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Skepticism fills vernal pool issue Planners: Balance takes participation By PETER WONG WHITE CITY -- Likening it to what happened with the Northwest forest plan, some landowners said Monday they were skeptical of attempts to balance conservation of vernal pools with future development in the Agate Desert. County, state and federal planners attempted to allay those concerns at a meeting at the Jackson County public works auditorium. But Mike Burrill of Medford, whose Burrill Resources owns most of the potential industrial land in the survey area, said he wants to be shown that his concerns are unwarranted. "What is upsetting to me, I guess, is that I come from an industry that was destroyed because of all of this," said Burrill, whose family ran a lumber company in the region for many decades. "Now we are doing something else -- and now we are having it come from another direction." At issue are vernal pools that contain tiny freshwater shrimp, known as fairy shrimp, that were found about a year ago and classified as a threatened species. It is the only such population known outside of California. Three rare plants also have been discovered in the Agate Desert near White City, the county's largest unincorporated community. "I think there needs to be some areas protected for habitat," said Bill Drewien of Medford, a rancher and representative of the Jackson County Cattlemen's Association. "But it should depend on willing landowners and selling them on cooperation through an incentive-based program. "I have seen what has happened with the forests, where we have millions of board feet (of timber) rotting and lying on the ground, and we are not harvesting them. I hope we are not entering another era of that." A spokesman for a gravel company said vernal pools could undo what the county already has done under state law to identify and protect sites for aggregate production. "A lot of the areas set aside for aggregate resource use have vernal pools," said Bill Leavens of Rogue Aggregates Inc. of Central Point. "If the pools become an issue and make the sites undevelopable, the county probably will have to reassess all these sites." Jackson County Commissioner Sue Kupillas, who opened the session, said she shared their skepticism. But she also sought to bring all the affected parties to the planning table. "We raised the issue of whether we were being led into this process, with all these hopes and promises, just to find that each of the agencies has veto power and we cannot do anything with the land," she said. "But we have been told there is a commitment to using this project as a pilot for getting groups together, operating on a little trust, and developing a plan to allow multiple uses of the land." Kupillas said county government has a stake in what happens because the development of industrial land will help repay the urban renewal bonds that have been issued for public improvements in White City. The project, which began in May and will run through May 2001, is intended to develop a wetlands conservation plan to identify which areas can be filled and developed -- and which areas should be protected or restored. "This is an opportunity you should not let pass," said Cam Patterson of Siskiyou Resource Geographics Inc., which will conduct the field surveys of pools and plants for the plan. "If you have agreed on a conservation plan, your worries will be over, compared to the kind of process it will be if it is piecemeal development." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA