Nita Still Marcia Armstrong Klamath Restoration Agreement 050909

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

Electing same supervisors?

Pioneer Press May 6, 2009

To the Editor by Nita Still, Montague:

The KBRA (Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement) was done in secret and it was a done deal before they even began! So, "A final dam removal agreement must be made before June 30?" What the Greens want is what they get. Craig Tucker is treasonous because he is a member of the Friends of the River and probably an associate of the Trouts Unlimited. Both of these groups are about removing all dams on any and all rivers. It does not matter what the true land owners want, it is what the Shadow Government wants.

All these governmental agencies are treasonous. They do not care what the American people in Siskiyou or Jackson County want. All they care about is their pocket book and how they are treated by this Shadow Government while destroying what the American people hold dear to their hearts.

The Environmentalists want to destroy our economy. As Donald Ross, Secretariat of the Rockefeller Family Fund said: "If it means shutting a plant down, or it means stopping a pulp mill in Sitka or what have you, that's what has to happen... It's gonna be either a different kind of economy or it's not gonna be there." February, 16-17-2007.

Three members of our Board of Supervisors: Marcia Armstrong, Jim Cook and Michael Kobseff attended a Regional Training Workshop on how to use Coordination with the Federal government and have a say as to what they are doing with the dams. They were going to form a Natural Resource Committee to help them with the Coordination. But Marcia did something that got "Who's Who" up in arms and so the whole thing was cancelled. It was a shame, for even though their attorney understands Coordination they did not set a date for the meeting to occur and they have written two letters. You have to set a date, time and place to meet and the government has to respond in kind. Now it looks like all the powers that are controlling us have made up their minds and are going to do whatever they want, even if it is to turn all the cities up here in Siskiyou and Jackson county back into Wilderness.

Are you going to reelect the same Board of Supervisors again? God, I hope Not!

Nita Still, Montague

Response by Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia Armstrong:

The Siskiyou County Supervisors and County Counsel have have already met in groups of two (Brown Act requirement) with Dept. of Interior officials who flew out specially from Washington DC to discuss our issues and concerns. We continue to "coordinate," however, these meetings are covered by confidentiality agreements and Ms. Still may not be aware of them. In addition, Supervisor Cook has met with County Counsel and Interior Secretary Salazar in Washington, D.C. To my knowledge, Ms. Still has not attended the many public updates that the Board has given on the issue this year.

"Coordination" provisions as enumerated in the attached resolution are derived from federal and state laws and mainly apply to federal land use decisions (USFS, BLM.) The dams are owned by a private company - PacifiCorp. PacifiCorp has no requirement to coordinate with the County. However, the actual removal process would require a permit and CEQA process under a recent ordinance that the Board has passed.

Currently, FERC is being removed as the relicensing body through the signed Agreement In Principle by the federal government, the two states and PacifiCorp. Supporting Congressional and state legislation will dictate an alternative cost /benefit assessment process for determining disposition of the dams by Secretary Salazar outside of the usual processes. However, as NEPA will apply, the County will still have some "coordinating" role under that process. We have been told to expect that the federal process will entirely pre-empt our local ordinance requiring a permit and full CEQA process to remove the dams.

Ms. Still made other comments as to my role in trying to establish a Natural Resource Advisory Committee, which was ill received by south County environmental interests. It became apparent during the process that the proposed Natural Resources Committee would not work in Siskiyou County when the Board decided that each Board member would appoint one person to the committee from their district and that those who served on the committee could not have an economic interest in natural resources because that would constitute a conflict of interest. (Currently, the Board can receive advise from anyone, regardless of their economic ties with natural resources.)

"Coordinaton" is not a new concept, as Ms. Still would imply. I first became familiar with it by attending the many events and workshops put on by the Federal Lands Conference (Stewards of the Range) back in the early 1990s. We continued these workshops in the Win Back the West series in the mid-1990s and, in fact, I organized several workshops with Wayne Hage and others as Executive Director of the Farm Bureau. In addition, I helped to author several resolutions and was an active participant in our Comprehensive Land Management Planning group based on the concept of coordination. http://ordlink.com/codes/siskiyou/_DATA/TITLE10/CHAPTER_12__COUNTY_PARTICIPATI.html http://library.ceres.ca.gov/docs/data/1600/1646/HYPEROCR/hyperocr.html

Coordination is not a veto on federal and state decisions as Ms. Still appears to believe. It provides early standing in government to government dialogue in certain federal and State decisions.