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illinois-valley-news.com
Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2011, 2 Sections, 12 Pages, Volume 73 No. 51 Published Weekly Cave Junction, Oregon 97523
Residents seek alternatives to spray
Inside :
History - Gold
found in 1851
Page A-3
Bird watching
with Harry
Page A-6
By Darcy Wallace
IVN Staff Writer
Some Valley residents hope to
stall plans by Perpetua Forests Co.
to spray herbicides over a 70-acre
plot of recently harvested forestlands
near McMullen Creek this month.
Community members met at
the Cave Junction county building
at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23
to inform more residents and to
brainstorm ways to halt the spraying
and possibly convince the company
to consider an alternative method.
Besides stopping the spray,
residents also want a public notification
system to make sure all Valley residents
are informed of planned sprays in
advance. Currently, residents near the
spray and those paying for Oregon
Dept. of Forestry (ODF) subscriptions
are the only ones who usually receive
notification from private landowners.
According to an ODF permit
application from the privately-owned
Perpetua Forests Co., the company
plans to spray one or a combination of
Atrazine, Hexazinone and Clopyrelid.
Perpetua president Jennifer Phillippi
said the company uses products that are
also used on agriculture land, and are
applied carefully enough that they could
be safer than homeowners who use
fertilizers without the same restrictions.
Current U.S. EPA regulations
control which chemicals can be used for
spraying, and the chemicals considered
by Perpetua have been approved by the
EPA with specific directions for use.
Continued on A-7
State champs
Page B-1
IVHS basketball
Page B-4
SMART
Page B-3
Students of the
month
Page A-8
Obituaries
Sudoku
Crossword
Classified
Blotter
A-6
A-3
B-4
B-2
A-5
A crowded house for the home playoff game against Chiloquin Friday Feb. 25.
Oregon Medical
Marijuana program
could face rollback
New bills introduced
by Oregon representatives
could have big impacts on
the current Medical Marijuana
Act that began in 1998.
One of these bills is
HB 2982, which would
deny those with prior felony
convictions of a controlled
substance to apply for a
medical marijuana card.
On Wednesday,
Feb. 23, a public
hearing was held
for HB 2982, which
reportedly would also
require background
checks on existing
cardholders. Medical
marijuana supporters
and Oregon Marijuana
Policy
Initiative
(OMPI) lobbyists
went to Salem
Wednesday to voice
disagreement with
the proposed bills.
O t h e r
bills in question
include HB 3093,
which
would
reduce the amount of
marijuana cardholders
can carry to one ounce,
and Senate Bill 646 to
give employers expanded
abilities to prevent medical
marijuana in the workplace.
OMPI
advocates
fear these bills will push
thousands of patients out of
programs and make it more
difficult for patients to get
doctor-approved
medical
marijuana cards for conditions
such as cancer or AIDS.
OMPI supporters also
believe these proposals will add
further cost and bureaucracy to
an already strained government.
OMPI estimated HB 2982
would cost about $7.5 million.
According to the news
release, other bills in question
would reduce the number of
plants patients can grow and
grant law enforcement more
access to patients’ homes.
Anthony Johnson,
OMPI constituent and
Oregon Green Free
director, said in
the news release
that many of the
proposals
(Courtesy Photo for IV News)
would
be
impossible
to
implement
and
create
expensive
new
bureaucracies at a time
when Oregon government
can
least
afford
it.
The news release
says OMPI is a relatively
new coalition that aims to
bring together various pro-
medical marijuana groups to
increase its political power.
Other
advocacy
groups such as NORML,
Pro-Oregon and Voter
Power
have
shown
support for medical
marijuana programs and
have been represented by
OMPI, the news release said.
Supporters of the
bills have said medical
marijuana has often been
abused and that the number
of
cardholders
increased
significantly
in the past
few years.
OMMP
statistics
reportedly
showed
3 8 , 2 6 9
cardholders
as
of
Jan.
1.
Other legislators
said in an article
from
the
Eugene
Register-Guard
that
they supported changes
in the medical marijuana
program, but that the current
bills might be going too far.
(Photo by Darcy Wallace, Illinois Valley News)
Deer Creek
structure fire listed
as suspicious
By Darcy Wallace
IVN Staff Writer
Illinois Valley Fire District officials are
saying a structure fire Sunday, Feb. 27, at a va-
cant Deer Creek home has suspicious origins.
According to recently retired fire
marshal Jerry Schaeffer, 17 firefighters
responded to the blaze that was first re-
ported as a garage fire. Once there, fire-
fighters discovered that the fire involved
the whole house. Neighbors had already
put out an earlier blaze in a workshop at
the site with a garden hose, but called 911
when another fire started at the same house.
Schaeffer said there have been ongoing
problems at the house. Just a few days before
the blaze, the house had been vandalized.
“Nobody was living in the house at the time
and it was under remodeling to be rented,” Schaef-
fer said. “The windows were broken out [after
the blaze] and there was a lot of damage inside.”
Because of prior vandalism and
two smaller fires at the same location,
the fire is listed as suspicious, though
no clear suspects have been identified.
Schaeffer said the fire originated un-
der the stairwell and that after a day of in-
vestigation, the case has been turned over to
Josephine County Sheriff’s Office officials.
Fire officials have found possible sus-
pects, but have not yet made contact with
them. Schaeffer and fire prevention officer Ka-
mron Ismaili said anyone with possible leads
or further information on the fire should call
the main office at IV Fire at 541-592-2225.
(Photo by Dale Sandberg, IVFD Media Dept)
Firefighters fight off a blaze in a vacant house in the 500 block of Deer Creek
Road Sunday, Feb. 27.
