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← Mission 16 · 54 North fuels and huckleberry
MTJP CORPS · MORE THAN JUST PARKS ·16
Mission 16 · Umatilla National Forest, OR

54 North fuels and huckleberry

Umatilla National Forest

The agency files it as “54 North Fuels Reduction and Huckleberry Restoration Project”

Timing

The agency stopped taking comments on September 25. What you find still counts: it backs the formal objections from people who did comment, it goes to the lawyers on the fight, and it is the story.

The sentence we think is wrong

“there is no record of milkweed necessary for reproduction in the project area”

The agency wrote that in its own document, under Invertebrates (Sensitive, Candidate, and Proposed Species). Nobody has been out to check it. A dated photograph either backs it up or ends it.

How you settle it

Walk the creek bottoms and wet meadow edges in the 54 North project area and look for milkweed. In September look for tall stalks with fat pods splitting open into white silk. A clear photo of milkweed plants or seed pods growing in a creek bottom inside the project area would undercut the claim that none is there.

The decision

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing the 54 North Fuels Reduction and Huckleberry Restoration Project on the North Fork John Day Ranger District of the Umatilla National Forest. The project aims to restore resilience in dry upland forests by protecting old trees, reducing surface fuels, reducing overall forest density, and shifting forest composition toward fire-tolerant species. It also includes

Read the whole thing, and write to the agency about it

How to record it so it counts

  1. 01Photograph any sign: tracks, scat, feathers, rubs, nests, dens, burrows, carcasses. Put something for scale beside it (a coin, a pole tip, your boot).
  2. 02Photograph the surroundings so the habitat shows.
  3. 03Note the time of day and the weather.
  4. 04Keep your distance from any animal. Never approach a nest or a den.
  5. 05Write down what you think it is and why. If you’re not sure, say so; a photo of unidentified sign is still sign.
What would count
  • Presence, not absence. Sign proves something is there; a quiet walk proves nothing.
  • Scale, time and habitat in the same set.
All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide
Are you going?

Say yes or no. It tells the next person whether anyone has this ground covered, and it is the only way we know a request was answered rather than just read. You can change your mind any time, and nobody follows up.

Join, then say you’re going

Nobody has answered yet

Before you go
  1. Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
  2. Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
  3. Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
  4. Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
  5. If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.