Illinois Valley News

Approximately 60 people attended a “public gathering for the common good“ at the Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass on Friday evening, Aug. 13 regarding natural resource issues affecting Josephine County and its residents.

County Commissioner Sandi Cassanelli, who organized the event, discussed the Siskiyou Crest National Monument proposed by Ashland-based environmental group Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center.

The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors is opposed to the monument, Cassanelli said, adding that she is “dead set against this.“

Imposition of the monument would eliminate the ability of many groups to access public land, Cassanelli said, including miners, loggers and all-terrain vehicle riders. She said that it also will result in more regulations and restrictions.

“To me, this is a takeover,“ Cassanelli said.

Jim Frick, chairman of the Southern Oregon Resource Alliance (SORA), also addressed the crowd. SORA, a nonprofit organization founded by former commissioner Basker in the 1970s, advocates for timber, mining and agricultural interests.

Frick said that a campaign is under way to designate 60,000 acres of land from Rainie Falls to Blossom Bar along the Rogue River as Wild & Scenic. That area already has a 1-mile Wild & Scenic corridor, Frick said.

Josephine County has more than 1 million acres, Frick said. Of that, nearly a quarter is included in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. If the proposed Siskiyou Crest monument is created, he said, nearly half the county would become a monument.

The true agenda, Frick said, is for preservationist groups to control the watersheds of the Illinois and Applegate rivers.

“That“s what this is all about,“ Frick said.

Hal Anthony, from Southwest Oregon Mining Association, described the wilderness designations as “literally a land theft.“ He said that sustainable development is the “ultimate plan we“re up against here,“ and that these issues are 60 years in the making.

“We cannot remain silent anymore,“ Anthony said.

Anthony provided a history of the federal Antiquities Act of 1906, which could be used to create monuments. He accused federal lawmakers and environmental groups of “adulterating the intent of this bill.“

SORA Vice Chairman Jack Swift said that the monument designation would remove that federal land from the administrative responsibilities set forth in the 1937 O&C Act, which calls for sustainable timber yield. The land also would be removed from the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service, Swift said, which emphasizes multiple use of the land under its administrative policies.

Swift said that in the 1970s and “80s, timber revenue sharing between the federal and county governments was so lucrative that the county collected on property taxes.

After passage of the 1994 Northwest Forest Management Plan, the Association of O&C Counties and the American Forest Resource Council sued the Bureau of Land Management for not obeying the 1937 act, he said. That litigation went on for 10 years until a settlement agreement was reached, he said.

Under the settlement, a plan for the use of the land was required to be in place by Dec. 31, 2009, Swift said. The plan, known as the Western Oregon Plan Revision, was scrapped when President Obama took office.

Swift said that BLM currently is in breach of the settlement agreement, and that counties and organizations adversely affected by existing policies need to defend their rights in court.

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