Applegater Summer 2017
19
OPINIONS
Behind the Green Door
Make America green again
BY CHRIS BRATT
The Sierra Club recently sent us (my
wife, Joan, and I are members) two
separate mailings. One was a “Certificate
of Appreciation,” which honored our “45
years of outstanding leadership preserving,
protecting and enjoying America’s great
outdoors, wildlands, and wildlife.” The
certificate reminded me that our family
has been on the right side of environmental
causes for ages, and that protection of
our precious natural resources continues
to require a long-term commitment
from concerned individuals, families,
and communities. It also reminded me
that future generations, including our
grandchildren, are relying on all of us
to leave them a healthy, peaceful, and
functioning world environment. A planet
that right now requires what a past Sierra
Club executive director called “CPR”
(conservation, protection, and restoration).
The second Sierra Club communication
was a call to action for their 2.7 million
members to defend our natural legacy
of public lands and waters. The message
outlined possible threats from the Trump
administration and Congress to our
amazing national and natural holdings
that include:
• More than 400 national parks, 560
national wildlife refuges, and nearly 250
million acres of other lands managed by
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
• 154 national forests (Rogue River-
Siskiyou National Forest and the BLM
Medford District manage 66 percent or
324,669 acres in the Applegate.)
• 873 federally recognized National
Conservation Areas encompassing almost
32 million acres.
• 129 national monuments, of which two
are in the Applegate’s backyard.
• 680 wilderness areas protecting over
106 million acres in 44 states, including
16,709 acres in the Red Buttes Wilderness
in the Applegate.
• National historic sites, battlefields,
recreation areas, national preserves,
memorials and more.
All Americans are the heirs to these
magnificent places, so let’s not allow private
economic interests to carve up our public
lands for profit.
If you want to ensure that future
generations will be able to enjoy them
as we do, become an active Applegate
stakeholder and volunteer for a local or
regional environmental organization.
Unsafe shooting on
Anderson Butte
BY NEAL ANDERSON
Anderson Butte is an increasingly popular
recreation area for hikers, equestrians,
bicyclists, hunters, motorcyclists, and
people just out for a scenic drive. Located
in the Little Applegate watershed, south
of Jacksonville and just west of Medford,
Anderson Butte totals 11,742 acres, most
of which is managed by the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM).
Generations of people have grown up
learning to shoot and hunt on Anderson
Butte, and it has been a remote escape
for many. However, as Medford and the
wildland-urban interface (WUI) have
expanded, Anderson Butte is no longer
secluded. Many homes now surround
Anderson Butte, and hundreds of people
are regularly out in the woods or on the
trails that crisscross the area.
When Anderson Butte was logged,
roads were constructed by cutting into the
ridges; landings for logging were created
by leveling land on the outside curves of
the roads. Now these areas are often used
for target shooting. The land drops away
from these staging areas, and bullets not
stopped by targets can go out into the trees
and land below.
What may look like unpopulated forest
often has a house or a trail only a few
hundred feet away. Today, 70 homes—
inhabited by people, their pets and
livestock—are situated within one-mile
radii of popular shooting sites. Bullets fired
from some of these landings have a range as
far as five miles, based on shells collected at
the sites. In January 2016, a bullet coming
from a popular shooting site on Anderson
Butte went through the door of a home
about a mile away.
That hasn’t been the only incident. The
complex of ridges and valleys of Anderson
Butte creates short sight lines, making it
challenging to see or hear where shooting
is coming from and trapping motorcyclists
and equestrians on public trails for fear of
being hit if they move.
Bullets from Anderson Butte target-
shooting sites have whizzed by hikers on
the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, hit trees on
OPINION PIECES AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Most frightening are President Donald
Trump’s executive orders, which negatively
affect social-justice issues and threaten to
end the government’s role in protecting the
environment. He has proposed cutting the
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)
budget by 31 percent and EPA jobs by 20
percent (3,200). He also wants to end EPA
programs and regulations that would help
reduce the effects of climate change (which
he believes is a hoax).
Another executive order requires a
review of the Antiquities Act of 1906 to
look for what Trump’s administration calls
“government overreach.” After this review,
it’s possible that our local Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument designation could be
removed or diminished, along with other
national monuments.
Further, the Trump administration
has inspired lawsuits by Oregon timber
companies and associated groups to
challenge the BLM’s failure to sell more
timber, which is what they believe is
called for in the Oregon and California
(O&C) Lands Act of 1937. Other timber-
industry lawsuits assert that the Cascade-
Siskiyou National Monument, managed
by the BLM, has improperly allowed
O&C lands to be
included within
Chris Bratt
its borders. This
new administration is gearing up to cut a
lot more timber by lowering protections
on a lot more local public land.
The Donald Trump presidency has
popularized anti-environmentalism
through its support for more conservative
family values, private-property rights,
and political self-determination for
rural communities. This has attracted
disgruntled people who are fearful of
their economic future and suspicious of
government, which has used these anxieties
to compromise environmental laws, ethics,
science, and public participation.
All concerned people, especially
environmentalists, must develop a smarter
approach to solving these economic and
social problems. We need to come up with
proposals to keep rural areas viable, create
local jobs, and organize these alienated
folks. In the meantime, we must face these
threats to a sustainable environment head-
on and continue to give America CPR,
making it green again.
Let me know if you’re on board.
Chris Bratt • 541-846-6988
private land while people were working
outside, and hit outbuildings.
Instead of shooting out into space
from those landings, some people have
shot at targets across or down the roads.
This illegal activity is dangerous for those
driving vehicles and their passengers,
especially since there are many blind curves
on those roads. Sometimes people have
shot across roads using the banks uphill of
those roads as backdrops; shooters may not
be aware that many trails for recreation are
above those banks.
A g ro u p o f p e o p l e , i n c l u d i n g
homeowners near Anderson Butte,
recreationists, and members of the
National Rifle Association, has contacted
the BLM, our elected representatives, and
the sheriff’s department about unsafe target
shooting on Anderson Butte. Recognizing
the danger, the BLM positioned concrete
barriers and posted signs to discourage
unsafe shooting. The BLM continues to
communicate to those participating in
recreational target shooting that firearms
must be discharged toward a backstop
sufficient to stop a bullet’s forward progress.
The BLM and the sheriff’s department
will increase patrols on Anderson Butte
to help curb unsafe shooting. These
efforts are not trying to curtail Second
Amendment rights, and no one wants to
limit the actions of those who follow safety
principles while enjoying public BLM
land. Most of those shooting from those
Anderson Butte sites simply don’t realize
how many people they are putting at risk.
Unsafe target shooting affects people
who enjoy recreation on Anderson Butte
and people who live nearby. We hope that
people going to Anderson Butte for target
practice will obey these basic gun-safety
rules:
Shoot only if you know what is beyond
your target and if you have a sizeable
backdrop that will catch any bullets
missing your target—otherwise, you are
putting other people at risk.
Don’t shoot across or down a road—
such shooting is illegal, and others use
these roads.
Some local organizations offer free gun-
safety courses. Shooters can also become
members of the Medford Rifle and Pistol
Club in Central Point or the Jackson
County Sports Park Shooting Complex in
White City, with one of the best shooting
ranges in southern Oregon.
Thank you.
Neal Anderson
(No relation to Anderson Butte)
ngeoanders83@wildblue.net
HIGH SCHOOL
REPORTER WANTED
Great experience and
volunteer opportunity!
The Applegater wants to include
information on Hidden Valley
High School (HVHS) activities,
events, sports, news, clubs., etc.,
in our quarterly newsmagazine.
Any budding journalists, English
majors, club members, parents,
or staff members interested in
representing HVHS for your
local paper? The next deadline for
articles is August 1.
If you’re willing and able,
email gater@applegater.org
by July 1.