A Biological Crossroads

The Siskiyou Crest is exceedingly unusual among mountain ranges, with ridges that run west to east, while almost all other mountain systems in North America stretch north to south. This west-east orientation gives the Crest the qualities of a “Land Bridge” and offers one of the highest quality habitat corridors connecting wildlife between the Coast Ranges of California and Oregon with the massive cordilleras of the Cascade and
Sierra ranges.

The Crest is a fertile biological crossroads, supporting outstanding levels of biodiversity due in part to the intersection of many distinct and distant ecosystems overlapping in one dynamic landscape. The Crest simultaneously marks the northern edge of ranges for many species belonging to the California floristic province to the south, while defining the southern reach for many trees and animals from the wet conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest. Further, the Crest forms the eastern border for many coastal organisms at the same time it provides the western boundary of habitat for numerous desert species typical of the Great Basin ecosystem to the east.

The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was designated in the year 2000 at the eastern extreme of the Siskiyou Crest in recognition of the ecologically critical characteristics of the region.

With towering fir forests, sunlit oak groves, wildflower-strewn meadows, and steep canyons, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is an ecological wonder, with biological diversity unmatched in the Cascade Range. This rich enclave of natural resources is a biological crossroads-the interface of the Cascade, Klamath, and Siskiyou ecoregions, in an area of unique geology, biology, climate, and topography. The monument is home to a spectacular variety of rare and beautiful species of plants and animals, whose survival in this region depends upon its continued ecological integrity.
-- from the first paragraph of the presidential proclamation that established the CSNM

While a meaningful step in the right direction, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument protects only a small fraction of the Siskiyou Crest to the east of Interstate 5 where it joins the Cascade Range, and is wholly insufficient to preserve the larger ecological attributes that give the Crest its regional and national significance.

Dave Willis, Chairman of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, has worked for decades to gain protective status for this remarkable area and was a primary architect of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. When the Soda Mountain Wilderness was designated by Congress in 2009, the Mail Tribune quoted Willis and former US Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt calling for further protections:

"A major milestone like this wonderful wilderness bill is a long-sought step forward," he said. "But it's not the end of the protection trail here."
Noting it has been 25 years since Oregon had a major wilderness expansion, he said he would like to see the wilderness, as well as the monument, expanded.
"If the Soda Mountain area is the genetic loading dock to the Noah's Ark of globally significant Klamath-Siskiyou botanical diversity, isn't it odd that the little Soda Mountain loading dock has received a lot more proportional protection than the larger Klamath-Siskiyou ark itself?" he asked.
Back in Washington, D.C., Babbitt observed that it was a grassroots effort led by Willis and others that created the wilderness.
"Without them, this would have never happened," he said. "All the volunteer work from the local people dedicated to making it happen were the ones that accomplished this. Their citizen effort should be a message to us all.
"This should inspire us to look at the entire Klamath-Siskiyou ecosystem. There is still more to do."
-Medford Mail Tribune, ‘Saving the Wild’ March 29th, 2009

The Siskiyou Crest is important for a host of old-growth dependent species. Rare plants that need the shade of ancient forests, such as the clustered lady slipper, find refuge in the forests on the Crest. Rare forest dwellers, like the Pacific fisher and northern spotted owl – which require older forest habitat and large trees for nesting and denning – use the Siskiyou Crest’s forests for both their home ranges and as an important migration and dispersal corridor.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the Mt. Ashland Late Sucessional Reserve on the Siskiyou Crest is regionally important for wildlife migration and dispersal:

The Mt. Ashland LSR links the high elevation Siskiyou range of the Klamath Geological Province with the Southern Oregon Cascades. This link is a critical node in the overall migratory patterns of the Pacific Northwest. The maintenance of late-successional habitat within the Mt. Ashland LSR is important for maintaining species migration and dispersal.
- - 1994 Mt. Ashland LSR Assessment at 4 and 5, emphasis in original.



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