Community input

South Siskiyou Recreation Plan: Engagement Summary

 Thank you to everyone who joined our public workshops and took the online survey for our Sustainable Recreation Plan this May and June! We wrapped up Phase 1 of the planning process this summer. Between interviews, community workshops, and committee meetings, we chatted with about 400 of you in-person. Additionally, we got feedback from 163 of you through our online survey. Your input informed our vision for community recreation, project focus areas, and will be a crucial part of developing a list of priority projects to include in the plan.  

We are excited to share our draft recreation vision with all of you (below), as well as a summary of Phase I of engagement, which you can find by clicking this link. 

Another round of workshops and a survey to review the draft projects and these documents are planned for this winter! 

Draft Vision Statement:  

We envision a future of recreation in South Siskiyou County that is sustainable, accessible, collaborative, and fun! Through a focus on accessibility, we envision trailheads that everyone can get to whether by car, shuttle, bike, or foot, trails will be available for use year-round. South Siskiyou residents will have options for how to get there based on their needs.   

We envision access directly from town to recreation areas, promoting our recreation-based tourism economy and allowing visitors and locals alike to enjoy both small town amenities and nature. Through a focus on sustainability, we envision a future of recreation that is resilient and adaptable to the inevitable impacts of climate change including fire, drought, and diseases. Sustainability also implies long-term planning around care, maintenance, and stewardship. We envision long-term funding to achieve this future.   

Through a focus on collaboration, our recreation future will meet the needs of all users including both non-motorized and motorized, private and public landowners, city governments, and various recreation-based organizations in the area. Accessibility, sustainability, and collaboration will require ongoing work, and we envision a future where there is space for us all to work together.   

Through community workshops and the survey, we heard from all of you and other recreation users in the community about the strengths of their communities and the region, their favorite types of recreation, their experiences recreating and their ideas for future projects. Some of the key themes we heard were: 

  • Excitement around stewardship and volunteering  

  • Desire for consistent, year-round access to key recreation locations 

  • Maintain existing recreation rather than focus on building new 

  • Popularity of trail sports (hiking, running, biking, etc.), snow sports (skiing, snowboarding etc.) and other activities (hunting, fishing, camping) 

  • Desire for trails and bike lanes from town to trailheads, which was the top request in the survey:  

Help us get an idea if we’re on track reflecting what we’ve heard. Take this quick survey related to the draft vision statement and key themes (above).

Read the full Engagement Summary to see everything we heard, the full list of project ideas, and feedback shared by the South Siskiyou Community! 

Now that we’ve finished our first phase of engagement, we’ll need your continued partnership to keep the plan moving forward.  

Next steps for the project include: 

  • Getting input on the draft vision statement and finalizing it  

  • Working on trail or other bike route options for connecting Weed, Dunsmuir, Mt. Shasta, and McCloud.  

  • Economic benefits of recreation analysis 

  • Additional coordination with key partners, such as the Forest Service, recreation businesses, and local governments.  

  • Another round of workshops and a survey to review the draft projects and these documents are planned for this winter! 

Justi Hansen