Ashland's watershed got the treatment; now it's Medford's turn.
A wildfire could be devastating to the watershed that serves a population center, so the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project started work years ago to make sure any fires in the city's watershed would not burn too hot.
Medford's watershed, around Big Butte Springs on the slopes of Mount McLoughlin, will get a similar treatment. The land is largely within the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, but the state of Oregon's Federal Forest Restoration Program just allocated $100,000 to the project.
Kyle Sullivan leads the Oregon program; he visits along with Eric Burke from the Rogue River-Siskiyou and Craig Harper from the Medford Water Commission.