Attention Oregon Climbers

[bunglehead]

Hey all you Oregon adventure climbers out there, there is a shit storm about to unleash in the Umpqua NF due to a misunderstanding between a USFS wildlife biologist and a couple of climbers that climbed a known Peregrine Falcon nesting site. Apparently the climbers approached the route, got no response, and so they climbed. The biologist is now saying that the chicks never fledged due to the disturbance caused by the climbers, even though their own data is incomplete and does not support this scenario. Now the Forest supervisor is mulling a January 1st-August 1st ban for the entire forest, even though most Peregrine Falcon chicks are gone by June. If you care about your freedom as a climber, please take the time to write the supervisor at the address below and express your concern. For some reason, this kind of thing tends to spill over to other districts, and Oregon land managers and climbers have a spotty relationship. If you can spare the time to write, it could make a big difference in the outcome.

Address your concerns to:

 

USDA-Forest Service

Umpqua National Forest

Forest Supervisor

Roseburg, OR 97470

jcaplan@fs.fed.us

 

If anybody needs more details, pm me and I'll provide what I can.

Thanks.

[erik]

what happend?

climbers climbed near a known nest? even tho they got no repsonse, i think they still need to use discretion. i dunno know tho...lets hear some more details.

 

[wayne]

I wa soloing Eagle rock a few years ago and found myself too near a nest. I then told the rangers about hem. As much as I hate closures , I am respectful of the residents and Eagle is a choss-piole anyways.

[bunglehead]

I think that most adventure climbers are respectful of nesting sites. This incident is bogus for several reasons. First of all The Forest Service's own data has never shown that Acker itself is a nesting site, only a roosting/chill out pad for the falcons. Seocndly, it very much appears to all involved in the incident that falcons were not around, and that if there were chicks, which is unkown as far as I can tell, they were not around either.