Audrey Caro Gomez
Proponents of a Douglas-Fir National Monument have said they anticipated it would take about a decade to get the proposed nearly half-million-acre monument established.
But with the election of Donald Trump as president, they may face additional obstacles as the result of the presidential election.
The proposal is the work of Andy Kerr and Stephen Sharnoff, who started working on it last year.
Sharnoff is a well-known botanical photographer based in Berkeley, Calif.
Kerr is a lobbyist who grew up in Creswell and now splits his time between Ashland and Washington, D.C.
They propose setting aside more than 750 square miles of the Santiam River watershed, from the Opal Creek Wilderness south to the divide between the Santiam and McKenzie drainages, and from just above Green Peter Reservoir to the Cascade Crest, including the Middle Santiam, Menagerie and parts of the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness areas, the Quartzville Creek Wild and Scenic River corridor, and Moose Creek.
County officials and private landowners have voiced concerns about the location of the proposed half-million-acre monument and how it would impact access to lands not included in the monument.
“With the most anti-environment administration in recent history about to take power, there’s no chance of achieving our goal anytime soon, but we can build momentum and hope for a power shift in years to come,” said Sharnoff, vice president of the Friends of the Douglas-Fir National Monument, in an email to supporters.
In 2016, the organization filed for nonprofit status, established a board of directors and an advisory council.
Kerr serves as secretary and David Stone is president.
Stone, of Eugene, is a nature photographer and has taught that subject for 20 years. He co-founded the Waldo Wilderness Council, served six years as the conservation chair for the Lane County Audubon Society and has served on the boards of the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum and Friends of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.
“I think the hopes for growing some momentum hinge on the outreach that people in the Willamette Valley will be doing, especially Dave Stone and Lon Otterby, possibly our new board member, Jennifer Fairbrother,” Sharnoff said. “We’ve made some good contacts in the Sweet Home area which might prove very helpful.”
Sharnoff suggested contacting Stone, the organization’s president, for more information about the local contacts.
Stone did not respond by press time to a voice message and email. He did post a letter to the Friends of the Douglas-Fir National Monument site on Nov. 8, the day after Donald Trump was elected president.
“We are well on our way towards building our campaign – we have a solid, committed board, a growing list of supporting individuals and groups, the seeds of financial support to carry out this campaign and a well thought out strategic plan to guide us in the next months and years,” Stone said in the letter.
He added that it took more than 20 years to establish the Cascades-Siskiyou National Monument and that is now on the verge of a major expansion.
For his part, Sharnoff said he will be attending the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, which takes place in Eugene in March.
“We’ll have a table there to hand out literature; it will be interesting to see how people are dealing with the changed political situation,” Sharnoff said.
“I think there’s a lot of fear and uncertainty in the conservation community right now, but also a lot of determination.
“We may have to mostly defend the public lands that we already have, and battle to keep existing protections, as long as Trump is in office. It’s important that there’s something left to preserve by the end of his term.”
Changes to the forest plan are among the concerns Sharnoff mentioned.
“There are questions around the revisions of the Forest Plan that are in progress, whether there will be a big push to ‘get the cut out’ again, or whether things will continue largely as they are,” Sharnoff said.
“The (Bureau of Land Management) is proposing to increase logging. A lot of these questions may end up being decided by the courts, but Congress has the power to make big changes, and that’s worrisome. It reminds me of the, probably apocryphal, Chinese curse – ‘May you live in interesting times.’”
For more information about the proposed Douglas-Fir National Monument, visit douglasfirnationalmonument.org.