By Tove Tupper
August 13, 2009
ASHLAND, Ore. - The argument is heating up over a newly proposed national monument in Southern Oregon .
Earlier this spring, the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, an Ashland-based environmental group, proposed turning about 600,000 acres of the Siskiyou Crest into a national monument.
The Siskiyou Crest runs east to west and connects the Cascades to the Coast Range. It is an important corridor for habitat migration.
"There's an incredible high level of botanical diversity, indusium, plants found no where else on earth," said Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center Executive Director Stephanie Tidwell,.
Tidwell says the KSWC also wants to see a new management plan created.
"By creating a more cohesive plan you provide protection and management that is grounded in conservation biology," Tidwell said.
Some recreation users and nearby residents fear making the land a monument would kick them out. They say a new plan would mean no more hunting, ATV riding and other outdoor sports.
"It's kinda a land grab, a way to keep people that enjoy that land out of it. So it's just gonna sit up there and not be used," said Drake Davis, owner of Don's Sporting Goods in Yreka.
Tidwell admits that some ATV riding trails may go away with the new proposal, but hunting won't.
"Hunting will continue be allowed within the national monument. What we're talking about is a national monument under the forest service, not under the parks service," Tidwell said.
Meanwhile, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors has approved a resolution opposing KSWC's plan. Marcia Armstrong represents SCBS District 5, which sits where the proposed monument would be. She's concerned that by creating more restrictions, the small business owners along the Klamath River she represents will lose the business of recreational users and timber harvesters.
"It is not vacant land. It's places where people live, families live, and people make a living," Armstrong said.
KSWC argues that communities surrounding national monuments do benefit economically from tourists visiting the protected land.
Meanwhile, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners says it's waiting for more information before taking a stance on the issue.
