Commissioners OK resource board seats
From our weekly issue dated July 28, 2010
A resolution appointing seven members to the Natural Resource Coordinating Committee (NRCC) was approved 3-0 by the Josephine County Board of Commissioners.
The board took the action during its Wednesday, July 21 weekly business session in Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
A petition to develop a coordinating plan originally was presented to the commissioners by the Southern Oregon Resource Alliance (SORA) last year. SORA, a nonprofit organization founded by Basker in the 1970s, is devoted to the utilization of natural resources.
The commissioners voted 3-0 on Nov. 24, 2009 to pass a resolution calling for a coordination plan. Such a plan would require federal and state agencies to coordinate their objectives for land within the county with those formulated at the local level.
Commissioner Dwight Ellis said that he was “a little bit skeptical“ of the concept until he conducted research and saw what other counties were able to accomplish through coordination.
Ellis said that he consulted with officials from Baker County and Modoc County in Northern California. Those jurisdictions have utilized coordination, Ellis said, and so have counties in Montana and Idaho. Josephine County neighbor Jackson County also is considering adopting a coordination policy, Ellis said.
Appointed to the county NRCC on July 21 were Geoff Garcia, Jack Swift, Paul Torrence, Lawrence Ford, Shane Jimerfield, Dan Delany and Joel King. All their terms will expire July 21, 2014.
Garcia, 59, is representing mining interests. According to county documents, Garcia is a geologist who works in Merlin and has lived in the county for 35 years. He previously served on a county mining advisory board.
Swift, 71, is an attorney who has lived in the county for eight years. He previously served on the county“s select subcommittee on the Western Oregon Plan Revision and currently serves on its Land Development Advisory Committee.
Torrence, a farmer who lives in Williams, is representing agricultural interests.
Ford has lived in the county for three years, and is representing timber interests. He has a bachelor“s degree in industrial management from Oregon Institute of Technology at Klamath Falls.
Jimerfield, 46, is representing environmental and conservation interests. He is executive director of the Siskiyou Project environmental organization.
Delany works at the Middle Rogue Watershed Council in Grants Pass. Throughout the years, he has served on committees for many conservation organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ormby Sportsmen“s Association and National Wildlife Federation.
Professional organizations that Delany has been involved with include the Wildlife Society and American Fisheries Society. He holds a bachelor“s degree in wildlife science, with a minor in riparian management, from Oregon State University (OSU) at Corvallis.
Delany spent 31 years working with the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) as a wildlife biologist, fish biologist and planner. Documents he submitted to the county state that he has “substantial“ training in silviculture, fire ecology, endangered species management and watershed science, and he is a certified wildlife biologist.
King, 57, of Grants Pass, has lived in the county for 25 years. He is a retired USFS district ranger and was a member of the Josephine County Stewardship Committee for three years.
In 1975, King earned a bachelor“s degree in forest management from Iowa State University. Three years later, he obtained a master“s degree in soil science from OSU.
King is filling the committee“s sole at-large position.
Ellis said that when he consulted with other counties about coordination plans, he was told that the committee must have representation from many different areas.
Two more members will be added to the committee soon, Ellis said. Don Eaton, who owns a real estate firm in Grants Pass, will represent business interests. Bryan Mein will represent tourism and recreation. He works for Caveman Travel Agency.
The committee is to hold its first meeting in August, Ellis said, at which point it will select a chairman and other officers.
During that meeting, Ellis said, he will show committee members samples of coordinating plans that have been drafted by the other counties which successfully have used the process.
“My hope is that the committee is going to write a natural resources plan for the county,“ Ellis said. “I think they“re going to do some good work.“
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