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You are here: Home Forests and Old Growth Roadless Wildlands A Look at Oregon's Roadless Wildlands Baker City Watershed - Marble Point Roadless Area
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Baker City Watershed - Marble Point Roadless Area

A look at the Baker City Watershed - Marble Point Roadless Area in Oregon's Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

Baker Watershed IRA picThe Baker City Watershed/Marble Point Roadless Area is located in the Baker Ranger District of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest (WWNF) in northeast Oregon. This 8,000 acre wildland includes pristine mid-high elevation old growth forests of ponderosa pine, western larch, Douglas fir and white fir .  The forests are home to Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer, bear, cougar, bobcat and coyote. At the 6,000-7,000 foot elevation are extensive sub-alpine ecosystems.

This roadless area is part of the spectacularly rugged Elkhorn Mountain Range and is adjacent to the 70,000 acre Elkhorn Range roadless area. Both areas are part of the proposed 250,000 acre roadless additions to the North Fork John Day River/Elkhorn wilderness. The area provides a critical wildlife connective corridor between the nearby Wilderness areas and National Forest lands to the south.

Several small streams drain this relatively moist forest and provide clean, cold water for native trout and pure drinking water for the 10,000+ residents of Baker City. The undeveloped watershed provides such high quality water that a multi-million dollar filtration system is not presently required. Watershed Analysis has shown that any new roads and logging would negatively impact drinking water quality.

At one point, the Baker City Watershed/Marble Point roadless area was threatened by a "Pilot Project", which proposed $950,000 of taxpayer funds be used to pay a company to log the inventoried roadless area and build 1.5 miles of new road in adjacent uninventoried roadless lands. Over 2 million board feet of virgin forest would have been logged in the roadless area.


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