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--> --> Jill Shurtleff, a Greensprings rancher flies an American flag in protest against the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Ashland Daily Tidings/DENISE BARATTA The monumental debate Wrangling over fate of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument ranks as No. 1 story By Myles Murphy, Vickie Aldous and Maggie McGehee Ashland Daily Tidings Thousands of acres of nature became the center of attention in Ashland this year. The wrangling over the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument southeast of the city came to a head this past summer when residents on both sides of the issue made their case to Bush administration officials through members of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. Of all the local issues in 2001, this one stood above the rest because of its size and scope - Southern Oregon residents pitted against each other over a decision by a former American president. The Tidings offers its list of the Top 5 stories for 2001. 1. Jackson County commissioners stir up debate over size and scope of the Clinton-designated Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument: Debate swirled for months over the fate of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, designated by former President Bill Clinton last year, after U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton sent a letter to government officials in March asking them to gather public input about newly designated monuments. Commissioners also were asked to make recommendations about whether monument boundaries should be changed. Tasked by Jackson County Commissioners with gathering public input, the Jackson County Natural Resources Advisory Committee held three meetings at which a majority of residents spoke in favor of maintaining the monument. However, the committee reported more than 84 percent of respondents supported reducing or eliminating the monument once written comments were tabulated. In July, commissioners Ric Holt and Jack Walker recommended reducing the 52,947-acre monument to 16,580 acres, while Commissioner Sue Kupillas recommended the monument be reduced to 26,415 acres. Monument supporters then conducted their own analysis of public comments. After excluding multiple comments from the same person, they reported that Jackson County residents favored the monument by a nearly three-to-two margin, although residents outside the county opposed the monument by about a 5-to-1 margin. To date, the monument boundary remains unchanged and supporters and critics alike are awaiting the release of a plan, delayed by Norton, that will provide in-depth details about how natural resources within the monument will be managed. 2: Phoenix High School's student body president-elect battles school board over his removal: When Phoenix High School student body president Keanon Ferguson was caught in the school's parking lot with a small amount of marijuana and a pipe, he never could have fathomed the controversy that would ensue. Ferguson was disciplined as any other student would have been - suspended for the remaining days of the 1999-2000 school year, entered into counseling and forced to submit to random urinalysis testing. But that summer, Phoenix-Talent Superintendent David Willard, with the support of the school board, took Ferguson's discipline one step further and removed the young president-elect from office. The months that followed brought a lawsuit, filed by Ferguson's father to have his son reinstated, stressing that the school district was operating outside the written punishments stated in the student handbook for such a crime. A Jackson County Circuit Court judge agreed and ordered Ferguson be reinstated, forcing many school districts around the state to take a second look at their discipline procedures for elected student officials. The Oregon Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's decision and the state Supreme Court refused to hear the case, so just days before Ferguson was to graduate, Willard, again with the backing of the school board, removed the young president from office. The case affected school districts around Oregon and paved the way for elected student officials to be held to a higher standard than the general student body. The discipline procedures hastily passed while the Ferguson case was pending in the higher courts remain intact and officials say it will take another high-profile case to clarify the issue. 3: Quartz Fire burns more than 6,000 acres, threatening Ashland's Watershed: Thick, gray smoke billowed over the hills west of Ashland in August, darkening the sky and fouling the air off and on as firefighters and Oregon National Guardsmen fought to control the Quartz Fire. The fire was sparked Aug. 9 by dry lightning in the Applegate Valley, about 8 miles west of Ashland. It grew quickly in its first few days, eating up 1,000 acres a day as it advanced toward the western edge of the Ashland Watershed. The blaze would come within five miles of the Watershed before crews - with the help of cooler weather - would get a line around it. It took 13 days to bring under control. By the end, 170 acres were charred and about $9 million was spent to combat the blaze. More than 2,400 people were working on the fire at times. Two homes were burned, along with a few outbuildings, but there were very few injuries - mainly bee stings, scrapes and bruises firefighters picked up while working the fire lines. The fire also came within a mile of the Pacific Crest Trail, which had to be shut down until the danger was past. Rehabilitation of the burned acres began even before the entire fire was officially out, and Bureau of Land Management and United States Forest Service officials are currently making plans for long-term rehabilitation of the land. 4: Ashland High School Debate Team faces misconduct allegations at the national forensics tournament: Ashland High School's speech and debate team has been a source of pride and national recognition for the Ashland School District, but when a few team members were accused this summer of smoking marijuana in their hotel room in Oklahoma City while attending a national tournament, the team sparked renewed debate over the district's controversial drug and alcohol policy - a matter that remains unresolved today. Three months after returning home from the tournament without competing, the expulsion of two AHS debaters was overturned by a 3-2 decision of the school board. The decision angered teachers, who claimed they no longer had the support of the school board, and shed light on the high school's lack of written procedures to deal with incidents with students while on trips. Long-time critics of the district's drug and alcohol policy - which expells students caught using drugs or alcohol on campus or at school events off campus for one year and then allows for students to return to school under a contract stating they will remain clean for one calendar year - jumped at the mishandling of debate team incident to renew the debate as to the effectiveness of the policy. For the first time in years, the school board has established a committee of more than 20 members to take another look at the policy and make suggested changes to the board. The committee has formed and is scheduled to begin meeting early next year. 5: Helicopter spraying by Oregon Department of Agriculture to eradicate the gypsy moth causes both panic, relief in Ashland: Despite the protests of many neighbors, the Oregon Department of Agriculture helicopter sprayed a 160-acre area south of Southern Oregon University three times this spring in an effort to eradicate invasive gypsy moths, which can defoliate and kill broad swathes of trees once they gain a foothold. Several residents said they experienced asthma attacks, rashes, sore throats, irritated eyes, bloody noses and other problems following the helicopter sprayings. Agriculture and health officials assured residents that the spray, which contains a bacteria that attacks caterpillars, is not harmful, although inert ingredients in the spray may trigger allergic responses in some people. As a precaution, people with compromised immune systems were advised to consult with their doctors and consider temporarily leaving the spray area. After hearing complaints, concerned Ashland City Council members rescinded their previous approval of the low-level flights necessary to conduct the aerial applications. But the council then reversed course and allowed the final spraying to proceed after a federal agriculture official warned the only proven alternative to the organic, bacteria-based spray was to use chemicals. The official also said the federal government could eliminate funding to the state for gypsy moth eradication programs if effective measures are not used, and could impose a quarantine on Oregon. Over the summer, agriculture officials saturated the Ashland area with gypsy moth traps in order to gauge the effectiveness of the sprayings and found no moths. In the news Other issues that were considered (not ranked): Ashland City Council passes living wage ordinance; Ashland is forced into summertime water curtailment; construction moves ahead on Talent-Ashland-Phoenix water intertie; two former employees of the Community Works Youth Diagnostic Center in Talent are accused of improper conduct in their roles as supervisors; Ashland City Councilor David Fine resigns for personal reasons and is replaced by former council candidate Chris Hearn; Mayor Alan DeBoer is sworn in, replacing Cathy Shaw after three terms in office; Elizabeth Zinser is named new Southern Oregon University president; Talent residents raise concerns over the Metro Air One helicopter surveillance program; trailer park residents in Ashland battle their landlord over rental agreement terminations, back-due rent; citizens criticize the removal of trees for the Ashland Public Library expansion project, including a ginkgo tree that was once named Ashland's Tree of the Year; the Ashland Ranger District decides on a plan to reduce wildfire risk in the Ashland Watershed that saves large trees from being cut. 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