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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (May 22, 2015)
10 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2015 Local FAFA banquet CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Several members of the group Citizens for Balanced Use (CBU) also came to lend their support to the cause foremost in the minds of attendees: keeping roads open to the public on lands managed by the Forest Service. Grant is considered the nation’s top expert in co- ordination versus coopera- tion legal issues regarding federal entities such as the Environmental Protection Agency, United States For- est Service and Bureau of Land Management. Grant was former Idaho governor Cecil Andrus’ legal counsel “before he went on to Washington and became a liberal,” he joked. He was also counsel to his successor, John Evans. When former Oregon Senator Bob Packwood implemented coordina- tion as an option for local government entities in 1976, the law went widely unknown and wasn’t used until Grant did so in the 1990s. Since then, he said, every legal battle he’s fought to prevent road closures and the like—using coordina- tion—has been victorious. One state, Arizona, has a law in place that requires the coordination process, considering it a right of that state’s citizens. Leading up to Grant’s keynote speech, the emcee for the evening, member John George, introduced Rep. White first. White said the first time he was down in Baker City was in 2007. “If it wasn’t for you guys, your forests would be closed,” he said. “We lost 40-50% of our forests up in the Gallatin in 2008.” He also pointed to lost Montana water rights, which had recently been ceded back to the Federal government. “Elections matter,” he said firmly. “You put the right people in office to stand on the Constitution and the prin- ciples and the rule of law and the rights of the people to have a representative government—elections matter.” White talked about how CBU has come on board with Utah State Rep. Ken Ivory and the American Lands Council toward the transfer of public lands back to more local control. “I know it’s a contro- versial issue,” he said. He talked about the concerns that Oregon State may do a worse job managing lands than the Forest Service. “In eastern Oregon you worry that your voices don’t count out here, but in fact, they do. The environmen- talists have a lot of money, but they don’t have the people. Every phone call you make to your repre- sentatives represents 500 voices. Every letter you write represents 1,000 and they know that … Get en- gaged in your government, because if you don’t, we’re going to lose this country.” He said of the Obama administration, “They want our land and they want our water, and they’re going to do everything they can to get it. We have to stand strong against that.” Transfer of public lands is gaining traction, he said. White said the Forest Service is wasting billions of dollars managing public lands, making an estimated Grant, who took the 16 cents for every dollar it podium under a thunder- spends. He quoted Sena- ous round of applause. tor Mike Lee who said last He began, “That’s a better week, “The federal govern- introduction I’ve gotten in ment’s monopoly on land some places. Especially in the West is profoundly Washington D.C.!” unfair and grossly inef- He continued, “I know ficient. Not only does it what will work. We have deprive the state and local never lost a coordination governments of much- fight. Never in 20 years. needed tax revenue that We don’t have a forest could help provide better that’s not open where a goods and services but it county has used coordi- embroils local land use nation against the travel issues in endless bureau- management plans.” cratic red tape, stifling He pointed to a recent ex- economic development and ample in California where undermining all five “County governments sensible en- national hold the 10th vironmental forests Amendment in their protection.” were un- hands. County The der issued governments and Federal travel Land Action manage- sheriffs together make Group, a ment an absolutely legislative plans and impenetrable wall.” team to —Fred Kelly Grant roads work toward had been transfer closed. of public lands, was also Motorized vehicles were enacted last month. banned within 30 days. White also praised the Four counties hired recently passed House Grant to fight the forest Bill preventing the listing closures. Grant recounted of the sage-grouse and how he then called Tom demanding local consent Tidwell, the current Chief for travel management of the United States Forest restrictions, which was Service (USFS) and said championed by Congress- he’d like to solve the issue man Greg Walden and now without the expense of a goes to the U.S. Senate for lawsuit. the next vote. This bill will He recalled Tidwell halt the implementation asking him after a meeting of any travel management what coordination was and plan without the approval where he found it. “In your of the Baker County Com- rules,” he said. “It’s in your missioners. rules and your rules are “This is huge,” White based on the statutes. Con- concluded. gress orders you to do it, Ben Erickson of CBU and your predecessors have talked about the 10 years ordered that it be done.” of that group’s existence, Tidwell asked for Grant’s and how, as a 15-year-old papers on the matter, boy, the BLM threatened which he sent to him. to arrest him and his He then wrote a brief friends for dirt biking on and presented it to Tidwell, open public lands east of who set up a meeting with his hometown. The town the Regional Forester in stood up and backed the California who “spent 45 BLM down until after that minutes telling me how generation left for college great cooperating agencies and began lives elsewhere. were,” he said. When they returned, no Grant said he told him, one had picked up the “Look, let’s get to the bot- fight, and those lands had tom line. I know and you been closed. know that your director White and Erickson then told you you have to coor- called FAFA president Tork dinate. And that’s all we’re Ballard to the front of the going to accept.” room in order to pres- The USFS reopened ent him with a check for their travel management $2,500 for FAFA. plans, coordinating with George took the mic and every county in California encouraged the audience that wanted to coordinate. to stay informed about Today, those counties have the The Blue Mountain 75% of the roads open that Forest Plan Revision. He had once been guaranteed said he requested the draft to close, and they’re work- document for Subpart A in ing on opening the rest. September 2014, and has He expressed dismay that yet to receive it. “not a single other county Sheriff Glenn Palmer in California followed their encouraged Baker County lead. I don’t know what the to mirror Grant County’s hell it takes to get people ordinance, 2013-01, which to read the law.” gives the sheriff’s office Grant continued with his more leeway to stand alone list of war stories. from the County Commis- “We got the only pro- sioners in certain instances. grazing bill passed in “Why are we negotiating the past 15 years,” Grant and haggling over our right added to his list of success- to public lands?” he asked. es. He cited coordination Palmer announced that in that effort in Owyhee all three Grant County Initiative in Idaho. Commissioners had just “The BLM pretty much voted to opposed two follows the law now in planned Forest Service Owyhee County,” he said. projects in that county that “We’ve won 23 out of 23 would have closed roads. battles. The Forest Service “Grant County is one of though, doesn’t follow the the highest unemployed law. They disobey the law counties in Oregon,” he every day and so fortunate- said. “And it’ll come to ly we didn’t have to deal your county, too, if you with them.” keep letting them take it “We stopped the de- away.” struction of dams on the He emphasized strongly Klamath River through the need for counties to not coordination,” he said. be beholden to federal dol- He talked about how his lars, or fear loss of those group beat the Trans-Texas dollars if roads aren’t Corridor, the first phase in closed. “It’s blackmail,” the NAFTA superhighway. he said. He later pointed to a fight George then introduced against the Environmental Kerry McQuisten / The Baker County Press At left, Meb Dailey auctions off a heavy deep fryer held up by Tork Ballard and Kody Justus for the back of the room to see. Kerry McQuisten / The Baker County Press The banquet room at the Sunridge was packed with guests. 130 tickets were sold. Brian Addison / The Baker County Press Fred Kelly Grant, the Idaho attorney responsible for asserting the legal process of local coordination with the federal land management agencies, poses for a photo with his longtime friend Lt. Colonel (retired) Dale Potter from Enterprise. Protection Agency (EPA) in Wisconsin. After a pause he said, “You see the difference is this. County govern- ments have a very special place in American history. People didn’t trust state government. People didn’t trust the federal govern- ment. And people wanted government local at home where they could see the people they were talk- ing to, where they saw a county commissioner in the supermarket line or at church and they couldn’t escape. Go to Congress and try to find one of your representatives when he doesn’t want to be found. And when you do—so what?” “Fifteen cities elected the President of the United States. If everyone outside those cities had voted Republican, Barack Obama wouldn’t have been elected … In the last four elections those 15 elected the Presi- dent. Do you think they care about the forest being open?” he asked. “County governments hold the 10th Amendment in their hands,” he empha- sized. “County govern- ments and sheriffs together make an absolutely impen- etrable wall.” He cautioned Baker County. “I’ll tell you what the agencies will do and they will do it with Baker County. They will do it with every county that tries this. They’ll say, ‘Well, we don’t have to coor- dinate with you because this is outside the scope of coordination.’” He cited examples of why this statement was rarely true. “None of them will coordi- nate with you if the County doesn’t insist on it.” In Owyhee County, as another example, power lines were taken back off private land and put back onto BLM lands as part of a coordination effort, but at the Malheur County line, the power lines start right back on private land. He expressed frustration with having visited the Malheur County Court, the equiva- lent of Baker County’s Commissioners, 12 times about coordinating, to have it fall on deaf ears. “Private property will be taken in Malheur County because they won’t do what the law says they can do,” he said. He stressed that other counties in Oregon will now watch Baker County as an example, as are coun- ties in California to see if Baker County wins as they did. “And you will,” he said. Grant pointed out that in cases where counties won’t coordinate, smaller entities like school boards and ir- rigation districts within the counties are able to invoke coordination. “Well, I’m getting old,” he said. “It’s time others take on this fight. For a long time I was afraid that wasn’t going to happen.” He wanted guests to know that the “victories that happened over 20 years were not by accident. They were hard won.” Grant said he was given a pacemaker last month and told he needed to slow down. He said he is—by taking on the EPA. Grant concluded by re- minding the crowd that “a miracle occurred in Phila- delphia, an absolute, God- given miracle. How you could get together a group of men without any women there for common sense— a group of men who could come up with the Constitu- tion of the United States is beyond belief unless you believe that God had a hand in it—as they did. This is the only Republic in the history of the world that was ever created by men who believed that God had put them there for that purpose, to create a Republic … If somebody had told them that by 2015, there would be an agency of the national govern- ment that would be telling people they couldn’t go into the forest, they’d have packed their bags and gone home.” After the educational part of the evening came to a close, a live auction led by auctioneer Meb Dailey commenced. About 90 local individuals and busi- nesses donated door prizes and live auction items. FAFA raised $9,700 due to the dinner and auction, and has a membership of around 2,500 at present.