Groups request more protection for 200,000 acres in Siskiyou County
From the air, the Medicine Lake Highlands in Siskiyou County appears as a vast expanse of mountains covered in forests of pine and fir. But what has groups such as Trout Unlimited, the Pit River Nation and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers of California eager to get federal protection for the area can’t be seen on the surface of the mountains or in the fields of volcanic rock. Underground lies an aquifer so large that it could hold the same amount of water as California’s largest 200 reservoirs combined, according to Trout Unlimited. That subsurface reservoir feeds a system of streams that are part of a valuable trout stream that extends south into Shasta County, the group says.