Located in southern Oregon and Northern California the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is roughly 113,500 acres. The Bureau of Land Management is updating the Resource Management Plan that will manage the future of the entirety of the monument and what is permitted where. Already within the monument lies the Soda Mountain Wilderness that is 24,707 acres. Wilderness designations are the most restrictive designations not allowing any type of mechanized use. The RMP is exploring options to create Research Natural Areas (RNA), Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and acreage not allowing off-highway vehicles. Submit a comment through July 5, 2024 letting the BLM know that access and recreation are crucial for this monument.
Alternative A: 1,229 acres designated as ACEC’s, 2,844 acres as RNA’s.
Alternative B: Designate 473 acres as ACEC’s and 3,968 acres as RNA’s. No lands are proposed to be managed for wilderness characteristics under Alternative B.
Alternative C: Two new ACEC’s at 368 acres, no RNA’s, and 8,393 acres managed for wilderness characteristics.
Alternative D: No ACEC’s, 8,393 acres managed for wilderness characteristics. Would limit motorized use to street legal only no exception for hunting or specific roads.
You can slide through the alternative maps below. Dark pink is closed to OHV use and blue is seasonally restricted areas for OHV use.
You can compare the alternatives below with Alt A being the first column, Alt. B the second, Alt C the third column and Alt. D the last column.
Alternatives A and C would have the greatest number of acres closed to motorized use in the monument. Alt C would consider cross country snowmobile usage per Proclamation 9564 within the Surveyor Mountain ERMA with sufficient snow depth of greater than 12 inches. This area would remain a limited area designation.
Typically we will get one alternative that is the most restrictive all around and one alternative is the most access friendly. You will find with the proposed alternatives that it’s a mixed bag of what is open, what is closed and varies on the proposed alternatives. Therefore with this plan, BRC does not recommend one specific alternative but parts of all alternatives should be selected for the final draft plan. BRC does not recommend any new ACEC’s, RNA’s or lands managed for wilderness characteristics. BRC also supports alternative B for the acreage closed to off-highway vehicles but Alternative D for the amount of acreage open to existing roads. Please ensure any of your own personal information in your comment at the beginning of the letter.
