More than 50 visitors and about 25 agency personnel turned out Wednesday afternoon at a rural school in the high country east of Ashland to gather information and voice concerns about the future management of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

The open-house style meeting in the gymnasium at the Pinehurst School on Highway 66 was among the first outreach efforts by monument personnel to solicit public opinion about what will eventually be an updated plan for how to manage activities on the monument. Other meetings are planned, including a July 10 online meeting.

The monument is located in an area roughly 20 miles by 20 miles that is generally east of Ashland and takes in the foothills, valleys and peaks of the nearby Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges. Within the monument is the Siskiyou Pass area southeast of Ashland, Grizzly Peak area northeast of the city and areas around Hyatt and Howard Prairie lakes. The Soda Mountain Wilderness is within the monument and about 30 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail crosses it.

A draft revised plan for managing the landscape and its resources is yet to be compiled. Efforts right now are focusing on what people see as issues. The current plan is 15 years old.

Concerns expressed by visitors Wednesday included wildfire risk, environmental protection, cattle grazing and even the scant notice about the meeting itself.

“When the fire happens, it’s going to travel up the canyon,” said Marilyn Stewart, who lives in the foothills area near Tyler Creek. “It’s not going to be pretty.”

“I’m fearful for my life. … It’s going to travel real fast in the canyon. Then it will be up here.”

Another visitor, Greensprings resident Juliet Grable, said she was there “just to learn.”

“I want to make sure the ecological values are protected and promoted,” she said. “I’m also concerned about possible fuels management in the WUI (wildland-urban interface).”

Fuels management can refer to brush clearing and tree thinning to lessen the danger of wildfire spread. Many private properties within the monument are adjacent to monument property, which is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Many property owners have already done fuels management, sometimes with government assistance, according to Grable.

“Behind us is all BLM,” she said. “We feel we’ve done our part. We’d like the BLM to step up.”

Joel Brumm, assistant manager of the monument, said environmentalists might challenge fuels management plans, as has happened elsewhere in southwest Oregon.

“What I really want is clear direction, so I have a clear pathway,” Brumm said, adding that he was seeking direction on a range of issues, not just fuels management. He mentioned planning for recreation, and asked if there should be more or fewer recreational activities, and what type.

“You’ve got to put it into writing,” Brumm urged those who wanted their voices heard. “It’s really important for people to send in those comments so they count.” A comment period ends Aug. 8.

Colette Streight, executive director of the Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, stayed for most of the three-hour meeting. She said her organization was assessing how it will formally comment, but she said that conservation, protection and restoration of monument lands was the group’s priority.

“One of the biggest issues right now is cattle grazing,” she said. “We’re concerned about the detrimental impacts of cattle grazing in sensitive riparian areas.”

She also said the Friends organization was concerned about fire danger and the need for forest thinning near homes and in previously logged tree plantations, where trees are located close together.

Dave Willis, chairman of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, attended a similar meeting in Klamath Falls Monday. He provided a written statement for this story.

“The plan revision is BLM’s opportunity to finally write a plan that implements the Monument Proclamations’ singular and legally required protection mandate,” Willis wrote. “The regionally critical Cascade-Siskiyou ‘land bridge’ is a still-threatened biological connectivity corridor with remarkable biodiversity. Both Monument Proclamations require BLM to protect the Monument’s native species, natural features and ecosystem processes.”

Another nearby resident, Jim Impara, said the meeting was informative and that agency personnel were attentive and patient.

“This is my neighborhood,” he said. “They’re very open, as best they can.”

“I’m kind of curious where it’s moving to.”

Brumm didn’t highlight any major changes that are afoot, but he did hand out a 41-page situation assessment report compiled by a consultant, The Langdon Group, which has met with key interested and potentially affected parties about the plan revision. BLM spokesman Kyle Sullivan said a past criticism was that “people felt excluded” from involvement in planning decisions.

Sullivan said the agency wants to hear about “what did we do right and what did we do wrong.”

One man pointed out that he received a notice from the BLM about the meetings just that day, and showed an envelope with a postmark of June 27. Sullivan said it took time to compile a list of property owners and that there was a time crunch related to when things get posted with little warning to the Federal Register.

Elizabeth Burghard, Medford District BLM manager, recorded 55 visitors to the Pinehurst meeting, while 19 visitors attended the Klamath Falls meeting and 27 visitors attended a meeting on Thursday in Medford.

“They care about the monument and their community,” Burghard said.

An online meeting is set for July 10. Register at bit.ly/3r58N9W. Once a draft plan is developed, additional meetings are to be held, possibly early next year.

Written comments can be submitted at bit.ly/3Nq2TYR, the project’s website. Mailed comments can be sent to Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Planning, 3040 Biddle Road, Medford, OR 97504. For additional information, call 458-246-8861.

According to a BLM announcement, “the plan update would protect important biological, historic and public resources, including the objects of scientific and historic interest identified in Presidential Proclamation 7318 and Presidential Proclamation 9564, which established and expanded the monument. The new plan will support resilient landscapes in order to enhance resistance to large-scale disturbances and reduce fire risk to important monument objects and nearby communities.”