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75 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, August 28, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 15, 2004 Hearing begins on former Box O grazing Judge to decide whether rancher may graze cattle on Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument’s Jenny Creek drainage By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune WHITE CITY — A U.S. Department of Interior administrative law judge began hearing an appeal Monday morning from a rancher whose request to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to allow her cattle to graze on the former Box O Ranch has been repeatedly denied. Jennifer Walt, whose family owns the Box D Ranch adjacent to the former ranch in the Jenny Creek drainage of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, wants Judge William E. Hammett to overturn the BLM’s denial. Hammett is based in Sacramento with the interior department’s hearings and appeals office. However, the judge is not expected to make a decision any time soon. The hearing, being held in the Jackson County auditorium in White City, is scheduled to last at least through Wednesday. The purpose of the hearing is to gather information from which the judge will eventually render a decision. Advertisement Although Walt is an attorney who practices in San Francisco, she is a co-counsel in the case alongside Sacramento attorney Timothy J. Swickard with the law firm Stoel Rives LLP. The BLM, represented by solicitor Brad Grenham, has rejected Walt’s request for a temporary grazing permit each year since 2001. The 1,200-acre former Box O Ranch was acquired by the BLM in a land exchange on July 19, 1995. Since then, the agency has been working to restore the land which agency officials say had been overgrazed for decades. They say overgrazing on the former Box O had caused Jenny Creek to become wide and shallow, threatening the habitat for the native Jenny Creek sucker, redband trout and a tiny fish known as a speckled dace. Both the sucker and trout are listed by the state of Oregon as sensitive species. The northwestern pond turtle, listed by the state as critical, also inhabits the area. Once the Jenny Creek recovery project is completed and the grazing impact study is finished on the monument, the agency will decide whether to allow cattle to graze again at the former ranch, officials said. Beyond that, they declined to comment on the hearing, noting the legal sensitivity. But Dave Willis, chairman of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council which is an intervenor alongside the BLM in the case, didn’t mind commenting. He led the effort to create the monument. "The BLM has spent thousand of dollars and hours and citizens have spent thousands of volunteer hours working on Jenny Creek recovery and restoration," he said. "They haven’t done it so a San Francisco lawyer can turn this special area into a subsidized cow pasture." He described the case as frivolous with an intent to harass the BLM. Although Walt could not be reached for comment after the first day of the hearing, she indicated during an interview last fall that the right to graze cattle on nearby federal land came with the ranch her family purchased more than a decade ago. "I personally think there is absolutely nothing inconsistent with grazing cattle in the monument and maintaining the biodiversity and the native species which are the concerns expressed in the proclamation," she said. The monument proclamation on June 9, 2000, directed the agency to conduct the study. Basically, it states that current grazing is allowed but that if grazing is found to be incompatible with the monument’s purpose, then the grazing leases would be retired. The 52,000-acre monument was established to protect the unique flora and fauna in the region, which scientists say is a rich biological crossroad where the Cascade, Siskiyou and Klamath mountain ranges intersect. The area has been used by local ranchers for more than a century for high-mountain grazing when the lowlands dry up each summer. Under the Taylor Grazing Act of 1936, open-range use is permitted on federal land. Reach reporter Paul Fattigat 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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