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Upper Rogue Oak Initiative in the Rogue Valley Times

Conifers encroach on an oak tree at Cascade Ranch near Lake Creek east of White City at a site slated for restoration as part of a project known as the Upper Rogue Oak Initiative. Several agencies and organizations are collaborating on a six-year, $13 million project to thin conifers and take other action to aid oak habitat and improve ecosystem health while reducing wildfire risk. Lomakatsi Restoration Project

On February 23rd, Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network was featured in the Rogue Valley Times. You can view the original article written by Shaun Hall here.

$13-million initiative seeks to restore 3,650 acres of oak habitat to aid ecosystem health, reduce wildfire risk

A $13-million effort to restore health to oak tree habitat in the Lake Creek area east of White City and near the Table Rocks north of Medford is in its second year.

So far, the thinning of conifers that were competing with oaks has taken place on about 200 acres near Lake Creek and on 100 acres near the Table Rocks. The community of Lake Creek is located about 12 miles east of White City, near the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

The work, known as the Upper Rogue Oak Initiative, is due to take place on 3,650 acres — nearly 6 square miles — of private and public land, all but 250 acres of it near Lake Creek. Partners include state and federal agencies, along with conservation organizations, functioning under an umbrella group known as the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Initiative.

The project is slated to take six years to complete.

An estimated 25% of historic oak habitat remains in the Pacific Northwest, according to Jaime Stephens, conservation director for the Ashland-based Klamath Bird Observatory, one of the project partners. The work is intended to restore degraded oak habitat, lessen wildfire danger and support wildlife, including birds whose populations are declining.

The work tasks include brush reduction and low-intensity ground fires, along with the reintroduction of native grasses and plants, in an effort to leave behind a landscape more resilient to fire, insects, disease and climate change.

“We’re looking to create a forest that would burn at low severity,” Stephens said Wednesday, after one of the project partners, the Lomakatsi Restoration Project of Ashland, posted updates about the work. Stephens said the project will benefit “wildlife and people.”

About half of the forest-dependent birds in the West are in decline, according to a news release from the observatory.

“This sobering statistic has sounded the alarm that landscape-level conservation actions are needed now more than ever,” according to the news release. “Restoration will remove conifers that are crowding oaks, use prescribed fire where feasible, reduce noxious weeds and reestablish a native understory.”

Indigenous people once used fire that benefited oaks, but the removal of those peoples, followed by encroaching farms, ranches and development and the advent of wildland fire suppression has led to conifers and non-native plants taking over some oak areas.

“Historically, regular burning as part of indigenous stewardship maintained cultural landscapes of oak conifer forests, woodlands and savanna in a more open state, enriching natural resources and biodiversity, and enhancing the structure and quality of critical food and fiber resources,” according to the observatory. “Following European settlement, many oak habitats were converted for agriculture or urban development. Decades of fire suppression during the latter half of the 1900s have allowed less fire-resistant yet faster-growing tree species, such as Douglas-fir, to encroach upon and displace oak trees.”

According to the organization, oak ecosystems support more than 300 vertebrate species.

Lomakatsi, an Ashland-based forest and watershed restoration organization, recently highlighted some of that work in a social media post.

“Restoration treatments will decrease the density of conifers and shrubs that have advanced from years of fire exclusion,” according to the organization. “Partners will also seed native species into treated areas, focused in the blackened footprints of burn piles to support the fresh growth of native plants and reduce the likelihood that non-native plants might establish and spread.”

The restoration work is expected to protect the oaks from unnaturally severe wildfires. Planned treatments include ecological thinning to reduce conifer encroachment and the density of surface and ladder fuels around large, legacy oak trees. That work sets the stage for the reintroduction of carefully applied low-intensity fire and controlled pile burns. Oak restoration also includes the removal of noxious weeds and seeding the understory to establish healthy populations of native forbs and grasses that provide habitat.

Funding for the work includes $7 million awarded two years ago from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board using Oregon Lottery revenue. It also includes $2.78 million from a U.S. Department of Agriculture program known as the America the Beautiful Challenge, plus $3 million in matching funds and donations.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is one of the partners. Oak habitat benefits birds, deer and elk, according to an agency statement.

“Oak habitat loss is a major threat to wildlife species in Oregon including Oak Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-throated Gray Warbler and game animals such as deer and elk,” the agency said in a November 2022 news release announcing the America the Beautiful funding.

Flock to these September KBO events

You are not going to want to miss this month’s events

Photo by Peter Thiemann

There is still time to sign up for the free hybrid Great Grey Owl talk by Harry Fuller. This is happening at the KBO office in Ashland on September 22nd at 6 p.m. and via Zoom. He will be selling his Great Grey Owl book and his most recent publication, Birding Harney County.

You can register here.

 

 


The last bird banding outing of the year is happening on September 28th. We will be traveling to the Upper Klamath to witness scientists in action. Fall migration is here, and you aren’t going to want to miss seeing these migrants up close and personal. This is great for bird lovers of all ages. Plus, your $75 donation helps support our intern program, which has hosted over 300 interns from around the world.

You can register here.

 


We are excited to welcome Wyatt Williams, Invasive Species Specialist with the Forest Health Unit of Oregon Department of Forestry, as the guest speaker for the KSON Quarterly meeting on September 21st from 1:00-2:30 (virtual).

Mediterranean oak borer, pest of oaks, arrives to Oregon — Mediterranean oak borer (MOB) is a tiny wood-boring ambrosia beetle that is a known pest of cork oak in Europe. Like other ambrosia beetles, MOB is a “fungus farmer” carrying various species of fungi from tree to tree, where it inoculates the wood in host trees and grows food for its developing larvae. Usually, ambrosia beetles are thought of as beneficial insects, as the decay fungi help break down and recycle large amounts of wood from fallen trees and branches. However, some fungal species turn out to be pathogenic to host trees, and in the case of MOB, one particular fungal associate, Raffaelea montetyii, is capable of killing some species of North American oaks. In 2018, an Oregon Department of Forestry insect trap picked up the first known MOB specimen in Oregon. Simultaneously in 2018, an unknown agent was killing hundreds of valley oak
(Quercus lobata) in central California. In 2019, the culprit was identified as MOB. Since 2019, researchers in California have verified in controlled experiments that the fungal species is capable of killing Oregon white oak. Since 2018, MOB has spread to three counties in California, killing thousands of valley oak. In Oregon, traps set by the Oregon Department of Agriculture confirms that the insect occurs in four counties of the Willamette Valley and earlier in 2023, the first infestation of Oregon white oak was observed at Sandy River Delta near Troutdale. State and federal agencies are on the lookout for additional infested trees. I will go over the signs and symptoms of MOB and its fungal associates, as well as introduce how to report oak trees to state authorities that are suspected of being attacked by MOB. The detection of MOB in Oregon, and indeed North America, is still relatively new, and we have a lot to learn. MOB could
develop into a major pest of Oregon white oak, or it could be another exotic species that will have moderate or low risk to oaks. We need more field data to assess the risk of MOB to Oregon white oak and other related species.

Zoom information follows:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83927418735?pwd=U1NaUUlYYkR1ZnVidmlXZlhmZnB6QT09


Cover photo, flock of least sandpipers, by Frank Lospalluto

A Decade of Collaborative Oak Restoration

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 in this region 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. The handout A Decade of Collaborative Oak Restoration demonstrates the power of collaboration and a decade-plus of successful oak habitat restoration from 2011-2023 with highlights from Table Rock and Colestin Valley projects.

A Decade of Collaborative Oak Restoration Highlights 2011-2023

 

A Decade of Collaborative Oak Restoration Highlights 2011-2023

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. 

KSON Oak Success Story PDF

Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network Ecological Monitoring Plan

Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network Ecological Monitoring Plan, The overarching goals of this monitoring plan are to work in partnership to acquire, curate, analyze, and distribute data needed to transparently evaluate performance toward achieving the outputs and outcomes identified in the KSON Strategic Action Plan (SAP). As part of the SAP, the partnership used a viability assessment framework to inform the selection of six Key Ecological Attributes (KEAs) and identified indicators to measure conditions for each target habitat.

This ecological monitoring plan includes three monitoring objectives:

1) Spatially track treatment planning and project implementation

2) Measure treatment-induced changes in Key Ecological Attributes

 

3) Measure landscape scale Ecological Outcomes

In combination, this monitoring will evaluate how effectively a restoration treatment shifts a given target habitat from its current to its desired condition. Results will also be examined at the project and landscape scale to measure progress toward improved health and increased target acreage where appropriate. Within each project, the best available science and ongoing monitoring results will be applied to adaptive management through regular implementation review.

Did you miss the KSON quarterly meeting?

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.

Click here to view the recording. 

 

Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network Quarterly Meeting April 28th

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.

Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network to Host Oak Woodland Restoration Field Day

<img class="size-full wp-image-2850" src="https://klamathbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Acorn-Woodpecker-c-2015-Livaudais-72dpi-3xX.jpg" alt="Acorn Woodpecker (c) 2015 Jim Livaudais" width="216" height="288" title=" Acorn Woodpecker
(c) 2015 Jim Livaudais” />

*** PRESS RELEASE — For Immediate Release ***

On June 27, 2015 the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) will host an Oak Woodland Restoration Field Day, designed to provide an opportunity for landowners and land managers to learn about oak restoration on their lands. This half-day event will be held at several properties in the Colestin Valley between Ashland and Yreka, where a large-scale private lands oak conservation partnership program has been underway for the past decade. A series of presentations by restoration professionals, agency managers, wildlife biologists, and private landowners will highlight current oak restoration and management approaches, the habitat value of oaks for birds and other native wildlife, and how landowners can access technical resources and funding for restoration.

The KSON partnership conserves oak habitats on private and public lands in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California. KSON partners include non-governmental organizations, local state and federal agencies, Native American tribes, and private citizens. The Oak Woodland Restoration Field Day represents an important part of KSON’S goal to promote oak conservation and restoration by providing opportunities for practitioners and community members to engage on issues affecting threatened oak habitats. KSON members from Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Klamath Bird Observatory, Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resource Conservation Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Forest Service will be present to offer their unique perspectives on oak restoration. This event will be an excellent opportunity for landowners and managers to meet others who share an interest in habitat conservation and restoration of oak savannas and woodlands, and to discuss the best ways to preserve these precious natural resources into the future.

The Field Day is free, but space is limited and registration is required. This event is planned for 8:30 am to 2:30 pm, and participants will need to provide their own lunch. For more information, including registration and carpool information from Ashland or Yreka, or for more information about KSON, please contact KSON Coordinator Kate Halstead at 541-201-0866 ext 7#, or at keh@klamathbird.org.

INFORMATION CONTACT:
Kate Halstead, Biologist & KSON Coordinator
Klamath Bird Observatory
keh@klamathbird.org
541-201-0866, ext 7#

Click here to view pdf of this press release.

Click here to view event flyer.

Click here to download print quality image of Acorn Woodpecker (c) 2015 Jim Livaudais.

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Klamath Bird Observatory’s Conservation Model

Klamath Bird Observatory’s collaborative conservation planning approach is fueled with results from partner-driven science programs. These science programs use birds as indicators of the healthy and resilient ecosystems on which we all depend. The science involves three coordinated aspects:

3 sceice tiers

  1. Long-term monitoring that provides information about broad-scaled changes in the condition of our world;
  2. More in-depth theoretical research about how natural and human influences affect our land, air, and water; and
  3. Applied ecology projects that directly address priority natural resource management challenges.

We bring results from our integrated science program to bear through an education and science delivery approach involving partner-driven engagement in conservation planning. With science, we are informing critical decisions being made today that will have lasting influences into the future.

Klamath Bird Observatory Science-based Conservation:
Local, Regional, and International

Klamath Bird Observatory’s award-winning conservation model is applied at local, regional, and international scales.

3 scales

  1. We developed our model locally in the ruggedly beautiful and wildlife-rich Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of northern California and southern Oregon where we maintain intensive science and conservation planning efforts.
  2. We now provide scientific resources and decision support across the Pacific Northwest region through the Avian Knowledge Northwest node of the Avian Knowledge Network.
  3. Our intensive professional education and international capacity building programs expand our influence into Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean where we actively support partners who are applying our model through a network of locally driven programs aimed at protecting birds throughout their breeding, migration, and wintering ranges.

Klamath Bird Observatory Conservation Model Applied:
Restoration for Oak Woodland Birds and Their Habitats

Our work to advance oak woodland conservation provides a classic example of this model in action. Our science provides:

  1. A clear sign that oak woodland bird populations are in decline;
  2. Information about their habitat needs and the possible influence of climate change on their health and distribution; and
  3. Results that tell us what kind of management actions benefit these species.

Armed with this information we identify conservation priorities and projects to benefit oak related species in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. We offer specific guidance for broad-scaled restoration of oak habitats in the Pacific Northwest. In northern California and southern Oregon we are partnering to design, fund, and evaluate specific restoration projects on public and private lands, ensuring on-the-ground benefits to birds. Our leadership in the Klamath-Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) cultivates partnerships that have resulted in over $6 million for on-the-ground restoration that is driven by our conservation planning approach. KSON oak conservation programs have been highlighted in the last two national State of the Birds reports and received the U.S. Department of Interior Partners in Conservation Award.

The Klamath Bird Observatory
Advancing bird and habitat conservation through
science, education, and partnerships