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Commissioners: Shrink monument by two-thirds Mail Tribune / Jim Craven An overflow crowd fills the room during a Jackson County Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday, where commissioners decided to recommend slashing the size of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The recommendation will be forwarded next week to Interior Secretary Gale Norton for consideration. Recommendation goes to interior secretary By DANI DODGE Even though it didn't start until 9:30 a.m., Tony Marin took his seat at Wednesday's county commissioner meeting at 8. A weathered ex-miner and mill worker who still wears his steel-toed Red Wing boots and has a knife clipped to his belt, Marin, 75, didn't want to miss the commissioners' recommendation on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument boundary. "The thing ain't right," Marin said with a mournful shake of his graying head. "Those environmentalists are shutting everything down." Marin wasn't disappointed. Two out of the three commissioners voted to recommend the boundary of the monument shrink to a third of the size that President Bill Clinton authorized last year. The third commissioner, Sue Kupillas, recommended only a slightly larger version of the monument to encompass the ecologically diverse Jenny Creek area. "We move up here to get away from the cities and have a little freedom," said Commissioner Ric Holt. "We take away our kids' rights to use our lands and we've just restricted everything. "It's time we put our heels in the sand and say 'enough is enough.' " Clinton created the 52,947-acre monument on federal land on and around Soda Mountain southeast of Ashland in June 2000. The monument is at the convergence of the geologically young Cascade Range and the older Siskiyou Mountains. But the designation has been controversial, drawing the attention of national media, including Time magazine in a July 16 article. It not only borders 30,000 acres of private land but also includes islands of private lands within its borders. The monument is among 19 created or enlarged by Clinton that are being reviewed by the Bush administration. In March, Interior Secretary Gale Norton asked Kupillas for local input on the monument. The 17-member Jackson County Natural Resources Advisory Committee was given the charge of gathering public comment and held several meetings. But in 14 hours of deliberation, the committee could not get a majority of members to agree to any one boundary recommendation. Several minority opinions were included with the committee's recommendation. Commissioner Jack Walker took the most conservative of the opposing boundary versions, and then shaved off more areas, including eliminating any islands of private land, to create the recommendation the board will send to Norton. It encompasses about 16,500 acres huddled against the California border, east of Interstate 5. Walker said that current uses of the land, including mining, cattle grazing and hunting, have added to the diversity of the area and not subtracted any ecological value. He said those activities could be curtailed or eliminated within the monument boundaries and that's why it should stay as small and contained as possible. "They are now touting it as one of the most wonderful, diverse ecological areas in the country," Walker said, arguing that it is so special because of human intervention, such as cattle grazing. "Someone has done something right." Kupillas said the monument should be downsized to allow forest thinning and fire suppression to continue in the area. "It's a safety issue," she said. "Not a big timber issue." The public was not invited to speak at the meeting. But some environmentalists and landowners who showed up said they were upset, but not surprised by the outcome - the commissioners had expressed opposition to the monument even before its creation. "The monument is the best thing that ever happened to our area," said longtime monument proponent Dave Willis, chairman of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council. "The commission decision was ecologically laughable. "The ecological science I heard in discussion today wouldn't get a passing grade in middle-school science class." Commissioners though, said they distrusted some of the science that has been used to justify the monument. To prove his point that scientists can be wrong, Holt showed a short film showing the spotted owl, thought to live only in old-growth forests, living and thriving in managed forests. He said many times nature depends on management. "And we all know about the swans in Ashland," Holt said. "You take out a dam ... and the swans died." The commission will author a letter to Norton and give final approval to it at their regular meeting Wednesday. Marin, who sat quietly through the whole meeting, sighed with relief after the decision. Marin grew up in Hilt, where he could see Oregon from his back yard. He moved to Talent in 1972 and volunteers with the police department. He spent his working life mining and grading lumber, much of it from the area now designated as a monument. He said that such decisions need to favor ranchers, loggers, miners and farmers if America is to thrive. But he's never spoken out about the issue, just sat back and listened at meeting after meeting until his way of life was finally affirmed by county commissioners Wednesday. "We don't expect to take it all out," Marin said. "But we should have a chance at it. ... I don't believe in clearcutting, but select cutting is better than having the beetles eat it all." Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.