For future generations of all species, the Siskiyou Project
is the grassroots network dedicated to permanently protecting
the globally outstanding forests, botanical areas and wild salmon streams of the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area. The
Siskiyou Project combines science, education and advocacy
to build an inspired and effective local and national
constituency for this special place.
Organization Description
Siskiyou Project has been working to protect biodiversity in the
Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion of southwest Oregon and northwest California
since our incorporation in 1983. Based near the rural community of Cave Junction with an office in Grants Pass, our primary purpose is to gain permanent protection for the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area. We use environmental education, science, conservation advocacy, and economics as tactics to achieve our goals. In 1998 Siskiyou Project organized the first conference on Klamath-Siskiyou Ecology and founded the Siskiyou Field Institute (SFI), an ecological field studies program for all ages and educational levels. SFI has grown to become it's own organization and can be found by visiting www.thesfi.org. Our current campaigns include protecting Siskiyou Wild Rivers from logging, mining, increasing and lawless off-highway vehicle use and other threats such as the introduction of invasive species. Our main goal is to help promote and create the Siskiyou Wild River National Preserve. Please join us today, click here to learn more about becoming a member! Please join us today, click here to learn more about becoming a member!
Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area
The SISKIYOU WILD RIVERS AREA is one of the world's most botanically rich conifer forests. The region is renowned for its diversity of rare plants, many that exist nowhere else on earth. Containing the largest, unprotected wild area from the Olympics to Baja, the Siskiyou Wild Rivers is part of the larger Klamath-Siskiyou bio-region, which has been proposed as a World Heritage Site and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Five National Wild & Scenic Rivers with nationally outstanding water quality and nine more rivers eligible for protection give Siskiyou Wild Rivers it's name. Many of these rivers, home to endangered wild salmon, wind their way through the Kalmiopsis Wildlands - an ancient landscape of fire-sculpted forests and deep canyons. Please help Siskiyou Wild Rivers get the permanent protection it deserves. Learn more here.
People
With six full-time and one part-time staff, the Siskiyou Project relies on volunteer and member support to accomplish it's goals. Four of our staff members have been with us longer than five years. Our members receive action alerts, the color quarterly newsletter Voice of the Wild Siskiyou, email updates, and plenty of educational materials to go around. Many of our local and national supporters still remember Lou Gold's slideshows that inspired a generation to take action in support of our region. Our Grants Pass based Executive Director, Shane Jimerfield, inspired by Lou Gold's tireless advocacy, now leads the way in presenting the Siskiyou Wild Rivers slideshows to audiences across the west and lobbying officials in Washington D.C.
Partners
We work closely with many national and regional conservation groups. Our primary partners in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Campaign include the World Wildlife Fund, the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Wilderness Society, and American Lands Alliance. We also work collaboratively with local community organizations, business and community leaders.
Here are some testimonials from some of our
partners and collaborators:
"I would like to thank the Siskiyou Regional
Education Project for all the work they have done
to protect the beauty of the land and the homelands
of my people."
- Agnes "Tao-why-wee" Pilgrim, Last Surviving Elder
of the Takelma Indian Tribe
"I'm a long-time resident of the Illinois Valley,
and am currently a Board Director of the Illinois
Valley Community Response Team. Over the 25 years I
have lived in the valley, I have watched local
attitudes change with regard to the remarkable
landscape we live in, and I attribute much of this
change to Siskiyou Project. The Field Institute,
the public hikes each season, and, yes, the
fearless public advocacy to protect our rivers and
forests-Siskiyou Project has created the space for
ordinary people to claim the landscape we take for
granted here as a precious treasure. What a
different place this would be if not for that
organization!"
-
Shel Anderson, community activist and development
director, Grants Pass Boys and Girls Club
"Our group, the Friends of the Applegate Watershed
has been trying to stop a big aggregate mining
project that would tear up the river and send huge
amounts of road-damaging truck traffic through our
neighborhoods. Siskiyou Project ecologist Rich Nawa
has been helping us with environmental analysis and
speaking for us at the public hearings. Thank you,
Rich and the Siskiyou Project."
-
Jack Goldwasser, Friends of the Applegate
"The Siskiyou Regional Educational Project has a
vision for sustainability that is supported by a
capable community of people who are dedicated and
passionate about creating a better future."
-
Josephine County Commissioner Jim Brock
"The Siskiyou Project has been a very important
partner in our work to identify and protect
ecologically important riparian properties in
Southern Oregon. SREP has also done a great job of
working with landowners to finalize their
conservation easements."
-
Dan Kellogg, President Southern Oregon Land
Conservancy
"Siskiyou Project staff are the sort of tireless
advocates for a place that are absolutely essential
for success. Successfully defending a place under
current mining law requires enormous effort.
Siskiyou Project has shifted the whole debate on
mining in the Siskiyou Mountains. Before they got
involved, mining was always assumed to be the
preferred use of public land. Now, the protection
of wildlife and wild places comes first-as it
should."
-
Roger Flynn, Executive Director, Western Mining
Action Project
"The Siskiyou Project is one of the hardest
working, most effective groups I know of working to
protect wild rivers and fish in Southern Oregon."
-
Dave Strahan, Northwest Sportfishing Industry
Association
"Siskiyou Regional Education Project is a truly
effective grassroots advocate for the globally
significant Siskiyou Wild Rivers including the
Rogue, the Illinois, the Chetco and Rough & Ready
Creek. I've worked with their staff for many years
and they are top notch."
-
Kristen McDonald, Director, Wild & Scenic Rivers
Program, American Rivers
"The Siskiyou Project shares with the Native Plant
Society of Oregon a common mission of protecting
and restoring the outstanding biological diversity
of the Siskiyou ecoregion. The Siskiyou area
harbors an outstanding array of native habitats and
species, and because of their efforts, many of
these will be preserved for future generations. The
Siskiyou Project not only provides excellent public
education programs (such as the Siskiyou Field
Institute), but also works tirelessly with
management agencies as an advocate for the native
plants, animals and other species in the region."
-
Bruce Newhouse, President, Native Plant Society of
Oregon
"The Siskiyou Project is a leader in grass-roots
conservation, spearheading an effective campaign
last year that made protection of the Siskiyou Wild
Rivers among the state's chief environmental issues
that also received recognition from President
Clinton. The Siskiyou Project has a history of
effective campaign organizing through creative
proposals to protect the region's unique values.
They have been a most effective conservation
partner to WWF through efforts to link grass-roots
activism with coordinated actions of national
groups. Siskiyou Project campaign efforts have
consistently included well-thought out and
collaborative projects that take into consideration
local community interests and sustainable resource
use in conservation actions."
-
Dominick A. DellaSala, Director World Wildlife Fund
- Klamath-Siskiyou
"Mineral Policy Center relies on its local
grassroots partners to help lead the resistance to
the destructive 1872 Mining Law. The Siskiyou
region faces severe mining threats, yet, thanks to
excellent work by the Siskiyou Regional Education
Project, a great deal of progress has been made.
SREP is one of the best groups we work with."
-
Bonnie Gestring, Mineral Policy Center
"Thanks to our partnership with the Siskiyou
Regional Educational Project, together we were able
to achieve a great victory for the Wild Chetco
River and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness by buying out
2000 acres of patented mining claims and returning
them to public ownership, thus permanently
protecting nine river miles of the Wild Chetco."
-
Phil Wallin, President of River Network's Western
Rivers Conservancy
History and Accomplishment Highlights:
1991 The Siskiyou Project moved from a purely outreach
effort based on storyteller Lou Gold's slideshow tour
to add a strong advocacy program.
1994 Due to our efforts 100,000 acres of roadless forests
on the Siskiyou National Forest were added to the Late
Successional Reserve system of the Northwest Forest Plan.
1995
We convinced the Bureau of Land Management to protect
1,162 acres of unique Redrock Rainforest as an Area of
Critical Environmental Concern.
1997 We organized the successful First Conference on Siskiyou
Ecology attended by 300 scientists, students, land managers
and local citizens. The Siskiyou Field Institute grew
out of that conference with the mission of holding science-based
field courses on the unique ecology of the Klamath-Siskiyou
region.
1998 Working with the River Network, we helped secure Land
and Water Conservation Funds to buy out 2000 acres of
private inholdings and mining claims with nine miles of
river front on the Wild & Scenic Chetco River inside
the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. 1999 In conjunction with World
Wildlife Fund, we produced the Klamath-Siskiyou Conservation
Plan, a landscape level conservation biology assessment
by leading scientists Dr. Reed Noss and Dr. James R. Strittholt
of the Conservation Biology Institute. The first Siskiyou
Field Institute classes were held co-sponsored by Southern
Oregon University.
1999 We mobilized massive public input, which convinced
the US Forest Service to deny a large strip mine operation
(while allowing some test mining to prove economic viability)
in Rough & Ready Creek, the most botanically diverse
watershed in the State of Oregon.
2000
We launched the Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Monument
Campaign. As a result of the campaign, we were granted
a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in the Siskiyou
by the outgoing Clinton Administration. Through our Siskiyou
Field Institute, we organized an ecology conference with
over 300 people and offered 33 science based field courses
on the unique ecology of the area. We distributed about
20,000 Quarterly newsletters, 40,000 informative publications,
and 13,000 action alert emails. We sponsered almost 75
special educational events such as hikes, workshops, and
slide shows.
2001 We provided logistics and research assistance to Martha
Stewart's telivision show on the Siskiyou area that was
broadcast on national telivision. We gained 194 new members,
distributed about 16,500 newsletters, 6,000 action alerts,
and put on over 75 special educational events. In 2001
the Siskiyou Field Institute served more than 300 students
in science based courses exploring the unique ecology
of the region. We also hired a fulltime director for SFI
to expand its programs to three seasons to serve broad
sectors of the public. SREP worked cooperatively with
the BLM to protect rare plant habitats from off-road vehicle
damage. We performed a field survey of mining damage on
Siskiyou streams.
2002
The Siskiyou Projectopened a Portland office and
hired a campaign director for the Siskiyous Wild Rivers
protection campaign. The first Siskiyou Environmental
Film Festival was held in Ashland, OR! We submitted dozens
of coments on dozens of timber sales, some of which were
stopped, and won a lawsuit that ended a cougar killing
program.We responded to the Biscuit fire with monitoring
and reporting of the fire's progress to our members locally
and across the country.
2003 We distributed about 15,000 quarterly newsletters
and 10,108 action alerts. SREP collaborated with local,
regional and national conservation organizations to challenge
the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project proposed on the Siskiyou
National Forest. In working with these groups, we garnered
about 20 thousand public and written comments in response
to the draft Environmental Impact Statement. SREP held
the 2nd annual Siskiyou Environmental Film Festival in
Ashland on March 18-23 with 750 people attending. The
Siskiyou Field Institute convened the Second Conference
on Siskiyou Ecology to bring together 150 scientists,
educators, land managers, naturalists, and students to
present and discuss the latest findings. Over 500 participants,
including local youth and community members participated
in over 50 field courses, community meetings and other
events. In 2003, our Siskiyou Field Institute significantly
increased programs to include Elderhostel, Upward Bound,
Illinois Valley Youth Programs and Science Camps.
2004 In 2004 our conservation staff, members, and supporters mounted an all-out challenge to the Bush Administration’s plans to log in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area in the wake of the 2002 Biscuit Fire. Siskiyou Project lobbied in Washington DC and mobilized supporters to write letters and phone calls opposing a legislative rider advanced by Senator Gordon Smith that would limit citizens’ access to the courts. We poured over thousands of pages of documents, researching concerns raised by scientists, writing extensive technical comments and coordinating with national and local groups on action alerts. When the dust settled the Forest Service had received 23,000 plus letters from far and wide on its extreme proposal to log the Biscuit Fire Area, ninety-five percent opposed the Bush Administration’s extreme logging proposal. Outreach efforts included 36 slideshow presentations by Campaign Director Rolf Skar, to audiences in Oregon, Washington, and California, 12,000 newsletters distributed to members and the public, 2,645 action alerts mailed to members, 30,000 action alerts emailed to supporters,
recieved nearly two million hits to our website, hosted 700 participants at the 3rd Annual Siskiyou Environmental Film Festiva, and 4,000 informational brochures and action alerts distributed to the public. Monitoring of Biscuit logging units exposed problems with the proposed logging and, as a result, protection of riparian areas was improved. News coverage on Biscuit logging impacts included stories in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, National Public Radio, High Country News, Oregonian, Medford Mail Tribune, Grants Pass Courier, and the Eugene Register Guard. There were also numerous stories on the Medford and Portland TV stations.
History Summary We have a strong history of accomplishment. In 1994,
due to our efforts 100,000 acres of roadless forests on
the Siskiyou National Forest were added to the Late Successional
Reserve system of the Northwest Forest Plan. In 1995 we
convinced the Bureau of Land Management to protect 1,162
acres of unique Redrock Rainforest as an Area of Critical
Environmental Concern. In 1997 we organized the successful
First Conference on Siskiyou Ecology attended by 300 scientists,
students, land managers and local citizens, and launched
the Siskiyou Field Institute program. Working with the
River Network, in 1998 we helped secure Land and Water
Conservation Funds to buy out 2000 acres of private inholdings
and mining claims with nine miles of river front on the
Wild & Scenic Chetco River inside the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.
In 1999, in conjunction with World Wildlife Fund, we produced
the Klamath-Siskiyou Conservation Plan, a landscape level
conservation biology assessment by leading scientists
Dr. Reed Noss and Dr. James R. Strittholt. In 2000, we
launched the Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Monument Campaign.
As a result of the campaign, we were granted a two-year
moratorium on new mining claims in the Siskiyou by the
outgoing Clinton Administration. In 2001we provided
logistics and research assistance to Martha Stewart's
telivision show on the Siskiyou area that was broadcast
on national telivision, gained 194 new members, and presented
over 75 special educational events. In 2002 we opened
up a Portland office, hired a campaign director for the
Siskiyous Wild Rivers protection campaign, and the first
Siskiyou Environmental Film Festival was held in Ashland,
OR. In 2003, SREP held the 2nd annual Siskiyou Environmental
Film Festival in Ashland. In response to the Biscuit Fire
Recovery Project we collaborated with local, regional
and national conservation organizations to garner about
20 thousand public comments in response to the draft Environmental
Impact Statement.
The Siskiyou Project is a proud member of Earth Share of Oregon. Earth Share is a federation of America's leading non-profit environmental and conservation organizations, working to promote environmental education and charitable giving through workplace giving campaigns. Earth Share is an opportunity, a system, and an answer for environmentally conscious employees and workplaces to support dozens of environmental groups at once through a charitable giving drive. To learn how you can bring an Earth Share giving campaign to your workplace, or for more information, visit www.earthshare-oregon.org
The Siskiyou Project is a proud member of Earth Share of Oregon. Earth Share is a federation of America's leading non-profit environmental and conservation organizations, working to promote environmental education and charitable giving through workplace giving campaigns. Earth Share is an opportunity, a system, and an answer for environmentally conscious employees and workplaces to support dozens of environmental groups at once through a charitable giving drive. To learn how you can bring an Earth Share giving campaign to your workplace, or for more information, visit 