A Science-Based Conservation Assessment for the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion

Executive Summary

May 1999

Introduction

The Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion of southwest Oregon and northwest California has long been recognized for its global biological significance and is considered an Area of Global Botanical Significance by the World Conservation Union, a global Centre of Plant Diversity, and has been proposed as a possible World Heritage Site. More recently, World Wildlife Fund US scored the Klamath-Siskiyou as one of their Global 200 sites reaffirming its global importance from the standpoint of biodiversity.

With its extraordinarily high biodiversity and physical heterogeneity, the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion warrants an ambitious conservation plan founded on scientifically defensible goals. The region is well suited to an approach that combines the three research and planning tracks of: (1) protection of special elements, such as rare species hotspots, old-growth forests, and critical watersheds for aquatic biota, (2) representation of all habitats, vegetation types, or species within certain "indicator" or "surrogate" taxa within a network of reserves, and (3) meeting the needs of particular focal species, especially those that are area-dependent or sensitive to human activities. This multi-faceted study is ongoing, with additional focal species studies and socioeconomic analyses forthcoming. In this paper, we report the results of the special elements and representation analyses and of research on one focal species, the Pacific fisher ( Martes pennanti pacifica ).

The Data

GIS (geographic information systems) was chosen as the principle tool used to assess the state of the environment in the Klamath-Siskiyou and to develop a reserve design proposal based on the three-tracks. GIS is a computer-based analytical mapping technology that is rapidly becoming the cornerstone for conservation planning at many different spatial scales.

The proposed work plan called for the analysis to be focused at the 1:100,000-map scale using the best available data. While the 1:100,000 remained our target planning scale, we incorporated larger scaled data (e.g., 1:24,000) wherever possible. Doing so allowed for much more meaningful and reliable analyses. One of the greatest challenges throughout this project was evaluating and integrating the various data layers acquired from numerous sources.

Conclusions

Our study indicated that the biological and ecological values of the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion can be enhanced by a conservation plan that integrates a broader set of conservation criteria than those considered in current management plans. Most strictly protected reserves in the region (e.g., wilderness areas) were established for scenic and recreational reasons and poorly represent the range of habitats available. The Northwest Forest Plan offered what appeared to be a modest improvement in conservation status, but its long term contribution to conservation remains unknown. Not only were the late successional reserves established under the Plan based on limited criteria, many of them do not appear to be of the highest value. For example, some contain little late-seral forest and are heavily fragmented. Furthermore, these "reserves" have been open to logging, even of old growth, and some are now being proposed for intensive development.

Some 80% of the public land in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion, or 50.5% of the entire ecoregion, would be protected under Phase I of our proposal. We arrived at these figures empirically, by evaluating and ranking specific sites for protection based on their biological values, without a preconceived, specific idea of how much land would need to be protected in the region. Not surprisingly, however, our proposal falls in line with estimates for other regions of how much land should be secured to meet conservation goals; most estimates fall in the range of 25-75%, averaging around 50 percent.

We furthermore recommend that public lands outside our proposed reserves be managed to maintain or enhance existing ecological values (e.g., with no logging of old growth or destruction of populations of imperiled species), while permitting sustainable resource extraction. We encourage the development of tax incentives and other positive measures to foster sustainable management of private lands.

Questions about specific management practices appropriate within reserves and in the surrounding matrix, not addressed in this phase of our research, deserve urgent attention. We do not envision protected areas as "hands-off" or "human-free" zones; rather, ecological management is generally essential in these areas. Even the entire network of proposed reserves across the region is arguably too small to manage itself with a natural disturbance regime. In the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion, a long period of restorative management, including obliterating and revegetating roadbeds, recontouring slopes, restoring streams and watersheds, controlling invasive exotic species, reintroducing extirpated species, and other practices will be necessary to redevelop natural conditions.

Our proposed conservation plan serves conservation goals far better than the Northwest Forest Plan, but like that plan, is limited by data availability, our understanding of the regional ecology, and by our ability to plan effectively at multiple spatial scales. For these reasons, the proposed plan should not be viewed as the definitive plan - perhaps it is best thought of as a beginning rather than an end product. To guarantee the protection of ecological integrity and biodiversity within the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion will take a sustained, long-term commitment to scientific inquiry, understanding the human and non-human components of the region, and an ecocentric vision.

For more information, please contact James Strittholt .