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Anti-monument forces think Clinton will create no more By PAUL FATTIG of the Mail Tribune Time can�t run out fast enough for Dave Hill when it comes to allowing President Clinton to put his pen to another national monument. The executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association says enough public land has been set aside to protect special places, particularly in the area proposed for the Wild Rivers National Monument. "You already have the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area and the Grassy Knob Wilderness Area," he said, referring to areas covering some 300,000 acres in the Siskiyou National Forest. "And you�ve got Clinton�s Northwest Forest Plan (of 1993) that protects 93 percent of the Siskiyou forest from active forest management," he added. "I just don�t think we need any more." Moreover, he says monument protection is generally more restrictive than Northwest Forest Plan regulations. "We just don�t see the need for them," he said. But Hill doesn�t believe any more monuments will be created in the region by the Clinton administration. The reason, he said, is Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has told U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, that Clinton will create no more monuments in Walden�s 2nd Congressional District. "We�re going to hold Babbitt to his word," Hill said. Last week, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., sent a letter to the Clinton administration, asking that no more national monuments be created in Oregon. Other opponents to new monuments are even more strident. The Blue Ribbon Coalition, a national group supporting multiple use of public lands, recently filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking reversal of Clinton�s declaration of the 52,000-acre Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in the Soda Mountain area southeast of Ashland. The lawsuit, which also lists four other monuments Clinton declared in Arizona, Colorado and Washington, argues the creation of the monuments was unconstitutional. That argument is based on a clause in the U.S. Constitution which states that "Congress shall have the power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or Property belonging to the United States." The Soda Mountain Wilderness Council and four other environmental groups have filed requests to intervene in the lawsuit. Illinois Valley resident Jim Nolan, one of the founders of Oregonians for Responsible Conservation Alliance (ORCA), sides with the Blue Ribbon Coalition. His group, which represents miners, timber interests, private property owners and recreational users, opposes the monuments. "We�d like to stop it (Wild Rivers proposal) now," said Nolan, an engineer reared in the Illinois Valley. ORCA is concerned about the impact a monument would have on adjacent private land as well as roads into the proposed monument area, he said. "But it�s a free country," he added. "People have the right to do what they want. We just hope to convince any administration that these monuments aren�t good policies." Nolan and several others from ORCA was among those who rallied against the Medicine Mountain National Monument proposal Saturday at Diamond Lake. "We feel like we�re living with a gun stuck to our heads," he said, citing environmental proposals that periodically pop up in the region. Medford resident Gene Bowling, a board member of the Rogue Valley Snowmobilers, agreed. The group has some 330 member families in Southern Oregon, making it the largest snowmobiler group in the state. "We want people to know that we already have enough national monuments," said Bowling who was also at Saturday�s anti-monument rally. "We�ve got enough closed areas in Southern Oregon," Bowling said. "It�s time we stop this." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.