Board considers monument stance
From our weekly issue dated February 24, 2010
The Josephine County Board of Commissioners may soon weigh in on the proposed Siskiyou Crest National Monument.
That monument would take in more than 600,000 acres, and include parts of Josephine and Jackson counties, as well as Del Norte and Siskiyou counties in Northern California.
It has been proposed by the Ashland-based Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. A statement on kswild.org said the monument is intended to “preserve the ecological and recreational centerpiece of the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion.“
The monument plan was brought before the Josephine County commissioners during their Wednesday, Feb. 17 weekly business session at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
During the portion of the meeting set aside for requests from citizens, Southern Oregon Resource Alliance (SORA) Vice Chairman Jack Swift stated that group“s opposition to the monument proposal.
Swift characterized SORA as a “civic group“ organized in 1976 by Basker, a former commissioner. He then presented the commissioners a petition to oppose the monument campaign, and noted that the Siskiyou County Board of Commissioners adopted a measure opposing the monument in August 2009.
Commissioner Sandi Cassanelli said that she would do “whatever I can“ to oppose the monument proposal.
Board Chairman Dwight Ellis later stated that he has met with officials from the Bureau of Land Management, Scott Conroy from the U.S. Forest Service, and Jackson County Commissioner C.W. Smith about the issue.
“They were all concerned about this,“ Ellis said.
Ellis thanked SORA for bringing the petition before the commissioners. It was slated to be voted on by the commissioners during their Tuesday, Feb. 23 administrative meeting at the courthouse in Grants Pass.
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