Total Victory? Not Quite. But A Win In Our Battle to Protect Our River Access

by Tom Chandler on November 13, 2007 · 12 comments

It’s late, so I’ll top this post off with more detail later. For now, I can hit the river without a little nagging voice in my head yelling at me to do something about this stupidity.

That’s because the news is good. Not perfect, but good.

No, the supervisors didn’t vote to do away with the whole Natural Resource Advisory Committee idea.

In fact, they didn’t vote on it at all.

The good news? The language forcing the committee to use the much-reviled draft Natural Resource Policy (the document that contains the illegal non-navigability clauses) was stricken from the ordinance.

The bad news is the board hasn’t committed to any kind of process for developing a set of sane, rational Natural Resource Policies.

You could say I’m uneasy. But relieved.

It’s not all out victory. But it’s a win. And clearly, all the noise caught their attention (by meeting time, you folks had sent 113 emails downrange).

Not one of the supervisors defended or even mentioned the draft Natural Resource Policy in their comments — even as one person after another stood up and characterized those policices as divisive or narrow or illegal or any of a handful of other unhappy words.

We’ve still got to keep an eye on this issue, but it won’t rear up on its hind legs again until January.

In the meantime, I’m going fishing. You magnificent, email-writing bastards should too. Enjoy the stuff we’ve been fighting for.

See you on the river (finally), Tom Chandler.

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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Alastair Ingram November 14, 2007 at 12:46 am

Hey Tom, this is good news. I’m glad I emailed them all, twice as a matter of fact. Thanks for making all of us aware of this idiotic plan. Now go bust out the BWO’s!  

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2 Happy Dunsmuir Resident November 14, 2007 at 1:36 am

Good work on keeping us on our toes, Tom.
BTW – I missed John’s recent Vegas show. Pity, but I stayed here in SisKiyou county.  

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3 fishskicanoe November 14, 2007 at 3:00 am

Congratulations! I’ve served on a county natural resource committee representing a user group (xc skiers) and it was the longest 6 months of my life, especially when you consider that the six month commitment we were asked to make to the process stretched out to 2 and a half years. Local politics is a hard and, many times, very vicious endeavor. Again, congrats on your win.

fsc  

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4 Salty November 14, 2007 at 4:46 am

Good news indeed Tom; it’s one big battle in a long war, Non Cedo Ferio.

Go fishin, you deserve it  

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5 razmaspaz November 14, 2007 at 6:57 am

Thats wonderful news. Glad the river lives to be fished another day. Now if I can just get out there to fish it.  

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6 Alistair November 14, 2007 at 7:05 am

Sounds positive Tom – now did I not hear you say something about blue winged olives ?  

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7 flytimes November 14, 2007 at 8:50 am

That’s victory in anyone’s book. Strong work, Tom.  

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8 Michelle November 14, 2007 at 9:11 am

Tom, you are amazing and your efforts have been truely heartening! Enjoy your day on the river.  

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9 Murdock November 14, 2007 at 10:59 am

Tom,

Great work – thanks for keeping us all on top of this issue.

Hope you catch a big one!

Lee  

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10 Curly Friede November 14, 2007 at 11:01 am

Participatory Democracy works. We could fix the whole shootin match if enough citizens participate. Your fishin hole today – tomorrow the country.  

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11 Chuck Katz November 15, 2007 at 9:03 am

Tom:

Huge kudos to you for taking the lead on this and showing that democracy can still work! And while I hate to suggest more effort, I wonder if some formal committee should now be established to plan for January (and beyond) and so that you don’t have to do all the work in the future. County residents would be the most effective, but the group could go beyond that for statewide and national support both in terms of money and expertise. Just a thought……

Cheers,
Chuck  

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12 samistopdog November 15, 2007 at 10:16 am

Tom…great job, without your bantering and splashing loud streamside many of us would not have spoke up…but we did as a group and it appears it has helped positively.Thanks again for your hard work…now go fishing, you have earned it.

samistopdog  

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