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Proposed no-logging buffers on streams could expand to Southern Oregon Tuesday Oct 25, 2016 at 4:26 PM Oct 25, 2016 at 4:33 PM Mark Freeman Mail Tribune @MTwriterFreeman A member of the Oregon Board of Forestry hopes Jackson and Josephine counties soon will see extension of streamside no-logging buffers on private and industrial timberlands similar to those now proposed for the rest of Western Oregon to keep salmon streams cool. Board member Cindy Deacon Williams of Medford tried last year to get the Siskiyou Region added to proposals for expanding riparian buffers from 40 feet to 60 feet on small salmon streams, but it was narrowly voted down because stream data from here was not part of the report used to support buffer expansion. The board will meet Nov. 2 in Ashland, and Williams said she will seek to have existing data mined to frame discussions of streamside buffer expansions here, where scores of streams within the Rogue River Basin already are deemed too warm for salmon's cold-water needs. "I'm hopeful in the coming year that it will be addressed," said Williams, a consulting fisheries biologist. "Frankly, I think it probably is something we ought also to look at for Eastern Oregon." Stacey Detwiler, conservation director for the Ashland-based group Rogue Riverkeeper, said she believes the Siskiyou Region, which remains under the old 40-foot buffer rules, should never have been exempt from the expansions, and she plans to lobby the board to add it — either immediately or under its own rulemaking. "Our real goal is to make sure in the next year they address this region in their work plan," Detwiler said. Lena Tucker, the Oregon Department of Forestry's interim division chief for its private forest program, said she expects a "robust discussion" Nov. 2 on where to look next in the ongoing buffer discussions. Consideration of the Siskiyou Region has resurfaced just as state foresters are launching eight open houses and public hearings throughout November and early December to gather comment on the proposed rules for Western Oregon. The closest of those meetings is Nov. 9 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Roseburg. The proposed rules impact Western Oregon private and industrial lands. Public lands have their own larger riparian setbacks meant to shade creeks, help filter sediment and otherwise improve water quality. The current recommendations were based on a report that collected water-quality monitoring largely in northwestern Oregon, and board members in November were reluctant to extrapolate that to Southern Oregon because of differences in the terrain and climate. That report did not include existing data at the state Department of Environmental Quality that lists several streams such as Bear Creek and many of its tributaries as too warm for salmon. "It's a matter of collecting the existing data," Williams said. "From my perspective, I think there is adequate information out there to proceed with statewide rule-making," Williams said. The Oregon Board of Forestry's meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at Ashland Hills Hotel & Suites. — Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.