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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2011)
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, March 30, 2011 Spring hike planned along Rough and Ready Creek Illinois Valley residents Suzanne Vautier and Kathy Lombardo plan to lead a hike along the Rough and Ready Botanical Wayside at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 16. Vautier and Lombardo will help identify different flowers and other plant life during the hike. Part of the trail is wheelchair accessible for those with limited mobility. The fairly short hike will be geared towards those of all experience levels and is on rocky but mostly level ground. Those attending will meet in the Rough and Ready parking lot along Hwy 199 at milepost 34. The Native Plant Society and the Cultural and Ecological Enhancement Network (CEEN) are co-sponsoring the hike. For more information you can reach Vautier of CEEN at (541) 592-3939. Wyden town hall covers many topics Continued from A-1 Valley residents also brought up the potential expansion of the Oregon Caves National Monument, a controversial issue for years. Greg Walter asked for an update on the bill to expand the monument. Southern Ore. Resource Alliance chair Jim Frick worried that the proposed expansion of the monument under the Antiquities Act could affect about 1,500 private lands, though supporters said it only involved public lands. Earlier in the meeting, Wyden said he supported the bipartisan legislation, but also stressed that the bill must not go through without full consideration of public opinion. “I oppose any secret national monument designation,” Wyden said. “It has to be a public process.” Energy, taxes and veteran services were some of the other topics discussed during the town hall. Wyden said he wanted to reform taxes to remove tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, using the funds to cut taxes on companies that create jobs in the United States. The town hall began with formal recognition of Korean War veterans. Wyden said that he wants to make vet services more accessible for Southern Oregon residents, and that while he supports deficit reduction, one benefit he wouldn’t budge on was veteran healthcare. “Vet care in Oregon is really good, if you can get it,” Wyden said. “If we don’t [provide vet care], we’re breaking the social contract for those who serve…to have decent healthcare for themselves and their families.” Selmac spray rally and town hall meeting Continued from A-1 “It’s not us against them,” Moore said. “Everybody has their own view. I’m not going to make this political; it’s a people’s issue.” Area resident Waves Forest spoke at the rally and the town hall meeting. He doubted trees such as conifers needed herbicides to reduce competition by other weeds and seedlings. “Trees have been re- generating without poisons for a very long time,” Forest said. “I personally have planted thousands of trees and never had to reduce competition.” Forest guessed smaller companies such as Perpetua might be convinced from the dominant practice of using herbicides that no other alternative is good enough. “I’m hoping there’s going to be a willingness to consider other alternatives and take a fresher look at evidence of people who have actually been harmed unquestionably,” Two Albany men were rescued by a Josephine County Sheriff’s Office Deputy early in the morning on Sunday, March 27, near Kerby. Deputy Jason Stanton located the two men who were stranded at a mining claim out Forest Service Road 4105. The sheriff’s office said that Terry McCarthy and Timothy Holder, both of Albany, drove their vehicle down to the creek by the claim on Saturday and were unable to get back out due to the wet and muddy ground. Fortunately, McCarthy and Holder told their relatives and Kerby Motel AMERICAN LEGION #70 ALA UNIT #70 PRESENTS Saturday, April 2nd 5:00pm to 8:00pm Every Wed - Open Mic Night from 6-8pm with Jim Nolan HAM BINGO APRIL 2, 2011 COUNTY BUILDING GAMES AT 6 P.M. PRIZE: SPIRAL HAMS Forest said. Forest mentioned a worker with the job of spraying roadside herbicide who recently died of cancer. He also said Selma residents Orville and Mary Camp noticed a strange smell and later found out about a different clear cut that was treated with herbicide close to their property. Forest believes revised EPA Atrazine labels for conifer trees require a buffer zone of 400 feet from watersheds, should not be applied on highly porous soils and cannot be combined with other chemicals except as recommended by manufacturers. “There are websites of people concerned because of personal impacts, such as [someone] losing their organic farm because of spray drift,” Forest said. “When you add it all together, it looks like erring on the side of caution is a good idea until they figure out what’s going on.” Though Moore was pleased Precious Dirt could hold a town hall, she said she was discouraged by the lack of participation from county commissioners and by the reactions of other residents. “I was disappointed all three of the commissioners were not at the town hall,” Moore said. “It was an attempt to communicate; we only get three minute blurbs at morning [weekly business sessions].” Moore said the commissioners almost canceled the town hall because the other side of the debate would not be represented, as Perpetua representatives were unable to attend. “It feels like we’re up against these walls that we can’t penetrate,” Moore said. “The Valley is sick of hearing from us…they’ve lumped us into one group and given us a label, ‘Oh, it’s them again,’ and I’m fighting that. It’s everybody’s issue.” Bianco, one of the first to learn of the proposed spray, wrote letters to news outlets and attended weekly business sessions in Grants Pass to voice his concern to the commissioners. He told those at the rally he had “a lot of doubts” about the safety of chemicals. Another resident said he had many bees and bats on his property when he moved to the area some 40 years ago. Now, the bees are gone. He once found about 26 dead bats on the ground. Bianco and others believed a higher number of dead bats, killed by pesticides, could be picked up by scavengers such as foxes, meaning there could be correlation between pesticide use gradually leading to an increase in rabies cases. Though acknowledging there was no definitive proof, they implied the recent rise in rabies cases in Josephine County might not be a coincidence. Two men rescued in Kerby Community Events Calendar Dale Hopper Page A-7 Eastfork Friday, April 1st 5:30pm at Taylor’s Country Store To add an event to this calendar call 541-592-2541 It’s oNly $5! manager Mark Dowd where they were headed and what time they should be expected back. When they hadn’t returned at the specified time on Saturday night, Dowd first attempted to find the subjects in the Cave Junction area and then contacted the sheriff’s office, just after midnight. Sheriff’s deputies also checked the valley for the subjects’ vehicle and requested a “ping” of their cell phone to determine its most recent location. The phone was turned off, but family members were able to provide a detailed description of where the subjects were headed. Deputy Stanton utilized his four- wheel drive vehicle to search for the subjects in the area of the mining claim specified by family members. By 03:18 a.m., Deputy Stanton located McCarthy and Holder with their dog, Jake. The group was muddy and hungry, but otherwise fine. “They told people where they were going and told someone to send help if they didn’t return at a certain time ― just like people who travel in the woods should,” Deputy Stanton said. Deputy Stanton added that having that information helped the sheriff’s office rescue them quickly, without needing to deploy search and rescue resources. 0288
