San Juan County Republican Party

The Critical Areas Ordinance Forum held in Friday Harbor was surprising in more ways than one. First of all, there are many people very interested, now that the ordinance is set to take away property rights for a lot of people. It has impacted realtors, builders, home-owners and thus trickled down into every other economy in the islands.

More than 250 people showed up for the forum, which was sponsored by the Common Sense Alliance from the San Juan Islands. Speakers included Francine Shaw, former San Juan County Planning Director, Land Use Attorney Dennis Reynolds, William Maurer who is the Executive Director for the Institute of Justice in Washington, and Kenn Brooks, PhD who is serving as Chair of the Washington State Conservation Commission.

Dr. Kenn Brooks gave an overview of how the size of the buffer around wetlands, set up for 50-150 feet, was set by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. They cited 15 studies, so after Dr. Brooks reviewed all 15 studies, he found the WDFW used only 1 study to set their limit and that was a study that used a feedlot containing 190 cattle per acre with a berm that had been planted only one year prior. The berm showed grass tufts here and there, so basically the fecal coliforms had a straight path to the waterways. They didn’t reference the other 13 studies at all.

Dr. Brooks studies showed a 2 foot berm was sufficient to remove 75% of all rainwater wash from ground into streams, and that perhaps a 6 foot berm would be more sufficient for land that contained normal agricultural pasture land. The other 13 studies that the WDFW had supported his conclusions. Dr. Brooks strongly emphasized against using a prescription or one-size-fits-all approach for the various wetlands and suggested that education and assistance with homeowners was a more beneficial approach to both the wetlands and the homeowners. The wetlands actually benefit from the land owners being involved because they have an ownership care for the land then, instead of being removed with the “prescription buffer,” and feeling they have no more ownership in that land. Dr. Brooks sees the education of the landowners as a win-win situation.

To get more information about how you can be a part of this win-win situation, instead of having the ability to use your land taken away from you by the Critical Areas Ordinance as it now stands, and to donate to this local common sense group, see http://www.commonsensealliance.net/

Dead trees near Butte, MT

Summer is a great time for exploring our wonderful country, and so my family and I did this past month. But as we were driving through many parts of the West, a startling sight met our eyes: acres and acres of dead trees. We had heard about the pine bore beetle and the damage that had been done to trees in British Columbia, but had not seen the damage first hand. The east side of Glacier National park in Montana, the east side of Yellowstone in Wyoming, and areas around Butte, Montana are hillsides just covered with dead gray trees. But what was really stunning was that there was no logging of the dead trees…no fire breaks being started, no activity of any kind to use the available material for good, nor any activity to mitigate what will certainly result in firestorms in the very near future.

I asked a ranger at Yellowstone National Park what was with the trees and she stated they died 12 years ago in the fires of Yellowstone. I asked about the currently dead trees, if it was from the pine bore beetle and she stated they didn’t have any beetle damaged trees….well maybe just a couple. I was shocked at such a response when the whole east side of Yellowstone Lake was gray with dead trees.

Willful misinformation to the public and total denial to allowing loggers to take those dead trees will not only lead to serious wildfires with the accompanied releasing of incredible heat and carbon emissions, but will kill wildlife, firefighters and residents of the area. This is not only irresponsible, but downright negligent. Let your state and national legislators know this is unacceptable!

Dead treeds near Butte, MT