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Roadless Areas

Roadless areas are the most pristine and wild places in the Little Applegate. Where roads are present, you will likely find development, cut-over forestland, alien weeds, and dumped trash. Since most of the Little Applegate watershed is laced with logging roads, it is important that the remaining wild areas are protected as refuges for biodiversity.

The largest roadless areas in the Little Applegate watershed deserve special protection as designated Wilderness areas. On Rogue River National Forest land, two areas, Red Mountain and Wagner Butte, are being recommended for Wilderness status by conservation groups like Headwaters.

On B.L.M. lands, the Dakubetede roadless areas should be protected as designated Wilderness. Two distinct units (north 6500 acres, south 1500 acres) are separated by a narrow dirt road and a few private in-holdings along the Little Applegate River. The north unit is accessed by the Sterling Ditch Trail system, the greatest concentration of hiking trails on the entire Medford B.L.M. District.

This popular hiking area is extremely diverse with several different ecosystems overlapping in a complex mosaic across the landscape. The south unit is wild and remote, with diverse forests (including old-growth) on the north slope providing the primary view from the Sterling Ditch trails. The south unit’s south slopes contain rare native grasslands and unusual plant associations.

The other B.L.M. roadless areas deserving protection include Buncom (the forested mountain across from the historic town), Crump (the undeveloped ridge from First Water Gulch to Grouse Creek), Little Lick Gulch, and Bald Mountain (contains remnants of the abandoned "Front Range" trail).

The Little Applegate    Dakubetede Wilderness    Roadless Areas

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