Wilderness Campaign

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• the headwaters of the Elk, Sixes and South Fork Coquille Rivers

• eighteen miles of streams used for spawning and rearing by Coho salmon and coastal cutthroat trout, both listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as well as Chinook salmon, steelhead, resident rainbow trout and lampreys

• critical habitat for spotted owls and marbled murrelets, both listed under the ESA

• one of the last large stands of old-growth Port-Orford-cedar that remains free of the deadly Phytophthora lateralis root disease

• a wildlife corridor extending from the Grassy Knob Wilderness near the coast to the Wild Rogue Wilderness, the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and south through the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion to the Yolla Bolly Wilderness

Portions of the Elk River are in the Federal Wild & Scenic River System and the Oregon Scenic Waterway System. The Grassy Knob Wilderness protects a portion of the watershed. The entire area is designated Tier 1 Key Watershed and Late-Successional Reserve in President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan.

UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better. It's not.

The Lorax

©Trygve Steen

• The Elk River's current protection under the President’s 1994 Northwest Forest Plan is vulnerable to changes in political climate. In 1995 Congress passed a Salvage Rider ordering clearcut logging and road construction in the North Fork.

• Wild and Scenic designation protects only a ½ mile river corridor. It does not protect the watershed.

• Although U.S. Forest Service management has replaced the concept of "clearcut" with "regeneration cut", a walk on-site reveals essentially the same devastated landscape.

"This area is very pristine… It’s very difficult to support anything but leaving it the way it is."

Bill Roberts,
Curry County Commissioner

Support. The CSW is supported by the local Curry County Board of Commissioners, City of Port Orford, and the Port Orford Watershed Council.

En Route To Congress. In 2000, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber asked Congress to designate the Copper Salmon Wilderness. A bill should be brought before Congress soon.