50¢
Who built the dam on the Illinois River? See page 8
Berry Fest
on weekend
offers many
attractions
Safe House
seeks grant
of $500,000
Illinois Valley Safe
House Alliance is connected
to a request for a $500,000
grant for a program to help
survivors of domestic vio-
lence and sexual assault and
their children.
The program will be
designed to provide trauma-
sensitive substance abuse
treatment.
“Women will no longer
have to choose between
safety and sobriety; they can
have both,” said Chris Mal-
lette, executive director of
the alliance.
The alliance and On-
Track Inc. wrote the two-
year proposal to the Edward
Byrne Memorial Trust. At
least four new living-wage
jobs would result, said
Mallette.
“It would bring together
domestic violence advocates
and substance abuse counsel-
ors,” she said, “to develop
services that are sensitive to
the effects of trauma
(domestic violence) and how
they relate to recovery.”
The program, she noted,
will provide victim survi-
vors with substance abuse
issues a full spectrum of
(Continued on page 3)
BLM gets big
earful from
protesters
By MICHELLE BINKER
IVN Staff Writer
“Does anybody want to
wear a tree?”
From an assemblage of
folks in front of the Jose-
phine County Bldg. in
Downtown Cave Junction,
Justin Rohde, network coor-
dinator for Siskiyou Re-
gional Education Project,
sought a volunteer to don a
leafy costume.
For an hour prior to an
informational meeting
Wednesday night, Aug. 2,
some 30 people demon-
strated.
They waved placards at
motorists and engaged pass-
ers-by and media represen-
tatives in discussion of their
concerns about
planned
commercial thinning and
other activities on low-
elevation forestland in Illi-
nois Valley managed by the
Bureau of Land Manage-
ment (BLM).
Upwards of 150 people
then crowded into the
county building to hear from
Abbie Jossie, Grants Pass
resource area field manager
for BLM. She was on hand
for the standing-room-only
meeting to provide an over-
view of the Anderson West
and Tennessee Lime land-
scape management projects.
During her 20-minute
presentation, Jossie ex-
plained BLM’s mandate to
manage for sustainable tim-
ber yield under the O&C
Act of 1937.
She also noted changes
in the project proposals.
They call for increased re-
maining canopy coverage
and reduced harvest; plus
highlighting fuels-reduction
work, 15 miles of proposed
trail development and the
alternative cooperative ef-
fort between the community
and BLM in the 500-acre
South Deer project area.
Afterward, Jossie
heard from the audience,
which included a number of
(Continued on page 7)
FIRE OF UNDETERMINED ORIGIN destroyed a two-story
Selma home with some 3,000 square feet of space at 8564
Upper Deer Creek Road Thursday, Aug. 3, reported at
10:01 p.m., said Illinois Valley Fire District (IVFD). Two
IVFD engines and four tenders pumped approximately
16,000 gallons of water in quelling the blaze. Some 22 IVFD
firefighters and support personnel were on-scene five
hours. The owner of the house was not immediately identi-
fied, and his location has not been officially verified, said
IVFD. An Oregon Dept. of Forestry engine extinguished a
small brush fire caused by the house fire. American Medi-
cal Response also responded. Extreme heat was reported,
as the dwelling was completely engulfed in flames when
firefighters arrived, said IVFD. The Oregon State Police
Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause. (Photo by
Dale & Elaine Sandberg/IVFD Media Dept.)
Biscuit Blackberry Sale sells for five times its appraised value
Silver Creek Timber
Co. successfully bid $1.67
million -- five times the ap-
praised value -- for the
Blackberry Salvage Sale
from the 2002 Biscuit Fire.
The company, based in
Josephine County, was
among four bidders Friday,
Aug. 4 in Medford. Silver
Creek also was high bidder
for the Mike’s Gulch Sal-
vage Sale.
Both sales will be
logged by helicopters. It is
believed that they are the
first to be sold in a national
forest since 2001 roadless
area logging prohibitions
were lessened by the Bush
administration during 2005.
For Blackberry, Silver
Creek will pay $213.05 per
thousand board-feet. The
damaged timber is in the
Gold Beach Ranger District
of the Rogue-River Siskiyou
National Forest, and con-
tains nearly 8 million board-
feet of timber.
Mike’s Gulch is in the
Illinois Valley Ranger Dis-
trict. Silver Creek voluntar-
ily agreed to withhold log-
ging there pending a ruling
on the roadless scene.
(See page 12)
Gov. Kulongoski is
seeking injunctions against
both projects. Testimony
will be accepted in Medford
on Wednesday, Aug. 16
from 6 to 8 p.m. in Medford
City Hall.
SWERVING TO AVOID A DEER, a southbound
semitruck hauling two empty wood chip trail-
ers spun and jack-knifed near Z Coffee on
Hwy. 199 at the north end of Cave Junction at
11:14 a.m. Monday, Aug. 7, said Illinois Valley
Fire District (IVFD). The driver, Kyler Mullican,
of Terrain Tamers in Roseburg, applied
brakes to avoid striking a deer, said IVFD. A
northbound 2006 Neon, driven by Cave Junc-
tion resident Janelle Wilson, struck the
semitruck’s fuel tank, IVFD said. The saddle
tanks held some 130 gallons of diesel fuel,
most of which was contained by IVFD and
ODOT. Wilson was taken by American Medi-
cal Response for reported minor injuries.
Traffic was rerouted for approximately 90
minutes. (Top photo by Dale & Elaine
Sandberg/IVFD; photo at right by Michelle
Binker of ‘Illinois Valley News’)
Fire danger
rises to red
Happy Camp Complex fires result in second-hand smoke here
Drift smoke from wild-
fires being fought by more
than 500 personnel in the
area of Happy Camp, Calif.
has come into Illinois Valley
and surrounding areas of the
Rogue Valley.
A contract helicopter
assigned to the Happy Camp
Complex wildfire crashed
into the Klamath River ap-
proximately 10 miles south
of Happy Camp Friday
night, Aug. 4. Two pilots
aboard the helicopter did not
survive the crash.
The complex is com-
prised of an initial 11 light-
ning-caused fires located
around the Happy Camp
and Oak Knoll Ranger dis-
tricts. The Northern Arizona
Silver anniversary set
in metro Cave Junction
“The Toyes make peo-
ple smile. This band will
rock your reggae soul from
top to bottom.” -- Bob Kel-
ler, KSEG-FM, Sacra-
mento.
Multipart harmony,
acoustic guitars and “lots of
percussion” will grace
Downtown Cave Junction
when Wild Blackberry Fes-
tival headliner, ‘The Toyes,
Unplugged’ take to the festi-
val stage.
The all-ages show is set
to begin at 4 p.m., Saturday,
Aug. 12 on the parking lot
of Caves Pharmacy. Admis-
sion is free.
Distilling 25 years
worth of songwriting into a
70-minute set is a challeng-
ing proposition.
“When you write songs,
they’re like your children,
you know?” said Mawg,
‘The Toyes’ singer/guitarist.
“So when you go to cre-
ate a set list, they all demand
to be included: ‘Me! Pick
me!’ We’ve got a nice selec-
tion of new material and
older tunes, which will have
folks happy and dancing.
“We don’t tour now as
often as we have. We do
about 10 to 15 choice shows
per year,” Mawg said. “It
will be fun to play in Down-
town CJ, to play for our
hometown crowd.”
Principal members of
‘The Toyes,’ Mawg and
B-dub, have made their
home in Illinois Valley since
1999, relocating from Med-
ford to provide woodland
habitat and a Dome School
education for their son.
“The Toyes’’ tunes,
catchy and danceable, often
deliver a lyrical punch.
As one review put it,
“(They) dissect our world,
and our politics, with surgi-
cal, and often brutally
funny precision.”
Also performing during
the Blackberry Festival this
year will be the “Southern
Oregon Blues Band” and the
“Hanson Brothers.”
(See special Blackberry
spread on pages 4 and 5
with the two-day schedule,
co-sponsored by Home
Valley Bank and Oregon
Caves Chevron, plus exclu-
sive festival offerings by
several other businesses).
Type 2 Incident Manage-
ment Team is managing the
complex, and nine of the
initial 11 fires were con-
firmed contained or con-
trolled. Firefighters were
working to contain the last
two remaining fires; the
Goff and Titus fires.
Together they com-
prised more than 6,000
acres. The Goff Fire was
100 percent contained dur-
ing the weekend, but three
new fires were ignited by
lightning Sunday afternoon.
The Potter Fire, found
Thursday, Aug. 3, is ap-
proximately 55 acres and
burning close to and within
the planned containment
area for the Titus Fire.
CJ Swimming Pool benefit -- See page 11. Second Friday Art Walk -- See page 20.
Blackberry Festival silver anniversary -- See pages 4, 5, 10, & 11.
The public use fire dan-
ger level on lands protected
by the Oregon Dept. of For-
estry’s (ODF) Southwestern
Oregon District climbed to
“extreme” (red) at 12:01
a.m. on Friday, Aug. 4.
The Industrial Fire Pre-
caution Level (IFPL) re-
mains at Level II (two).
Fire precaution levels
assigned by the S.W. Ore-
gon District, located in
Medford, affects state, pri-
vate, county and Bureau of
Land Management land in
Jackson and Josephine
counties. The district has
unit offices in Medford and
Grants Pass.
Continued hot, dry
weather throughout S.W.
Oregon has significantly
increased the probability
that wildfires could threaten
residential areas and forest-
(Continued on page 7)