Resist the Tyranny of Censorship, Oregon State Senator Doug Whitsett newsletter 11/30/16

! Water call made on the Williamson, H&N 11/23/16. "Water users in the upper Klamath Basin have received shutoff notices for surface water use after the Klamath Tribes called on their water rights earlier this month....Water users along the Williamson and its tributaries, as well as the Klamath Marsh, received notices directing them to cease stock and domestic use of surface water until February...this should only affect those diverting water from streams and rivers and said wells, which depend on ground water, are not affected."

Bringing Accountablilty and Transparency to Salem, Oregon State Senator Doug Whitsett newsletter 11/23/16

! MEETING MONDAY NOV. 28 - TULELAKE, Nov. 29 Klamath - Tule Lake Unit Valor in the Pacific National Monument (National Park for Japanese Americans who were relocated here during WWII).
* General Management Plan and Environmental Summary fall 2016 (16 pages)
* ENTIRE GMP and EA fall 2016. IF you have time to read the 277 pages, it is well worth it.
* Tule Lake meetings begin next week; Comments, input sought at Tulelake and Klamath Falls meetings, H&N 11/23/16
KBC NOTE: Klamath Basin Crisis is at the table with 3 other local organizations plus Udall Foundation facilitators, Japanese Americans, Oklahoma Modoc Tribe and Klamath Tribe, and several government agencies. KBC represents you, the local citizens. As most of you know, a Japanese American group is suing Macy's Flying Service because they oppose constructing a safety fence around the airport (although there is a stay on the lawsuit during the stakeholder meetings). Most all airports have a fence to keep out stray dogs, horses, cows, deer, cars, people, to save lives. Those suing want the airport gone so they can include the land in their National Monument, which already includes more than 1300 acres of their 'sacred ground', where the Japanese lived, farmed, and walked for four years. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and declared war on the U.S., our government sent the West Coast Japanese to relocation camps during WWII, one being in Tule Lake. Our airport, built in the 1950's, services 200x200 miles for mostly emergency services, agriculture, and firefighting planes, and has existed over 60 years. Our community consists of WWI and WWII veterans who survived the WWI and WWII and their families; they won homesteads after their service in the wars.
   The General Management Plan/GMP long version, tells how this monument can help tell the story about how our country betrayed the Japanese Americans. The plan does not support eminent domain, however it projects how willing sellers might agree to sell to increase the size of the monument in the future. The Lava Beds preferred alternative would hire year round employees, rebuild some of the existing historic buildings, and would cost nearly $12 million initially, and over $1 million annually (pages 80-84). Planned is $92,000 for a 'vault toilet', Park Film $400,000, etc. It includes climate action plan, soundscapes management plan (airports are noisy), lots of management plans, studies, maps, surveys, dark night sky inventories, and dozens more.
   The Tribes oppose removing our airport; they lived here for thousands of years and were killed or displaced, and resent this being called 'sacred ground' of people living here 4 years. The community, farmers dependent on our airport and keeping our agriculture intact, resents being sued, and now it is a crime for us to even walk on our formerly-public land, the Peninsula, which is already part of the Japanese monument. We are fine with their 1300 acres of land to tell their story, but it is apparent that is not enough. Check out on FaceBook 'Stop the Fence at Tulelake.'
   Please, read what you can of the Plan, come to the meeting, and send comments.

Groups pushing for Crater Lake wilderness area, Oregonian via H&N 11/23/16. "Conservation groups are stepping up the pressure on Oregon’s congressional delegation to designate more than 500,000 acres of public land, including Crater Lake National Park, as a federal wilderness area... Representatives from Oregon Wild and Environment Oregon on Monday delivered a petition with 37,000 signatures in support of the proposal to Sen. Ron Wyden’s office...Oregon has 50 protected wilderness areas spanning more than 2.9 million acres...The more than 500,000-acre coverage area also includes the headwaters of the Rogue and Umpqua rivers...(Rep. Greg Walden has met with constituents and elected officials in the affected area who are concerned about 'restricting the public’s access to the land, as well as the impact on forest and fire management in the area.' "

Stop Scaring People George Takei 11/21/16 Breitbart. "Star Trek icon George Takei recently sent me — and perhaps thousands of other people — an email on behalf of the Democratic Party, under the subject “Japanese internment. The purpose of the spam is to scare liberals into donating to the Democrats, on the theory that President-elect Donald Trump is planning to round up Muslims in the same way..."

Klamath Voters speak against dam removal, H&N letter to editor by James Finses, Copco Lake 11/20/16

(72% Klamath County) Citizens oppose dam removal in advisory vote, H&N 11/9/16. "An advisory vote on whether the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River should be removed came in with 72 percent opposed to the removal and 27 percent in favor in early returns. That translates to 18,838 opposed and 7,051 in favor in the initial 25,889 votes released from the Klamath County Clerk’s office..."  “Even they (FERC) have referred to dam removal as the great experiment. That’s a heck of an experiment when you have 21 million cubic yards of sediment flowing downstream.”

(Klamath County)  Commissioners join opposition to monument expansion, H&N 11/9/16. "(Klamath County) Commissioners have (unanimously) voted to oppose expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument after local residents showed overwhelming resistance to the proposal...The proposal, put forward by Sen. Jeff Merkley, would add 66,500 acres to the 66,000-acre monument, including 19,000 acres in Klamath County. Comments on expansion due Nov. 20: comments on the potential Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument expansion can submit comments online to www.merkley.senate.gov/contact , or by mail to Sen. Jeff Merkley, 10 S. Bartlett St., Suite 201, Medford, OR 97501.

Congratulations Dennis Linthicum and Werner Reschke - winners for state legislature race!
Republican Linthicum, candidate for Oregon District 28 senator, defeated Democrat Todd Kepple 60 percent to 39 percent.
Republican Werner Reschke, candidate for Oregon District 56 Representative, defeated Democrat Al Switzer, 48% to 40% and unaffiliated candidate Jonah Hakanson, 10%.

Congratulations Donald Trump for America's 45th President!
USA Today: Dow hits record high, 11/10/16

KID's Knoll survives recall vote, H&N 11/8/16. "Knoll wrote: 'The person mounting the recall attempt has baseless accusations that are completely false and have no merit. He lost an election against me by 90 percent...' "

* Workshops on wolves, livestock and people offered Nov 11-16

Klamath River Salmon Draft EIS comments by Werner Hoyt, PE 11/8/16

*Reclamation Releases Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Long-Term Plan to Protect Adult Salmon in the Lower Klamath River; Open House/Public Hearing Scheduled in Redding Nov. 9. COMMENTS DUE Dec. 5
The Draft EIS is available at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=22021. If you encounter problems accessing the document, please call 916-978-5100 (TTY 800-877-8339) or email mppublicaffairs@usbr.gov. Please email comments by close of business Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, to BOR-SLO-sha-ltpeis-public-comments@usbr.gov or mail comments to Julia Long, Bureau of Reclamation, Northern California Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Blvd., Shasta Lake, CA 96019.

Cascade-Siskiyou monument expansion (Klamath Falls) hearing draws many voices, H&N 11/2/16. "The crowd overflowed from the commissioners’ meeting room into the government center hallways...(7) elected officials and candidates for elective office...opposed, noted reduction in timber harvests, grazing allotments, improper land management resulting in increased fire risk, federal government overreach and closures preventing public access to lands as cause to halt further expansion of the monument. Additionally several letters and emails were summarized by Commissioner Tom Mallams, the majority of those received opposed to the expansion...It is under these same executive branch powers that Merkley, along with Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and other supporters, hope will result in a recommendation by Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to President Barack Obama to expand the monument’s size to further protect forests, biodiversity and watersheds..."

Klamath tribes protest swan lake pumped storage (Klamath) Tribes protest Swan Lake pumped storage Hydroelectric project, H&N 11/1/16. "The Swan Lake North project, located on the Jespersen Ranch, would take five years to build and create about 170 local construction jobs, proponents say. As many as 3,000 direct and related jobs could be created under the plan...When operational, 11 workers will run the site, with 24 support jobs...use of explosives during construction could panic wildlife, the protest letter said." KBC NOTE: If the tribes oppose this hydroelectric project because it could panic wildlife during construction, what do they think happens to wildlife in the massive wilderness areas they support, with mandates to allow hundreds of thousands of acres to burn up bambies, spotted owls, eagles, bunnies, rare frogs, old growth trees, butterflies , scenic areas...?