Follow-up: Interim Protection Gained for Oregon Flower

It's not often I come back from vacation to good news on one of the areas we're trying to protect from ORV abuse, but today was one of those days.  Earlier this year, I blogged on the discovery of a new flower in southern Oregon and the on-going threat to the wildflower's habitat from motorized use and abuse of the area. 

Last Wednesday, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest issued a press release stating that it had closed the Signal Buttes area to motorized access in order to protect the habitat of that same newly discovered wildflower, Veva's Erigeron, from further destruction from motorized use.  Unfortunately, sources tell me that the area has suffered even more damage since my visit earlier this year.  Fingers crossed it's not too bad out there, and that restoration is possible of the damaged areas.

If you're interested in visiting Signal Buttes, our friends at Oregon Wild are sponsoring a hike in late June/early July, and you can find more information on their website.