Inside:
Sparks fly at I.V.
airport meeting
Taking flight
Commissioners to
share airport
liaison duties
Page A-3
Mind your business
Entrepreneurial
center dedicated
Page A-4
Divine wine
Deer Creek
wins award
Page A-8
(Photo by IVFD Media Dept.)
Keep on Truckin’
On a Roll
IVHS football team
wins again
Page B-1
Kickin’ it
Lady Cougars rack
up first victory
James Eddy, a volunteer with the Illinois Valley Fire Dist.(IVFD), drives a
fire truck during a training exercise held Tuesday, Sept. 21 at the fire station in
Selma.
Similar exercises were held at the fire station in O’Brien and the district
headquarters on Caves Hwy., and focused on pump operations.
Exercises are held by IVFD every Tuesday. The next one is scheduled for
Oct. 5 at the district headquarters. The subject will be mask fit testing, taught by
Deputy Chief Jeff Gavlik.
Approximately 12 firefighters participated in the training exercise at the
Selma station, with five taking part at headquarters and six at the O’Brien sta-
tion.
Page B-1
K-S Wild, SREP defend the Siskiyou
Crest National Monument proposal
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Representatives from
two area environmental
groups promoted the pro-
posed Siskiyou Crest Na-
tional Monument, an expan-
sion of the Oregon Caves
National Monument and
efforts to add more protec-
tions to sections of the
Rogue River during a
Wednesday, Sept. 22 inter-
view.
Shane Jimerfield, ex-
ecutive director of the Siski-
you Regional Education
Project (SREP), said that
non-profit organization
started in the Illinois Valley
in 1983.
“It was formed by some
folks, mostly living in the
Takilma area,” Jimerfield
said. “And it was largely a
response to what they saw
happening on the public
lands around their homes
and in the valley and across
Southwest Oregon.”
Jimerfield said that
SREP’s mission is to edu-
cate the public about envi-
ronmental issues, work with
government agencies to en-
sure that projects on public
lands don’t result in harm
and protecting wildlife,
salmon, streams and old-
growth timber.
“Fairly new” to SREP,
Jimerfield said, is a commu-
nity forestry program aimed
at building the workforce in
the Illinois Valley to restore
areas that have been dam-
aged in the past.
As an example, he cited
a 10-year, 10,000 acre stew-
ardship program done in
cooperation with the Siski-
you National Forest and the
Ashland-based environ-
mental group Lomakatsi.
That has resulted in work
being done around Takilma,
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Continued contention
regarding a proposed pe-
rimeter fence and layout
plan dominated the discus-
sion during the Monday,
Sept. 27 meeting of the Illi-
nois Valley Airport Advi-
sory Board.
Josephine County Com-
missioners Sandi Cassanelli
and Dave Toler were pre-
sent at the meeting, which
was held at the airport. Cas-
sanelli, who has served as
liaison to the county’s two
airports, announced that a
vote had been taken to have
all three commissioners as
liaison.
Cassanelli left, stating
that she and Toler were in
violation of public meeting
laws by being at the same
place without notifying it as
a commissioner meeting.
Two of three commissioners
constitute a quorum.
Toler said the law only
applies if the commissioners
are discussing county busi-
ness, and added that he was
at the meeting to listen to
board members’ concerns.
Airport Manager Alex
Grossi gave an update on
the project to put a perime-
ter fence around the facility.
He said that Eugene-based
attorney David Atkin, attor-
ney for the non-profit Siski-
you Smokejumper Base
Museum, has submitted
comments regarding the
project to the Federal Avia-
tion Administration (FAA)
and the State Historic Pres-
ervation Office.
Roger Brandt, speaking
on behalf of the Smokejum-
per Base Museum, said that
Atkin’s correspondence is
part of an effort to seek
“construction resolution”
and a “positive direction”
for the fence project. Brandt
added that he is not trying to
scrap the fence project.
It is “unfortunate” that
all of these issues surround-
ing the fence came through
at the “11th hour,” Brandt
said, but “it’s something
that needs to be dealt with.”
“I’ve been working
hard to address these issues
as quick as I can,” Brandt
said.
Board member Kenny
Houck said that many of
those outstanding issues,
including the need for envi-
ronmental impact state-
ments, should have been
done a long time ago. Grossi
disagreed, and Gary Buck,
also from the Smokejumper
Base group, disagreed with
Grossi.
Houck said that the pro-
ject engineers and Grossi
should have been aware of
the issues.
There were also some
testy exchanges between
(Continued on Page A-6)
Monument opponents gather at the
County Building in downtown CJ
laborative models of for-
Jimerfield said, and projects
ance (SORA). Many atten-
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
estry management, such as
are being considered near
dees stood towards the back
IVN Staff Writer
stewardship programs aimed
the Oregon Caves and
Adamant opposition to
of the building, as there was
at removing small diameter
Hayes Hill.
the proposed million-acre
not adequate seating to ac-
wood and reducing fire
SREP is also working
Siskiyou Crest National
commodate them all.
risks.
on obtaining added protec-
Monument in Northern
Selma resident Bill
“That’s something
tions for the wild section of
California and Southern
Waggoner began the gather-
we’ve been spending a lot
the Rogue River, Jimerfield
Oregon drew around 100
ing with a prayer for the
more time on lately,” Vaile
said, and is working with
people to the county build-
nation and its people, at
said.
the Ashland-based Klamath-
ing in downtown Cave Junc-
which point Ron Smith ad-
Jimerfield stated that
Siskiyou Wildlands Center
tion on the evening of
dressed the crowd.
the “Save the Wild Rogue”
(K-S Wild) on that and a
Wednesday, Sept. 22.
Smith said that environ-
campaign would encompass
proposed expansion of the
The 68-minute meeting
mental organizations are
around 58,000 acres of land
Caves monument.
was organized by the Illi-
working non-stop to strip
and 100 miles of tributaries
K-S Wild Campaign
nois Valley chapter of the
Americans of their private
Coordinator Joseph Vaile
9/12
Project
and
the
South-
property rights.
(Continued on Page A-7)
said that group was founded
ern Oregon Resource Alli-
“These people want to
in 1997 by
control you,”
residents
in
Smith said.
the Applegate
In 2000, Smith
Valley
who
said, the 1.2
w e r e
mi l l i o n -a c re
“concerned
Wild
River
about
what
National
was happening
Monument
in their back-
was proposed.
yard.”
That plan in-
Vaile said
cluded large
that the South-
tracts of land
western Ore-
in
Southern
gon region is
Oregon, Smith
“i n c r ed ib l e”
said, and was
with regards to
ultimately
scuttled due to
its biological
local
resis-
diversity, and
tance.
has many rare
SORA Chair-
s p e c i e s ,
man Jim Frick
unique soils
said that or-
and different
ganization was
habitat types.
founded
in
There
are
1976 by then-
more conifer
Josephine
species of tree
County Com-
in the area
missioner
than anywhere
Anne
G.
else in North
Basker to ad-
America, he
vocate
for
added.
mining, timber
A top pri-
and agricul-
ority for K-S
tural interests.
Wild,
Vaile
(Photo by IVFD Media Dept.)
“We are los-
said, is to
ing that leg-
work
w i t h Pristine forests such as this continue to be in the middle of the ongoing debate
acy,”
Frick
“diverse stake- regarding the use of natural resources and public lands. The proposed Siskiyou
holders”
to Crest National Monument, which would encompass nearly a million acres in the said.
If established,
develop
col- region, has prompted strong reactions from people on both sides of the issue.
Frick said, the monument
would include around
40,000 acres of land cur-
rently in private ownership
in Northern California. He
added that it has “serious
implications” for the re-
gion’s economy.
Frick challenged sup-
porters of the monument to
produce a business plan or a
model that would demon-
strate its ability to make up
for the 3,000 family-wage
timber jobs that have been
lost over the years.
“Show me the money,”
he said.
Although logging oppo-
nents often state that low
demand is responsible for
the timber industry’s de-
cline, Frick said that is not
the case. He cited a conver-
sation he had recently with
Steve Swanson, following
the closure of the Glendale
lumber mill.
That mill has the capac-
ity to process one billion
board feet of timber annu-
ally, Frick said, but has been
limited to 230 million board
feet because of litigation.
During his 34 years of
selling real estate in Cave
Junction, Frick said that he
saw the area’s economy at
its peak when there were
multiple mills open at full
capacity. But now, he said,
there are vacancies all
throughout the town’s com-
mercial district.
Frick’s comments were
interrupted by a man in the
audience who shouted that
there is no more timber left
to cut. The man got into a
verbal confrontation with
another audience member
towards the back of the
room before leaving the
building.
(Continued on Page A-7)