The Cascade-Siskiyou Region is located at the junction of the Siskiyou Crest and the Southern Cascade Mountains. The region has been acknowledged for its rich biodiversity and as the unique transition zone between the Cascade Mountains, the Great Basin, the Oregon Interior Valley ecosystem, the mountains of California and the Siskiyou Mountains to the west. A large portion of the area has been protected as the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
KFA Field Offices
Two locations: Southern Oregon & Northern California
Klamath Forest Alliance has two separate field offices. Our Klamath Field Office focuses on the rugged Klamath Mountains in northwestern California, while our Siskiyou Field Office focuses on the Siskiyou Mountains in southwestern Oregon on the California-Oregon border.
Both offices work independently on projects within their focus regions, but coordinate our efforts when necessary and beneficial. Combined our activists have decades of experience defending wild places and advocating for conservation in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains.
California-Klamath Field Office and Focus Areas
The Klamath Field Office is located in Orleans, California at the heart of the Klamath Mountains and in the Mid-Klamath River Watershed. The Klamath Field Office is run by KFA Executive Director, Kimberly Baker with support from local activists, volunteers and rural residents.
California-Klamath Field Office focus areas:
Salmon River
The Salmon River is the wildest major tributary of the Mid-Klamath River and one of the most important conservation opportunities remaining in California.
Large portions of the Salmon River watershed are protected in the Marble Mountains Wilderness, Russian Wilderness and Trinity Alps Wilderness Areas. 98% of the watershed is publicly owned and large portions of this remote and exceptionally rugged watershed support roadless and wilderness habitats. The Salmon River also contains important fisheries including some of the last runs of spring Chinook in the Klamath River drainage.
Mid-Klamath River
The Mid-Klamath Watershed is one of the wildest landscapes remaining on the West Coast and Klamath Forest Alliance is working hard to keep it that way.
The Klamath River runs through a deep forested canyon, while many it’s headwater streams are located in vast wildlands both in and surrounding the Marble Mountains Wilderness, Siskiyou Wilderness, Trinity Alps Wilderness, and Red Buttes Wilderness Areas. The region is known for its intact streams, fisheries and wilderness landscapes. It is also the home to the Karuk and Yurok Tribes.
Scott River
The Scott River is a major tributary of the Klamath River. The Scott River drains large portions of the Trinity Alps Wilderness, Russian Wilderness and Marble Mountains Wilderness before pouring through the Scott Valley and down the rugged Scott River Canyon.
The Scott River historically contained significant runs of salmon and steelhead, but much of the fishery has been depleted due to logging, mining and grazing impacts, excessive water withdrawals, and the de-watering of streams.
Smith River
The Smith River is one of the crown jewels of the Wild and Scenic River system in the United States and for good reason.
The Smith River contains incredible fisheries, spectacular water clarity and is the last major undammed river in California. The Smith River National Recreation Area also sprawls across nearly the entire watershed and contains portions of the Siskiyou Wilderness. Currently efforts are under way to extend the National Recreation Area into the Oregon portions of the North Fork watershed including the vast South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area and Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area. The river contains some of the world’s most productive redwood forest, extensive mixed conifer forests and vast unspoiled serpentine barrens.
Oregon-Siskiyou Field Office
The Siskiyou Field Office is located in the Applegate Valley of southwestern Oregon and is run by Siskiyou Conservation Director, Luke Ruediger with support from local activists, volunteers and rural residents.
Oregon-Siskiyou Field Office focus areas:
Siskiyou Crest
The Siskiyou Crest is one of the most important connectivity corridors in the West and a significant hot spot for biodiversity. The Siskiyou Crest runs east to west, connecting the Cascade Mountains to the Coast Range of southern Oregon and northern California.
The region contains significant geologic and botanical diversity, the Siskiyou Wilderness, the Red Buttes Wilderness, numerous unprotected roadless areas and the region’s largest concentration of designated Botanical Areas.
The conservation values of the Siskiyou Crest are unparalleled, but much of the region remains unprotected. KFA is dedicated to the permanent protection of the Siskiyou Crest and its surrounding wildlands.
Applegate Valley & Foothills
The Applegate River tumbles down the north slope of the Siskiyou Crest and into the Applegate Valley of southwestern Oregon. Surrounding the valley are the arid and botanically unique Applegate Foothills.
The region is a unique transition zone with a wide diversity of habitat types and high conservation values. It also contains numerous low-elevation wildlands with important biologic, recreational and scenic values.
Wild Rivers Region
The Wild Rivers Region is defined by its extreme biodiversity, clear mountain streams, vast wilderness watersheds and unique serpentine ecology with many endemic plant species and ecosystems found no where else on the face of the earth.
The Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area and its surrounding roadless areas create a nearly 500,000 acre wildland at the heart of southwestern Oregon. The Kalmiopsis represents the largest unprotected wildland remaining on the West Coast and contains numerous wild rivers with important native fisheries. Rivers including the North Fork of the Smith River, the Winchuck River, Chetco River, Pistol River and Illinois River flow through vast serpentine barrens and remote wildlands between the Illinois River Valley and the Pacific Ocean. At the northern end of the region, is the mighty Rogue River, the Wild Rogue Wilderness and the adjacent Zane Grey Roadless Area.
