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Citizens demand return of natural resources during Senator Merkley town hall

Citizens at the Senator Jeff Merkley town hall meeting today in Grants Pass made a resounding appeal to the senator for the return of natural resources in the county to the community.

Nearly a dozen citizens called for the return of resources such as timber, minerals and land to the citizens of Josephine County so these resources could be harvested and sold in lieu of federal O & C county payments.

Link Phillippi, president of Rough and Ready Lumber, said he has been closing the mill a week at a time due to lack of trees. “We’ve been in business 91 years and this year is the first year we’ve had to curtail our business due to a lack of logs. We shut down the mill a week in February, out of logs, a week in March, out of logs and we’re shutting down for a week this month.”

Merkley responded, “I’m very supportive of us getting to a solution to maintain sensitive lands and creating a sensible supply of the others. The pathway to the senate is going to be through the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.”

That statement is speaking directly to Senator Ron Wyden’s position as the head of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Drone project remains grounded

By Caitlin Conrad/KTVL.com

MEDFORD, Ore —  Police in the Rogue Valley don’t use drones yet, but if they did they would be nothing like the military unmanned crafts.  This week the U.S. government clarified that drones are legal for civilian law enforcement to use. Medford Police don’t want people to get worried about unmanned vehicles patrolling the streets.

Lt. Mike Budreau says it’s a controversial subject for the department, “there’s a bit of confusion between military drones and the drones that are currently in use, or would be in use by civilian law enforcement, ” Budreau said. He says there are several key differences between law enforcement drones and military ones. Defense Department drones can be controlled off site, but any drones officers use have to be operated within sight.
“So you could use them line of sight, which is, actually not that far, ” Budreau explained, limiting drone use to close quarter activity for civilians.
Right now it’s not on the wish for Medford, but Budreau says they could be useful. “Perhaps for getting an aerial shot of a certain location, whether it’s  a crime scene shot of a certain location, whether it’s a crime scene photo, or maybe a surveillance photo, He said.
Police drones would basically be mini helicopters with cameras attached. Giving officers a birds eye view, via a remote and a laptop hooked up to a  live feed.  As great as that sounds for now Budreau says the department doesn’t think it’s worth the resources, “It’s just doesn’t seem like the best use of money for us.”
In order to get a drone project up and off the ground police would have to get a permit from the Federal Aviation Administration, officers would need a pilots license and extensive training.

http://www.ktvl.com/shared/news/top-stories/stories/ktvl_vid_5130.shtml

Merkley: Oregon farmers short-changed | capitalpress.com

http://www.capitalpress.com/content/ml-Merkley-town-hall-011013-art

By MITCH LIES

Capital Press

January 10, 2013

KEIZER, Ore. — Oregon farmers got short-changed in the nine-month extension of the 2008 Farm Bill that Congress passed, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said.

But Oregon’s junior U.S. senator said he is confident the state’s farmers will fare better in the next farm bill, which he expects Congress to pass before the extension expires.

Merkley said last-minute negotiations to avoid tax increases and spending cuts associated with the so-called fiscal cliff led to passage of the make-shift farm bill.

“What happened is on the evening of Dec. 31, (Senate minority leader) Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.) stuffed his own personal farm bill into the (fiscal cliff) deal and it took out the investment in specialty crop research that was important to Oregon,” Merkley said. “It took out fairness for organic farmers …. and it took out the disaster assistance for the farmers and ranchers affected by the fires in Oregon and the drought across the nation, which I think is outrageous.

“When people suffer disaster, the program has to be there at that moment, not after they possibly have lost the farm eight months later,” he said.

Merkley’s comments came in a Jan. 9 interview with Capital Press.

“I feel Oregon agriculture got really short-changed,” he said.

“We (the Senate) had a (farm) bill that was worked in the agricultural committee, that had bipartisan support. It was an open amendment process on the floor. And all that work got tossed out at the last second.

“I think all the people who worked so hard on that are going to come back and insist on that being in place before this extension expires,” Merkley said.

Merkley was less optimistic about the chances of Congress passing comprehensive immigration reform over the next nine months.

“There has been a five- or six-year interlude in which the parties kind of stepped away from wrestling with immigration reform,” Merkley said. “And I think there is much more of a sense, as I listen to my Democratic colleagues, of taking on the complex pieces this year.

“But I also keep in mind that when I was in college in the 1970s, there was a lot of discussion of comprehensive immigration reform, and here we are 35 years later,” he said.

“There is a possibility, but I wouldn’t put high odds (on it),” Merkley said.

Addressing the U.S. Department of Labor’s use of the “hot goods” order on Oregon blueberry farms last summer, Merkley said he is “very concerned about the use of that on perishable goods.”

The DOL issued hot goods orders on three Oregon farms last summer in response to alleged labor law violations. The order is used to prevent goods allegedly produced in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act from entering retail and processing chains.

The three farms agreed to pay the DOL $210,000 in back wages and penalties to release their blueberry crops, before the farms were allowed to contest the allegations.

Merkley was among six members of Oregon’s seven-member congressional delegation to question the DOL’s use of the tactics.

“Certainly there has to be fairness to people who are working on farms, but there also has to be a recognition of the special circumstances of perishable goods,” he said.

“I hope that … the DOL and the farming community will avoid that situation downstream,” he said.

“I think it was very helpful for the delegation to weigh in,” he said.

“I guess this next summer will be the test,” Merkley said.

Asked during the town hall if he supports a proposal to transfer federal lands in Oregon to the state, Merkley said:

“I don’t know if transfer to the state is the right answer, but I know that much more flexibility is needed. Particularly in our forests, we are sitting here in a situation where we have a lose-lose.

“We have second growth forests, trees too close together, they are a fire hazard, they are a disease hazard, they are not a healthy ecosystem, and they are not supplying saw logs to the mills,” he said.

“And we have our last fragment of mill infrastructure, and we can’t afford to lose that,” Merkley said.

“I’m going to be working with Sen. (Ron) Wyden (D-Ore.). And I’m obviously very supportive of the governor’s process,” Merkley said.

Gov. John Kitzhaber last fall convened a group to develop a proposal that Oregon’s congressional delegation can bring to Congress to improve management of federal forests in the state.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –

Hundreds of legislative proposals are drafted (LC Draft) for Oregon State Agencies by the attorneys at Legislative Counsel each legislative session. This year, the Oregon Water Resources Department (Department) has asked for LC drafts on six or more legislative proposals. At least three of the concepts should be of significant interest to all those who use the waters of the state.

LC 657 proposes to establish Department authority to change the name on a water right certificate and to establish a fee to fully pay for that service.

The name on a water right certificate is usually the name of the person, or entity, that first claimed the water right, and that originally made the improvements required to receive the permanent certificate. It has long been understood that water rights appurtenant to the land are transferred to the new land owner when the land is sold. However, the name on the certificate is usually not changed when the land irrigated by that water right is purchased.

A recent Oregon Supreme Court decision suggests that the owner of the water right is the name of the person or entity on the certificate, rather than the owner of the land to which the water right is appurtenant.

The proposed change would allow current landowners to pay to secure the water right certificate appurtenant to their land in their own name. The LC draft is not entirely clear whether the Department would have authority to change the name on a certificate without being requested to do so, or what course the Department would take if the requested name change is contested.

The change would also better enable the Department to communicate with water right holders, to improve compliance with water measurement requirements, and to clarify where to send the bill for the Department’s proposed new tax on the use of water.
LC 659 would establish a water right management tax to be charged to each of Oregon’s 85,000 holders of Oregon water rights. The tax would apply to all agricultural, industrial, municipal and in stream water rights.

The Department expects that a significant number of privately owned water rights will be abandon by their holders rather than pay the new annual tax on water. The draft is not clear on who would pay the fee for Oregon’s myriad in-stream water rights.
This tax would extract about $12 million per biennium from Oregon water users. The revenue is to be used to generally support the Department’s activities.

The concept assumes that anyone holding a permit, certificate or decree would be subject to an annual fee of $100 per water right, with a cap of $1,000 for all but municipal customers. Apparently the tax cap would not apply to municipal water rights because municipal systems have a base of rate payers that allows them to pass the cost of the water tax on to their customers.

LC 661 would expand the current water right transaction fee-schedule and then make it permanent.

The draft language increases the current fee schedules by about 13 percent across the board. It also adds a couple of additional new fees “to bring consistency” to the overall fee schedule. The Department alleges that the double digit fee increase is needed to account for increased Department costs.

In the event that this bill does not pass, a sunset clause in the current fee schedule authorization would automatically cause the fees to revert back to the amounts charged by the Department in 2003.

The recent adoption of Oregon’s Integrated Water Resources Strategy has the potential to significantly increase the regulatory activities of the Water Resources Department. Many irrigators and legislators have wondered how the Department planned to fund those activities. The answer appears to be double-digit fee increases and a new perpetual tax on the use of the waters of the state.

Please remember, if we do not stand up for rural Oregon, no one will.

Best regards,

Doug

PNP comment: All we can say is “way to go and gett’er done!” — Editor Liz Bowen

http://www.bakercityherald.com/Local-News/County-backs-logging-plan

Written by Jayson Jacoby July 20, 2012 09:27 am

By Jayson Jacoby

jjacoby@bakercityherald.com

If environmental groups file suit to stop a proposed timber sale in eastern Baker County, they might have company in the courtroom.

But on the opposite side of the aisle.

“If that happens (a suit is filed), I personally want to be there when they make a case before a judge,” said Fred Warner Jr., chairman of the Baker County Board of Commissioners.

The potential legal intrigue has to do with the Snow Basin project on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

Forest officials announced this month that later this summer they intend to offer to mills the first of five proposed timber sales.

The Snow Basin project covers about 28,500 acres in the southern Wallowa Mountains.

The five timber sales could bring between 35 million board-feet and 50 million board-feet of timber to sawmills.

The Wallowa-Whitman hasn’t sold as much as 50 million board-feet in a single year for almost two decades.

Some environmental groups have criticized aspects of the project, in particular the Wallowa-Whitman’s plan to cut mature trees on 691 acres of old growth forest.

David Mildrexler, ecosystem conservation coordinator for the Hells Canyon Preservation Council, said last week that the group, based in La Grande, is “looking at our options,” one of which would be to challenge Snow Basin in court.

If that happens, Warner said, Baker County would seek intervenor status in the lawsuit.

Warner said the county, if granted intervenor status by a judge, would argue that delaying logging would harm the local economy, since the timber sale is projected to create jobs in the timber industry.

Karen Spencer, the county’s parks and recreation director, said the county also wants the Wallowa-Whitman to cut more trees infected with mistletoe, a parasitic plant.

“Snow Basin doesn’t call for enough cutting,” Spencer said.

That said, county officials would prefer the version of Snow Basin that the Wallowa-Whitman has proposed to a postponement, or cancellation, of the project altogether.

Nor is the county alone in vowing to support the Snow Basin project should it be legally challenged.

Arvid Andersen, a private forestry consultant from Baker City, said he too would seek intervenor status if opponents sue to prevent logging.

Andersen said that although he doesn’t think the Wallowa-Whitman is proposing to cut enough trees to reduce the risk of insect infestations, disease and fire in the Snow Basin forests, he credits forest officials with forging a balance between environmental groups and the timber industry.

“The Wallowa-Whitman did an outstanding job of trying to listen to all parties,” Andersen said. “It’s typical of the environmentalists to obstruct and try to trip up the Forest Service.”

Mildrexler said he believes those 691 disputed acres should be off-limits to logging so as to protect the older trees that certain species rely on.

But Andersen contends that the greater danger is from wildfires, and that fires would be more likely if those forests aren’t thinned.

He calls Snow Basin “a real win-win for the community and the forest ecosystem.”

Written by By Bill Rautenstrauch

The Observer

July 16, 2012 01:52 pm

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., made a stop  in La Grande Friday, meeting with citizens at a local restaurant and talking about his efforts to put more control of federal forests into local hands.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., made a stop  in La Grande Friday, meeting with citizens at a local restaurant and talking about his efforts to put more control of federal forests into local hands.

In a small business roundtable discussion, Walden (R-Hood River) talked about the Healthy Forest Management Act, legislation he is co-sponsoring that would increase state control over forest management in high fire risk areas to better protect and improve forest health.

The bill would allow states, in consultation with counties, to designate areas of high risk and develop emergency hazardous fuel reduction projects, including active timber management.

“We’re concentrating our efforts on forest management. The bill is passed out of the resource committee and it would require the Forest Service to more actively manage in trust with the state,” he said. “If we could get this into law, it would have a dramatic effect on communities and the economy.”

Walden said there is a need to manage forests in a way that reduces fuel loads while creating jobs. He said that currently, the federal government owns 60 percent of the forests in Oregon, but only provides 12 percent of the total harvest. He said the state appears to be doing a better job, with less.

“The state owns four percent of the forestland but is harvesting almost as much,” he said. “The bean counters can’t get their hands around the fact that the federal government is the only holder of timber that loses money,” he said.

Walden also spent some time talking about the need to reduce government regulations on businesses. He said he supports the REINS Act, a bill that would require congressional review of rules that would have an impact on the economy of $100 million or more.

“It would stop the rule writers from writing rules that put a stop on our economy,” he said.

Walden said he knows there must be regulations insuring clean water and air, but some rules are unreasonable and too burdensome on business owners. He cited unachievable rules that threaten a cement plant in Baker County, and others that could costs jobs at paper and pulp plants in Oregon.

He said that in recent times, more than 3,100 rules affecting business came out of the federal government. The proliferation causes hesitancy on the part of business people to invest in new projects.

“It creates an incredible amount of uncertainty in the markets. We’re saying, we need to use American resources, in a responsible way,” Walden said.

During a question and answer session following his opening remarks, Walden addressed issues including the death tax, the tax code, wildland fire attack aircraft, and more.

At one point, he touched on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Travel Plan that was withdrawn this spring in the face of public protest. He said he hopes the Forest Service takes local viewpoints to heart as the plan is re-written.

“The Forest Service pulled back, and that’s to their credit,” he said. “They need to start over and have an open process where people have the confidence they’re being heard.”

He had some criticism for the process the Forest Service used in crafting the original plan.

“I can’t think of a time when the Forest Service strayed so far from what the public wants and needs,” he said.

http://www.lagrandeobserver.com/News/Local-News/Walden-trying-to-break-timber-gridlock

PNP comment: This next season is expected to be a bumper crop. So it looks like this is a “set-up” to demand that this huge number of salmon must return each year or else the fear of “dropping” numbers will kick in more regulations. Chinook are doing just fine. Their numbers are high. They are abundant. A “new” management plan will just add bureaucracy layers. Oh, is that the plan? — Editor Liz Bowen

June 03, 2012

By Mark Freeman

Mail Tribune

State fish managers are crafting a management plan for the Rogue River’s fall chinook salmon to ensure that the basin’s most robust salmon run stays that way.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is taking comments on its draft plan that at first would create no changes in angling seasons, rules or catch limits in the Rogue. But it would set minimum standards that could trigger changes to protect the nearly all-wild run of the basin’s largest salmon.

If you go

Public meetings on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s draft management plan for fall chinook in the Rogue basin are scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Marie Hill Conference Room, 510 N.W. Fourth St., Grants Pass, and at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Council Chambers at Brookings City Hall, 898 Elk Drive, Brookings.

The plan will set benchmarks for a desired number of chinook and for a minimum level of returns that would trigger measures to conserve the run.

But the draft defines the run’s “desired status” as a running 10-year average of just under 58,000 chinook returning to the basin, according to the draft. The current 10-year average for the basin actually is more than 97,000 chinook and the run’s estimate has been below that desired status line only once — during the drought-ravaged run of 1991.

That’s far different than the basin’s Spring Chinook Management Plan, crafted last decade amid depressed runs. Those numbers triggered cutbacks in the quantity of wild spring chinook caught and kept by anglers.

Unlike the spring chinook plan, the fall chinook plan has been crafted not in the midst of a salmon crisis, but with averting one in mind.

“We’ll be setting some sideboards for conservation, but we’re nowhere near there,” says Todd Confer, the ODFW’s Gold Beach District fish biologist, who has worked on the plan.

“We’re doing this because we want to avoid conservation issues down the road.”

The picture is less rosy for the Chetco River and a handful of other Curry County rivers with fall chinook runs. They also are covered in the 176-page draft plan, but it focuses primarily on the Rogue.

Public meetings on the draft are scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Marie Hill Conference Room, 510 NW 4th St. in Grants Pass and at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Council Chambers of Brookings City Hall, 898 Elk Drive, Brookings.

The Rogue run of fall chinook begins in July and extends into December. They have ranged historically from small 2-year-old “jack” salmon to 6-year-olds weighing sometimes more than 70 pounds. Most river-bound chinook spawn in the mainstems of the Rogue, Applegate and Illinois, while lower Rogue fish tend to spawn largely in tributaries.

The only hatchery influence is a small facility on Indian Creek near Gold Beach and strays from other river systems.

An estimated 16 percent of the Rogue’s fall chinook population is caught at sea in sport and commercial fisheries, while in-river catches can shave another 10 to 15 percent off the run, Confer says.

Read it:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120603/NEWS/206030327

PNP comment: Wow, Fox News picked up the Josephine County budget cuts in public services. The most important part is the LAST paragraph. It is in red. — Editor Liz Bowen

Published May 30, 2012

Associated Press

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/30/ore-county-releasing-inmates-amid-budget-cuts/#ixzz1wWDfGOZT

Kitzhaber signs executive order to redefine some S. Oregon land uses | capitalpress.com

http://www.capitalpress.com/content/ml-land-use-052912

By MITCH LIES

Capital Press

May 29, 2012

Gov. John Kitzhaber has directed the state Department of Land Conservation and Development to work with three Southern Oregon counties on redefining farmland and forestland.

The executive order makes available $350,000 in grants for Jackson, Josephine and Douglas counties to study, map and petition the state Land Conservation and Development Commission to redefine land uses.

It also directs the department to work with the counties, providing they choose to participate.

The landmark order could lead to the first regional definition of farm and forestland in the nearly 40-year history of Oregon’s statewide land-use system, said Dave Hunnicutt, president of the property rights group Oregonians in Action.

“(The executive order) is a monumental order in Oregon land-use planning history,” Hunnicutt wrote on the organization’s website. “If successful, we will have the first new definition of agricultural land and forestland.”

Hunnicutt said hundreds of thousands of acres in Oregon are zoned for farm or forest uses, but can’t sustain profitable farm or forest operations.

Kitzhaber made a similar statement in his executive order.

“In some areas, lands currently planned for resource uses have little direct value to their owners for those uses,” Kitzhaber wrote.

The order stipulates lands rezoned for non-farm or non-forest uses won’t interfere with nearby farm or forest uses, won’t interfere with future urbanizations of nearby cities and won’t create unsustainable fiscal impacts on local governments and the state.

It calls on DLCD to provide a status report to the governor and the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2014.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –
please visit today.