They paved paradise and put up a parking lot...
Carla Axtman
As promised yesterday, here are more photos and stories from people around Oregon about their love for the Metolius region.
From Susan Prince, Camp Sherman:
I am writing you today to implore you to support HB 3100 and to go even further; to insure strong and everlasting protection for the Metolius River Basin by keeping destination resorts out of the entire area thus preserving the region's natural splendor and ecological integrity for future generations.My grandparents, Mable and Frank Prince, became permitees on Tract O in Camp Sherman in 1929. This summer, our family will be celebrating our 80th anniversary of coming to this amazing area! And in all that time it has remained pretty much the same; its clear, cold waters running freely through majestic ponderosa pine forests; supporting otters, mergansers, osprey, kokanee salmon and the (now) critically endangered bull trout. A few years ago an enormous effort was made to designate the Metolius as a wild and scenic river. Now we are seeing habitat restored and prospering in places where overuse was becoming a problem.
The idea of bringing in destination resorts to this sensitive area is appalling to us! There is the obvious huge issue of the negative impacts caused by the sheer numbers of people that would be using this sensitive area. But there is also a big concern of drainage of hundreds of septic systems into the porous lava rock that is the bed of the Metolius River watershed. And the problems generated by withdrawing water for such large populations are unknown and potentially horrendous
So I am asking you today to take the bold step of offering the Metolius River Basin long lasting protection! We all need a place that we can count on to remain pristinely beautiful and naturally wild in these challenging times.
Sincerely,
Susan Prince
Tract O #10
Camp Sherman, OR
From Mike and Marilyn Duffield:
"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast us." (William James)We are native-born Oregonians, reared and educated in the Rose City. Some
of my Pioneer ancestors rumbled over the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley.
My husband is a dedicated fly fisherman; our favorite escape on this planet
is the Metolius River, to which we go for at least two stays every year, and
of which we talk and dream in the winter. We both continue to vote only for
legislators who will fight to preserve the work of visionaries like former
governor Tom McCall, and who are farsighted enough, and have the backbone, to put
Oregon's well-being over personal or bipartisan politics. Preserving the
waters of the Metolius River Basin is part of that well-being.Once again the "green" in Oregon is in danger of taking a hit from
speculative property owner-developers. They've unabashedly spent millions on plans,
reports, publicists, lawyers and lobbyists to convince the gullible that a
National Wild and Scenic River, the Metolius and its basin, will remain "relatively
unscathed" from groundwater pumping, years of continuing construction, and
town/county services strained to the snapping point from these large
subdivision-in-the-woods resorts.We've heard that song before, but not in this ecologically fragile area. No
less important: the scores of new dwellings, clustered in nodes or not, will
provide easy tinder for reoccurring, devastating wildfires (since 2002, the
Cache Mtn., B&B Complex and Black Crater fires have been fought). We've seen the
tired bodies and soot-blackened faces of firefighters camped at the Metolius
River's Allingham CG. It seemed like there were a hundred.Resort properties, particularly "destination," are typically speculative
boom-or-bust uses of land. What remains when investor monies dry up, or the units
stop selling and the developers can't or won't continue? That they have the
right to try is not in question (it's "American," after all). It seems to us
that resort site maps, amended plans, and models for infrastructure are being
thrown at a giant Central Oregon Velcro board; whatever sticks is a "go."
What do they have to lose, really? It might work!That isn't the way matters should be handled at the outset. We hope you will
see reason to change that. Some land uses will remain forever unsuited to
the Metolius River Basin and the areas that drain into it. We are staring at
two of these, the Metolian, an eco-adventure resort for the REI crowd and the
gargantuan Ponderosa, poised and "rarin' to go." Just say "no."My eighth grandchild was born yesterday, March 30th. I write this so that
someday he may play on the Metolius banks and find it like it is today -
pristine, magical, supporting a fishery second to none, and nurturing a healthy
population of a "threatened species", the Bull Trout. Maybe he'll see a return of
the Chinook Salmon, too."In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation.
even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine."
(Great Law of the Iroquois)We ask that you use "Seventh Generation Thinking" when you deliberate on the
DLCD Management Plan; we wish we could be there on April 7th for its first
hearing. We urge you to accept a plan only if it has real teeth to bolster HB
3100, the 2009 Save the Metolius Protection Act. We can almost hear the
chip-chop sounds of the "death by a thousand cuts" to this magnificent state's
beloved Metolius River. Please silence them.This dance we do with our land is tenuous. For 10 units or 1,000 units on
lands labeled "resort" or "destination resort," each inch relinquished is a mile
taken, somewhere down the road. "Too late" are words I never want to say to
my eighth grandchild.Kudos to the LCD Commission for listening to Oregon voices and putting
together a much better plan than expected. It's a great start. We appreciate your
reading this and, we hope you have "skin as thick as the bark of a pine."
Oregon's Seventh Generation needs your action now for the effective passage of HB
3100 later!Sincerely yours,
Mike and Marilyn Duffield
Portland, OR
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May 28, '09
Thank you very much for this useful article and the comments. I love this site as it contains good
May 28, '09
Much of the opposition from Camp Sherman residents and those with vacation homes in the Metolius Basin represent the typical NIMBY crowd.
If you all really want to protect the Metolius then we should completely shut off all access to people and cars. We should also raze all buildings and make the area only accessible to native plants and wildlife.
May 28, '09
Jason:
There's opposition to this all over the state. This is not a NIMBY thing.
The Metolius can be preserved and protected, and people can still enjoy and appreciate it. As Susan Prince notes, their family has been doing so for 80 years.
May 29, '09
None of those scenes in the pics would be altered one bit from the resorts.
I think you are you trying to mislead people into thinking otherwise?
8:44 a.m.
May 29, '09
Actually Richard, the likelihood that they would be is quite high, especially for water.
You can't bring thousands of people into a region with large scale resorts and not have some fundamental changes to the land--even the adjacent parts. And in a fragile area like this, the ripple effect is potentially enormous and well beyond just the property where the potential development is slated.
May 29, '09
It is crazy to think a massive increase in population won't have an effect! Build the resort, but build it near infrastructure, not in the middle of a national forest! Make nearby economically struggling towns the destination and the fragile forest land and watersheds the place to visit. Man and money can always build huge beautiful destination resorts - what man and money cannot do, is build, replace, repair or recreate the Metolius River and its Basin. The risk is too great! A recent study stated that angling, hunting and wildlife experience brought in 2.5 billion dollars to our Oregon economy. That is a good economic argument for "protecting" what folks seem to like to visit. I much rather have my hard earned tax dollars invest in protecting beautiful treasures like the Metolius rather than spent on catastrophic wildfire protection of massive destination resort homes built in the WUI. The B&B fire cost tax payer over 40 million in suppression costs alone! What part of growth near current infrastructure don't we get?
May 29, '09
So the Portland metropolitan region destroyed Multnomah falls? Timbeline Lodge destroyed Mt Hood?
10:03 p.m.
May 29, '09
Richard:
The hydrology of the Metolius is not anything like Mt. Hood or Multnomah Falls. It's an extremely fragile place. That's the whole point.
May 29, '09
I would say any river still extant in an at least fairly wild state is well worth saving. Not to mention it would be a great idea to restore as much as we can to wild conditions.
BTW, where's the thread about Obama's EPA allowing 42 new mountaintop-removal permits? Talk about destroying watersheds!
May 29, '09
Richard,
Timberline lodge has 70 guest rooms and the current population of Government Camp is less than the population increase the Metolian (the smaller of the two resorts) proposes. Multnomah Falls and the entire Columbia River Gorge are protected by the 1986 Gorge Act. Not that we were comparing apples to apples when comparing the Metolius River to Multnomah Falls or Mt. Hood.
May 30, '09
What embellishment.
"The hydrology of the Metolius is not anything like Mt. Hood or Multnomah Falls. It's an extremely fragile place".
Of course they're different. But proportiantely speaking there is no harm to either. That's the point. And the resorts, relatively slowly developed, would not harm the Metolious either.
You calling it "an extremely fragile place" is nothing but campaign fodder.
The ultimate effect on the Metolius hydrology would not even be recognizable.
But then opponents are also thoroughly convinced global warming will dry up the area.
10:10 a.m.
May 30, '09
Richard:
Based on science, you're wrong.
Based on the relative differences between your examples and the Metolius...your argument is complete BS.
May 30, '09
Yeah sure Carla.
I suppose we can just imagine the effect the resorts would have on that fragile area. You like to help people imagine the worse.
Since your "science" has absolutely nothing to show to what extent the effect will be.
The theoretical effect of some level is likely to be so small it is un recognizable.
But the effect can't happen all at once. Two hundred homes and infrastructure with no effect would mean it is you who are full of BS.
The hydrology of the Metolius is vast and much of it is at high elevation. Most of the rest is away from the resort locations.
You embellish because that's what you do.
That's activism right?
May 30, '09
Here's another reason to oppose it: It will cost us an arm and a leg to protect these resorts. The forests of the Metolius are mostly Ponderosa pine. They experience and benefit from frequent (every 5-15 years) low-intensity fires. The Forest Service and BLM are now trying to thin them out so that frequent fire can be returned to the area.
Put another resort or two in there and you can no longer introduce controlled burns.
Without controlled burns, you get bigger, more intense fires, the kind that are costing the country $500 million in fire suppression annually.
Plus, the firefighting prescriptions change.
With a fire which isn't threatening structures or lives, firefighters can utilize several tools to deal with the fire (from letting it burn to purposefully setting fuel clearing "backfires").
Plop the resorts in there and the firefighters have to prioritize defense of the structures, EVEN IF IT RISKS THEIR OWN LIVES.
So additional resorts mean we increase the risk to firefighters and spend more state and federal tax dollars fighting fires, we could be leaving alone.
Doesn't sound like wise use to me.
Only you can prevent stupid land use decisions.
May 31, '09
Light rail in the Portland region has killed 24 people.
So additional lines mean we increase the risk to pedestrians and spend more tax subsidies for development we should be leaving in basic services.
Doesn't sound like wise use to me.
Only you can prevent stupid land use decisions.
Jun 18, '09
I much rather have my hard earned tax dollars invest in protecting beautiful treasures like the Metolius rather than spent on catastrophic wildfire protection of massive destination resort homes built in the WUI. The B&B fire cost tax payer over 40 million in suppression costs alone! What part of growth near current infrastructure don't we get?
Jun 18, '09