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November 3, 2023
CENTRAL POINT, Ore. – The Jackson Cooperative Travel Management Area (TMA) is updated for 2023, and georeferenced PDF maps are available for download. It is important for hunters and other recreationists to be aware of these updates and check the map where they plan to access the TMA.
Two timber companies are no longer participating so those lands are not available to the public. These are the units to the East (Indian Creek and Crowfoot Road) and West (Canyon Creek, Boswell and Board Mountain) of Shady Cove. Silver Butte Timber Company is a new cooperator, adding land in the Butte Falls area and southern-most unit of the TMA. The southern section of the TMA, near Butte Falls, is a relatively contiguous aggregation of public and private land within or adjacent to the TMA.
The Jackson TMA is in effect Oct. 16 - Apr. 30 each year with seasonal road closures and "green dot" roads (arterial travel roads) open to travel by motor vehicle.
In recent years, some industrial timber lands have become more restrictive to public access. The newly revised Jackson TMA incorporates willing timber company lands and ties into public lands that have participated in the past. Currently, this includes 38,207 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. ODFW is working with its partners at the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service to incorporate additional public lands into the Jackson TMA for future years.
"We are fortunate to add Silver Butte Timber Company as a cooperator which adds more than 4,000 acres of private land to the TMA. Manulife Forest Management and Lone Rock Timber Investments are again on-board with this project, bringing the total private acreage open to hunt being 17,612 acres," says Mathew Vargas, District Wildlife Biologist for the Rogue Watershed.
In total, the Jackson Cooperative Travel Management Area encompasses 55,819 acres near the towns of Butte Falls, Shady Cove and Lost Creek Lake. Landowners are compensated for their participation in this program through ODFW's Access and Habitat fund.
The Jackson TMA first began in 1995 to help reduce damage to private timber company roads, siltation to streams, vandalism, timber theft, illegal garbage dumping, and to reduce disturbance to wintering black-tailed deer while allowing public access to these lands.
Black-tailed deer in southern Oregon are highly migratory and their winter range is at lower elevations where human development and disturbance affect the quantity and quality of wildlife habitat. Seasonal road closures also enhance the hunting experience for those who wish to walk closed road systems.
Paper maps will be available by the opening of the late archery season in the Rogue (Unit 30, Nov. 18 – Dec. 10) at the ODFW Central Point office (1495 E Gregory Rd.) and at sign kiosks at arterial roads that enter the TMA.
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