Conserving Key Water and Wildlife Connections on the Siskiyou Crest MOUNTCREST WORKING FOREST CONSERVATION EASEMENT

Managed for wood, water, and wildlife for generations, the Mountcrest Working Forest has seen train robbers, surveyors, and U.S. Presidents in its 100-year history with the Parsons family. Mountcrest sits atop the Siskiyou Crest, just 8 miles south of Ashland, Oregon, bordering Cali- fornia. Myriad creatures live within Mountcrest’s 2,065 acres of verdant and diverse habitats. The Parsons are working with Paciﬁc Forest Trust to grant a working forest conservation easement— making sure this landscape always provides economic and ecological beneﬁts to the public.

Fresh, Clean Water for Fish, Wildlife... and Us! Mountcrest’s undisturbed springs, seeps, and ponds provide drinking and irrigation water for downstream homesteads, farms and communities. Its wet meadow, increasingly rare in the mountains, is a natural res- ervoir that soaks up winter rain and snow, and then meters it out to thirsty creeks over the dry summer months. The property is headwaters for ﬁve creeks, including Neil Creek, which ﬂows into the Rogue River Basin and hosts steelhead and cutthroat trout.

Diverse Habitats Help Wildlife Adapt Mountcrest Working Forest is part of the Klamath- Cascade—where ﬁve eco-regions converge to create one of seven areas of Global Botanical Signiﬁcance. It’s world-renowned for its animal and plant diversity. Mountcrest connects to the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument and the Rogue River National Forest, and straddles the crossroads of the Klamath, Siskiyous, and Cascades.

Years of careful management by the Parsons family have developed mixed-aged forests, with late-seral The Forests of Mountcrest provide water to Neil Creek, forest qualities, aspen stands, wet meadows, shrub Slide Creek, Wall Creek, Steinman Creek, Carter Creek, and ﬁelds, and riparian habitats. Ponds provide habitat for Cottonwood Creek, as well as other important waterways. red-legged frogs and Western pond turtles; Elk, black- tailed deer, and black bear can roam woodlands and meadows. Great gray owls and goshawks love the mix of habitats for hunting and nesting. MOUNTCREST WORKING FOREST CONSERVATION EASEMENT

Refuge for Northern Spotted Owls Conservation Mountcrest provides habitat for Mountcrest’s location makes it prime real estate for Easement northern spotted owls, species that need special habitats or room to roam. Terms Protect as well as goshawks, band Threatened northern spotted owls nest just over the a Heritage of tailed pigeons, olive-sided Stewardship flycatchers, mountain quail, border on the surrounding National Forest. Conserving pileated woodpeckers, Mountcrest’s complex, older forests helps achieve goals The Mountcrest and great gray owls. for the owl’s recovery, and also benefits species like the conservation easement Pacific fisher, who are known to traverse the property. will ensure this special property remains intact Whole and Complete and largely undeveloped. Protecting the legacy of the The Mountcrest Working Forest is the largest Parsons’ excellent stewardship, forestry at Mountcrest remaining non-industrial ownership in an area that will continue to enhance habitat and watershed values has seen properties increasingly subdivided. Most of for future generations. The easement terms call for the private forestland in the area has been chopped selective harvests to sustain uneven aged stands, and up into rural residential parcels already, and the retain rare and important habitat elements such as property’s proximity to Ashland makes it a particularly large old trees, standing dead trees, oaks, and aspens. tempting candidate for conversion. About 40 acres of forest will be managed for old growth qualities, and 40 acres of oak woodlands will World-Class Recreation & Vistas be maintained. 300 acres of meadow will be managed Flanking the scenic I-5 highway corridor, Mountcrest to enhance wetlands and riparian woodlands. Springs shows off Southern Oregon’s lush green forests up to and streams will have extra protections and roads Mount Ashland for the hundreds of thousands of drivers will be maintained to high standards to keep dirt from who pass by each year. A section of the Pacific Crest eroding into streams. Trail winds through the property, hosting thousands More information: of backpackers annually and supporting Ashland’s Connie Best, CoCEO tourism-focused economy. From the Siskiyou Crest on a cbest@pacificforest.org 415.561.0700 x 19 clear afternoon, you can look down on a sweeping vista of both California and Oregon woodlands.

THE PRESIDIO 1001-A O’Reilly Avenue San Francisco, CA 94129 www.PaciﬁcForest.org Mountcrest Working Forest Property Location

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