites along the Trinity, Salmon, and possibly Klamath rivers in northern California—CLICK HERE to view this position announcement.
The cover article of Monday October 30, 2017 edition of the Medford Mail Tribune shines a spotlight on the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network’s recent $100,185 grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.
The article by the Mail Tribune’s Mark Freeman highlights both the plight of disappearing oak woodlands and the successes of restoration efforts. Klamath Bird Observatory Science Director Jaime Stephens explains the crucial need for oak woodland restoration and how KBO is using bird count data to measure restoration effectiveness.
The Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network is a partnership that includes KBO, The Nature Conservancy, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Lomakasti Restoration Project.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board has approved more than $300,000 in funding for three projects to protect and restore dwindling oak woodlands and prairies. The Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network, a collaborative regional partnership that includes Klamath Bird Observatory, will receive $100,185.
This work is important to Klamath Bird Observatory because many birds associated with oak habitats are in decline. For example, the Oak Titmouse which is common in our local oak woodlands has lost over 50% of its population over the last 44 years. This species, although a bit drab, is easily recognized by its tufted cap. It is a full time resident in oak woodlands, which from a conservation standpoint makes things easier. Unlike our migratory birds which require multiple habitats across several countries each year, this species is right here in our backyards! If we do good things for oaks we expect to have a positive affect for Oak Titmouse. We are monitoring birds at oak restoration sites to measure success of not only oaks themselves, but birds and other wildlife.
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