Rogers Creek Meadow Restoration Project

The Rogers Creek Meadow Restoration project’s focus was to improve the biodiversity and habitat of historic meadows, to reduce the risk and outcomes of catastrophic wildfires and to prepare these landscapes for the reintroduction of prescribed fire that has been suppressed over many years. Under this project, two private properties were selected, equaling 25.14 acres of treatment, that are adjacent to the restoration treatments being implemented in the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership (WKRP) project area and in the Orleans/Somes Bar Fire Safe Council’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

The project’s primary goals were to improve grazing and habitat for a multitude of endangered animal species such as elk, the northern spotted owl and the Pacific fisher by restoring historic meadow systems by the removal of mixed conifers’ encroachment on the periphery of these meadows. There was also a focus on using conifer release methods and thinning of hardwoods to restore these hardwood stands to their historic ecosystems, which in turn reduces the volume of available fuels that feed catastrophic wildfire events. 

What ties all these restoration objectives together is the ability to bring prescribed fire back to these landscapes as a tool to manage and revitalize these ecosystems and habitats, in turn protecting the human residences that live in these Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas.

Click through the slides below to see photos and learn more about this important project.