Thousands of years before white settlers seeking the Frontier built their cabins here, the people of the Klamath, Modoc, and Shasta tribes enjoyed the abundance and solitude granted them by a landscape like no other on Earth.
Soda Mountain rises in southern Oregon near the California border at the confluence of several distinct eco-regions. It is the hinge-point where the volcanic Cascade Range, ancient Klamath Mountains, towering Siskiyou Mountains, and the high desert basalt flows of eastern Oregon all converge to connect one of the most botanically diverse coniferous ecosystems in the world.
The area, which has been called a “botanical Noah’s Ark” is home to a spectacular variety of species of plants and animals whose survival in this region depends upon its continued ecological integrity. Thriving in this remarkable area are dozens of species of flowering plants that occur nowhere else on Earth. The diversity of plant life makes it a North American hot spot for butterfly populations—at last count more than 115 species. In the Klamath-Siskiyou eco-region, which funnels its genetic diversity through Soda Mountain, more than three-quarters of all known species of coniferous trees, including the last major tree species identified in the United States, are found. But to think of the landscape as a classic westside northwest forest would be a mistake.
The diversity of the landscape includes oak savannas, ponderosa pine parkland, sub-alpine meadows, fescue grasslands, and desert sagebrush, to name just a few. The area supports healthy populations of Roosevelt elk, cougars, black bears, golden and bald eagles, goshawks and falcons roaming and soaring its lands and skies. In all, more than 200 species of bird can be found perching in, and swooping around, the varied forests and grasslands.
In June 2000, the Clinton administration designated 53,000 acres of federal land in the area, including Soda Mountain, as the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, to protect this extraordinary biological reserve. That designation prevents mineral exploitation and most logging. However, livestock grazing and off-road vehicles still threaten the area.
To resolve some of these outstanding management issues, local conservation leader Dave Willis, head of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, began discussions with local ranchers. After more than four years of hard work, the group was able to reach agreement on a proposal to protect more than 23,000 backcountry acres of the most wild and botanically diverse monument lands as wilderness. The agreement would also compensate local ranchers with private funding to permanently retire public lands grazing privileges in the wilderness proposal, throughout the monument, and outside the monument boundaries, as well.
Their proposal is backed by Senators Gordon Smith (R) and Ron Wyden (D), as well as local elected officials, and has been approved by the Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Protecting the outstanding resource values of the Soda Mountain area and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument now awaits action by the full Senate.
