Pacific Rivers Council Joins The Wild Rogue Alliance

Wild Rogue Alliance

We are a coalition of conservation groups, whitewater rafters, anglers, kayakers, businesses, students, families and individuals working together to preserve the spectacular wildlands of the Lower Rogue River as a legacy for future generations.

Click here to view the Wild Rogue Alliance's 2011 organizational brochure, and visit their website to join today!

Rogue River, Oregon

The lower Rogue River is one of the most stunning watersheds in the United States. It provides freshwater habitat to enormous ocean-going salmon runs and possesses flora and fauna diversity unmatched anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. The lower Rogue was one of the original eight rivers to be designated as national treasures when Congress passed the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act in 1968. In 1970, by vote, the people of Oregon added the Rogue River to the state’s Scenic Waterways System.

Mary Scurlock, John Kober and Dave Moryc from American Rivers look out over the lovely Rogue River. January 2011. Photo by Chris Frissell

While portions of the roadless lands that surround the Rogue were protected in 1978 as the Wild Rogue Wilderness Area, much of this watershed remains unprotected today. With old-growth logging slated along key tributaries of this national treasure, now is the time to protect the rest of the Wild Rogue’s roadless lands and free-flowing tributary streams for this and future generations. The Wild Rogue Wilderness and Wild & Scenic Rogue River additions are located primarily in Josephine County, with small sections in Douglas and Curry County. The area sits entirely in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.

The integrity of the congressionally designated Wild & Scenic Rogue River is dependent upon a large expanse of wild country. The management corridor set forth by the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act only protects approximately a half-mile narrow band along the river. The wildlife a person sees while floating the Lower Rogue Wild & Scenic River or walking the Rogue River National Recreation Trail, the fish that rest in the cool water of numerous tributary streams, and the views and sense of solitude human visitors feel, are all dependent on the watershed being in tact.

Courtesy Oregon Wild

Location

The Wild Rogue Roadless Areas – Zane Grey, Whiskey Creek, Grave Creek, and Mule Creek unites – and important lower Rogue River tributaries are approximately 26 miles northwest of Grants Pass, Oregon. The roadless areas and free flowing streams, profiled in this report, border the Wild & Scenic Rogue Rive r for some 20 river-miles, from Grave Creek to the Rogue River Ranch near Marial.

Current Management

The Medford District of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers the Wild Rogue region.  The lands are primarily classified as Late-Successional Reserve and “Matrix” under the Northwest Forest Plan.  All streams are Riparian Reserves under the plan. The congressionally withdrawn Wild & Scenic designation is in the heart of the Wild Rogue.

The Wild & Scenic designation protects a half-mile corridor of the Rogue River proper from most harmful activities but leaves the uplands open to destructive logging, road construction and other impacts.

The roadless areas and associated Wild Rogue tributary streams do not have any substantive protections, and BLM has never conducted a proper inventory of its forested roadless areas.  The Kelsey, Whisky, Bunker, and Meadow Creek drainages were recently threatened by the Kelsey Whisky timber sales, which would have built roads and logged hundreds of acres of old-growth forest in the Zane Grey roadless area. 

Even more recently, these lands were threatened when the Bush II administration revised the BLM's management plans and removed protections for millions of acres of public forest in western Oregon. In 2008, the Obama administration withdrew those revisions citing they were legally indefensible. Yet, the management of BLM forests in western Oregon remains in question and likely will for many years to come, which is all the more reason to protect these Lower Rogue forests and feeder streams now.

Fisheries

The Rogue River is the largest producer of Pacific salmon in Oregon outside of the Columbia River with nearly 100,000 anadromous fish returning from the ocean each year. These massive salmon and steelhead runs provide the backbone for a sport and commercial fishing economy worth millions of dollars annually to the state of Oregon.

The lower Rogue River and associated tributaries provide ecologically valuable habitat for fish and other aquatic species.  Fall and spring chinook, coho and summer and winter steelhead utilize the proposed Wild & Scenic tributaries within the roadless areas for spawning, rearing and migration.  Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has determined that the tributaries proposed for Wild & Scenic designation are among the most important areas in the entire lower and middle Rogue River for spawning and rearing winter and summer steelhead and Coho salmon. Coho salmon is listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).  Summer steelhead, which are not listed under the ESA, utilize the middle Rogue are in decline.  About 20 species of game and non-game fish inhabit this area, including Pacific lamprey. 

Photo by Chris Frissell, PRC

The Watershed

The Wild Rogue watershed includes a number of streams, from short, seasonal creeks, to larger perennial streams.  The steepness of the Rogue canyon contributes to the many waterfalls on several of the smaller creeks. The tributary stream systems provide water that is much colder than the Rogue River and are vitally important for native fish that find refuge from the main stem’s warmer waters for the return to their natal streams to spawn.  These areas, known as thermal refugia, are particularly important for anadromous fish that arrive when river flows are lowest and water temperatures are high. This is especially true for summer steelhead.

The Solution:

Wilderness

Southwest Oregon's Rogue River flows through one of the most spectacular and biologically unique wildlands in the United States.  Right now, only part of the lower Rogue's watershed is protected, leaving a large adjacent roadless area open to commercial logging, mining, and road-building. With each timber sale and new road built, the roadless area shrinks in size, the valuable wildlife habitat is degraded, and recreational opportunities are lost. Now is the time to protect these roadless areas and free-flowing streams for this and future generations by expanding the incredible Wild Rogue Wilderness Area. 

Approximately 58,340 acres of the Wild Rogue area should be added to and managed as part of the existing Wild Rogue Wilderness and the coalition is working toward that goal.

Courtesy Oregon Wild

Wild & Scenic Rivers

In addition to the designated Wild and Scenic Rogue River, there are numerous suitable wild and scenic waterways in the Wild Rogue River canyon. All are tributary to the mighty Rogue and contribute important cold water to the mainstem that is critical for fish survival. As required by the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, these tributary streams have at least one outstandingly remarkable values, including fish (salmon and steelhead), recreation, scenic and/or historical. While each stream segment qualifies on its own as a potential unit of the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System, it recommended that all be comprehensively managed as part of the Lower Rogue Wild & Scenic River. The outstandingly remarkable values of the Lower Rogue (fish, recreation, historic, scenic, etc.) are dependent upon these tributary streams.

We propose to add 93 miles to the Wild and Scenic Rivers system.