Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis Upholding rural Americans

Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.

Greetings,
1/29/04

I hope this email finds you well.

I couldn't help but notice your reference to our organization, the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center (not Project).

First of all, I appreciate your web-site very much. I think you do an admirable job. I wish that our site had the depth and number of visitors that yours does. Unfortunately it does not. I think you do a great job of compiling and disseminating information, and of giving a voice to people who feel voiceless. The prayer page is a fantastic idea.

Now I can't speak for Derek, he's a construction worker and doesn't spend much time on the net, but I'm a good friend of his and I was at the meeting at which he (and I) spoke. So I can at least try to answer the question you posed to him: "Derek, how many sacred owls and bambi's and old-growth trees did you find after the Biscuit Fire?"

Well, I don't know what a sacred owl is, but the Spotted Owl figures can be found in the Rogue River/South Coast Biological Assessment for FY 04-08. Another interesting document for learning about the impacts of the fire on wildlife is the Comments on Draft Environmental Impact Statement For Biscuit Recovery Project by Jerry Franklin, of the University of Washington. I recommend both, and don't know that I can summarize them in way that does them justice. But a lot of people who know more about owls than I do believe that the large boles and snags that are left behind following a fire provide the only post-fire habitat for most of the owl prey-base.

I wish that you had attended the Medford BLM/Walden meeting that the article is about. I know you've seen your share of federal dog and pony shows in which the public, or anyone with an opposing viewpoint, is ignored. Well, this was invite only, and was a who's who of the timber industry. Which is fine, but it won't lead to balanced, or fully representative decision making.

The point that Derek and I were trying to make in a hostile environment, is that at the same time the BLM is saying that it wants to thin small-diameter trees that tend to burn high-intensity, they are clearcutting old-growth and establishing more small-diameter fiber plantations that will require the same treatment...in other words, we think they are intentionally creating a vicious circle.

I know we probably come at this from very different views, but I appreciate your time and your site.

Keep up the good work, and stay vigilant.

For the owls (sacred or not)

and for the people-

George