FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
People and Nature Being Held Hostage in Beaver Creek
An impending pesticide spray in the Beaver Creek watershed is putting residents on high alert; drinking water is threatened; state and local officials say they have no legal options to stop it.
Barbara Davis, Lincoln County Community Rights Board
jibdavis@peak.org, cell:5412701857
www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
Photos available by request
August 30, 2023
Seal Rock, Or-A private timberland owner has notified the requisite state agencies of his plan to aerially spray 473 acres of clear cut forest over the Beaver Creek watershed in Lincoln County with a chemical cocktail containing glyphosate also known as Round Up. Glyphosate has been known to cause multiple types of cancers and is the subject of upwards of 100,000 lawsuits against Monsanto / Bayer. 100% of the water from the Seal Rock Water District (SRWD) comes from Beaver Creek. SRWD supplies water to about 5,500 customers. The permit, legally allowing the spray, is active starting early September and is good for 90 days from the start date.
In 2017 Measure 21-177, a county-wide ban on aerially sprayed pesticides was made law by the voters of Lincoln County. Though understood by a number of governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as a large percentage of the general public in Lincoln County and elsewhere in Oregon of both the dangers and impacts of pesticides as well the aerial application, the state continues to legalize both the use of toxic pesticides and aerial application. Shortly after the adoption of the county law, which also protected the rights of ecosystems from harm which would’ve included Beaver Creek, a lawsuit was filed by timber interests, despite the democratic enactment of the law. After 29 months the law was overturned by a circuit court judge, which was upheld by the court of appeals, based on what is called state preemption of pesticide law, despite the vote of the people. State preemption, or more specifically state ceiling preemption, disallows local jurisdictions the authority to regulate or prohibit activities even where it comes to public and environmental health.
County and state elected officials as well as state agencies have all stated that this spraying is legal and, meets all state requirements for pesticide application. They all agree that the decision to spray or not to spray rests solely with the landowner. The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners wrote a letter to the land owner, “Oregon law makes the decision to spray or not to spray yours. Your ownership of our precious natural resources also comes with a clear ethical, if not legal, obligation to protect them. We urge you to seek alternative means to control unwanted vegetation.”
Local residents and allies from across the county and outside of the county have been calling the impending spray into question as well as mobilizing on their options to stop it. A principal question that has come up in public meetings has been why isn’t there the legal authority to stop the spray. Connected to that questioning and growing outrage is the realization that a single landowner, one who is living overseas, can have more rights to spray and log than the community to prohibit each in defense of public and environmental health.
Willow Kasner let the world know, “We, as a neighborhood and community, do not consent to being poisoned. We do not consent to having these known and proven carcinogenic long term dangerous chemicals sprayed on or near to our precious ecosystem and water supply. We are caretakers of this land, for generations, and we plan to continue to live and thrive healthily here.”
The residents of Beaver Creek are currently creating a GoFundMe page to raise awareness and mount a challenge to this spray event which stands to affect the lives of all residents, humans, wildlife and their watershed for decades. The local group has also started a website.
Tianne Rios says “What the F! How can a guy sitting in a Denmark castle drop a chemical bomb in our country tainting the water supply for multiple communities causing a health crisis in the most beautiful part of the Oregon Coast and there is nothing local residents impacted by the spray can do about it? Something is wrong here and we intend to do something about it.”
Oregon Courts Put Public Health and Local Democracy in Danger
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Rio Davidson Lincoln County Community Rights board
541-961-5606, riodavidson@gmail.com
Debra Fant Lincoln Co. Community Rights board
541-563-372, debrafant@peak.org
www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
December 1st, 2021
Newport, Oregon- Lincoln County Community Right’s Petition of Review regarding a voter adopted ban on harmful aerial spray of pesticides has been denied by the Oregon Supreme Court. In 2017, Lincoln County voters passed Measure 21-177, banning aerial pesticide spraying in the county to protect the health and safety of people and ecosystems. Fronts for the timber and chemical industry promptly filed a lawsuit to overturn the people’s ban. The ban stood and the county enjoyed freedom from chemical trespass for 29 months, until Lincoln County Circuit Court ruled the measure invalid in September, 2019 citing state law(promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, aka ALEC), as over-riding local law even though the local law was more protective of public health and the environment. That ruling was upheld by the appellate court.
Carol Van Strum, author of A Bitter Fog: Herbicides and Human Rights, stated, “Existing environmental laws have done nothing; they’ve literally allowed the poisoning to go ahead.” Aerial spraying of toxic pesticides has been resumed over Lincoln County industrial timber lands in coastal watersheds. The effect that these poisons have on the water supply is documented.
The Oregon Supreme Court was petitioned to hear our aerial spray ban case, as it has far-reaching impacts on citizens of Oregon and beyond. We had asked for consideration of three questions for rulings:
- This case involves a voter-adopted county measure to protect public health and safety. State interference with local law was used to overturn this lawfully passed measure, violating Oregon constitutional rights for human safety.
- The Court was asked to extend analysis of the “state interests” to be used to overturn local law when there are competing rights – in this case conflict of human persons vs. corporate rights. Is the state protecting corporate interests or protecting people? The constitutionally lawful question is: does the local law expand the peoples’ rights, public health or safety protections? Voter-approved Measure 21-177 did expand local health and safety protections.
- Vulnerable Siletz River Ecosystem was refused intervention in circuit court, and was disregarded by both the Appeals Court and the Oregon Supreme Court. In each case, the court was being asked to grant standing for legal protections that limit human abuses on the environment, such as over-allocation of water in drought conditions, toxic chemical trespass,and clear-cutting. Among other harms, these abuses expose streams to sunlight and water temperature rise, and all life forms, including endangered species, to toxicity.
Lincoln County Community Rights submitted documentation supporting the merits of the case and answering the court’s own criteria for “importance.” The merits included challenging a broad array of preemption laws suppressing benefits to the people of Oregon, such as minimum wage raises by cities, plastic bag bans, workers benefits. We called on the justices of the Oregon Supreme Court to put limits on State preemption laws. These laws, often written by corporate interests such as ALEC, overrule local laws to protect health and safety. Oregon Supreme Court Justices denied the people of Lincoln County access to be heard.
“The voters of this county have been denied their day in court, this denial essentially expressing that the will of the majority of voters in this election is unimportant. Democracy has not been served nor is justice possible in this system where state and corporate interests are one, and peoples’ rights and the well-being of the people is disregarded,” commented Lincoln County Community Rights board member Debra Fant.
Lincoln County Community Rights is a public benefit organization that seeks to educate and empower people to exercise their right of local democracy in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, natural environment, quality of life, health and their safety. Given the harm that people and ecosystems suffer from the practice of aerial spraying of industrial forest land with pesticides, the group drafted an ordinance to ban aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County, Oregon. Measure 21-177 was adopted by voters in May 2017, making Lincoln County the first county in the United States to ban aerial pesticide spraying through the vote of the people. www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
To read more find these articles:
Appellate Court Rules Lincoln County Aerial Spray Ban Invalid
Debra Fant, Lincoln Co. Community Rights board
debrafant@peak.org, 541-563-3791
www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
photos available by request
Press info
June 27, 2021
NEWPORT, OR – Lincoln County voters passed Measure 21-177, banning aerial pesticide spraying in the county in May of 2017. Representatives of the timber industry promptly sued to overturn the ban. The aerial spray of toxic chemicals was halted for 29 months, until September 2019 when the Circuit Court ruled Measure 21-177 invalid, thereby over-turning local democracy. Local control of these poisons was deemed preempted, or overruled, by the Oregon Pesticide Control Act, state law which says only the state can regulate pesticide use.
Lincoln County Community Rights (LCCR), the non-profit organization that placed Measure 21-177 on the ballot, filed an appeal against invalidation of the measure and against the court’s refusal to rule on the standing of the Siletz River Ecosystem as a living entity with rights to a voice in the proceedings. The case was heard June 1st, 2021 by the Court of Appeals, June 22 the decision affirmed the lower court ruling with no comment nor opinion.
With this decision, the question of the Siletz Ecosystems’ standing is yet to be considered, the voters’ will is overturned, and the timber industry is free to continue poisoning Lincoln County’s air, soil, and water on timberlands. What was and continues to be at stake is whether the state government exists to protect the people’s right to higher standards of safety for themselves and their environment or to protect industry’s right to poison people and their world for profit.
Jan Kenyon, LCCR Board member, says, “Our group and our allies state-wide will continue to work to secure local democracy. We are considering filing a Petition for Review to be heard by the Oregon Supreme Court. We are committed to building a strong community who believes that local voices are essential voices and local choice is the backbone of balanced governance and our future.”
Lincoln County Community Rights Files Appeal
An appeal was filed to challenge the overturning of Measure 21-177, the aerial spray ban enacted by Lincoln County voters in the May 2017 election to protect their health and safety
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT INFORMATION
Maria Sause
541 574 2961
Rio Davidson
cell 541 961 5606
June 2, 2020
Newport, Oregon – On May 28th, an appeal brief was filed with the Oregon Court of Appeals challenging the Lincoln County Circuit Court’s decision to overturn the ban on aerial spraying of pesticides adopted by the people of Lincoln County in May 2017. The law was challenged by interests tied to big corporate timber shortly after being enacted in 2017. Also contained in the brief filed by Lincoln County Community Rights and Carol Van Strum as a spokesperson for the Siletz River, is a challenge to the court’s denial of intervention by the Siletz River ecosystem in the lawsuit.
The Freedom from Aerially Sprayed Pesticides Ordinance of Lincoln County banned aerial spray of pesticides as a violation of people’s right to clean air, water, and soil. It also secured the rights of natural ecosystems to be free of the toxic trespass caused by aerial pesticide spraying and, with that, the right of those ecosystems to enforce such rights.
Even though the ban was in effect for over two years, during which the logging industry sustained itself economically, thereby showing that aerial pesticide spraying is not necessary, the circuit court ruled in September 2019 that the ban was unenforceable by the government of Lincoln County because it was preempted by state pesticide laws.
“We had to appeal for the sake of the people of Lincoln County and for the natural environment of which we are a part. Aerial spray of pesticides is illegitimately legalized violence against all life and must stop. Not appealing, staying silent, would be akin to surrendering. Our rights must always override corporate profit,” said Maria Sause, one of the founding members of Lincoln County Community Rights.
In arguing why the Siletz River should have been granted standing to defend its rights as secured by the ordinance, the brief makes this point:
There is nothing to prevent this Court from employing similar reasoning to recognize that the ability of ecosystems to participate in lawsuits is not limited by the term “person”, but rather, that term may properly encompass an ecosystem, just as it has come to include corporations and other types of associations
Later, the brief makes a clear assertion around where rights reside in regards to the natural world vs. industrial practices.
There is no inherent or fundamental right to aerially spray pesticides. In contrast, the ecosystem has a fundamental right to exist and thrive, and the activity of aerially spraying pesticides interferes with those rights. The concept of rights of nature is not based solely on the idea that nature has rights. Equally important is the concept that humans have a responsibility toward nature. A judgment in favor of nature or an ecosystem recognizes these rights and responsibilities
The crux of the decision from the Lincoln County Court to overturn Measure 21-177 stems from the belief that state preemption is to be seen by the courts as superior to the right of a community to enact law that expands protections for health, safety, and welfare.
The invention of state preemption is challenged and called out in these separate passages of the appeal brief:
It is clear that the Oregon statute in this case was written by industry lobbyists to use state preemption as a weapon against local public health laws, such as the one enacted by Lincoln County here. While the Circuit Court claimed, “[p]reemption is a legal doctrine; it does not have an inherent political agenda,” (Opinion at 4), instead, we see that preemption is entirely political and that the pesticide preemption statute is an example of an increasing trend in special interests using state preemption as a political weapon at the expense of the public’s health and safety.
Oregon’s Pesticide Control Act, the preemptive law in question, is nearly a carbon copy of model legislation put forward by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the mid 90’s. ALEC is a mouthpiece and political juggernaut for corporate America that moves bills in state legislatures (including Oregon’s) and suppresses local democracy in favor of corporate profit.
The doctrine of preemption should not be applied, as it was in this case, to give precedence to a state law that restricts or interferes with fundamental rights, such as the right to health and safety. The Legislature’s imposition of a uniform, statewide system of pesticide regulation under Oregon’s Pesticide Control Act prevents the people of Lincoln County from securing and protecting their fundamental right to clean air, water, and soil free of aerially sprayed pesticides.
Local communities across the nation assert more expansive rights and protections than those offered at the federal and state level. It is time for the courts to adopt a standard for the preemption doctrine which renders it inapplicable to local laws securing fundamental rights by requiring that preemption be narrowly justified by an important state interest.
The briefing schedule will continue on approximately until October, until the court can set a hearing date, most likely in 2021.
ABOUT LINCOLN COUNTY COMMUNITY RIGHTS
Lincoln County Community Rights is a public benefit organization that seeks to educate and empower people to exercise their right of local community self-government in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, their natural environment, their quality of life, their health and their safety. Given the harm that people and ecosystems suffer from the practice of aerial spraying of industrial forest land with pesticides, the group drafted an ordinance to ban aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County, Oregon. Measure 21-177 was adopted by voters in May 2017, making Lincoln County the first county in the United States to ban aerial pesticide spraying through the vote of the people. www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
XXX
Kboo radio Story
Timber Corporations Have More Rights
Than People of Lincoln County Says Court; Aerial Spray Ban Overturned
Court rules that state preemption overrides local control; denies the right of local communities to protect their health and safety at a higher standard than the state.
September 30, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Maria Sause
mkrausster@gmail.com
541.574.2961
Rio Davidson
riodavidson@gmail.com
541.961.5606
Newport, Oregon: On September 23rd Judge Sheryl Bachart issued her ruling in the case of Rex Capri and Wakefield Farms, LLC vs. Dana W. Jenkins and Lincoln County. After reviewing written arguments and hearing oral arguments on October 9th, 2017, the judge made the determination that Measure 21-177 is invalid based on state law regulating pesticide use.
Affirming the claims of the plaintiffs means the law known as Measure 21-177, enacted by the voters of Lincoln County in 2017 to prohibit aerial spraying of pesticides, has been overturned.
“The fight for our legal, constitutional, and fundamental right of local self-government marches on, and it is going to take the political will of the people to make it a reality if we ever want to stop living under the thumb of corporate government.” said Rio Davidson, President of Lincoln County Community Rights.
Lincoln County Community Rights (LCCR) was allowed to intervene in (join) the case. The Siletz River watershed ecosystem, represented by Lincoln County resident Carol Van Strum, also filed to be part of the case, but was denied intervention by Judge Bachart.
In her judgment decision, Judge Bachart said that Measure 21-177 is an adoption of an Ordinance regarding pesticide use and is therefore subject to the preemptive effect of the Oregon Pesticide Act, which prohibits local governments from making any ordinance, rule or regulation governing pesticide sale or use. She therefore overturned the measure. She based the decision squarely on state preemption laws dealing with pesticide use, whereby the state holds authority over local governments.
What the judge did not substantively consider was the issue of the right of local self-government and how it must prevail against state preemption when exercised to protect health, safety, and welfare. LCCR submitted the following argument with which the court could have ruled in favor of the people and county government:
It is widely recognized that, under the Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, states have the authority to recognize and secure “unenumerated” rights (rights not expressly stated in the Constitution), and thereby to establish greater rights at the state level than the protections provided under federal law. Likewise, between state and local levels of government, Article I,
Section 33 of the Oregon Constitution– which closely mirrors the Ninth Amendment – recognizes the same limitation on the state’s general powers to violate the “unenumerated” rights of the sovereign people at the local level. Within this body of “unenumerated” rights, and together with Article I, Section 1 of the Oregon Constitution, lies the people’s natural, inherent and unchallengeable right of local community self-government. Exercising this fundamental right, the people may recognize and secure expanded local rights and prohibitions that surpass current state protections. By the same token, the State cannot pass laws that hinder or prohibit the exercise of the people’s right of local community self-government. Said another way, state preemptive laws – when applied to set a “ceiling” (maximum protection allowed) rather than a “floor” (minimum protection required) for local rights-based lawmaking – violate a fundamental right in both the U.S. and Oregon constitutions. As such, current state preemptive laws – like those cited by Plaintiffs – violate the right of local community self-government, and thus cannot operate to overturn the Ordinance at issue.
“We look forward to pursuing the rights to local community self-government in the appellate courts of Oregon”, said Dan Meek, attorney for Lincoln County Community Rights.
At the time of this press release it is not known if the County will appeal the decision. Appeals will be filed by Lincoln County Community Rights and by the Siletz River Watershed, which was denied the opportunity to take part in the court proceeding.
ABOUT LINCOLN COUNTY COMMUNITY RIGHTS
Lincoln County Community Rights is a public benefit organization that seeks to educate and empower people to exercise their right of local community self-government in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, their natural environment, their quality of life, their health and their safety. Given the harms that people and ecosystems suffer from the practice of aerial spraying of industrial forest land with pesticides, the group drafted an ordinance to ban aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County, Oregon. Measure 21-177 was adopted by voters in May 2017, making Lincoln County the first county in the United States to ban aerial pesticide spraying through the vote of the people. www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
Lincoln County will have to wait for a decision on the legality of Measure 21-177
October 11, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Media Contacts
Maria Sause ,mkrausster@gmail.com ,541 574 296, cell 541 961 6385
Rio Davidson, cell 541 961 5606,riodavidson@gmail.com
Newport, Oregon: On Monday, October 9th, Judge Sheryl Bachart heard from the parties in the lawsuit Rex Capri and Wakefield Farms, LLC vs. Dana W. Jenkins and Lincoln County, and intervenor-defendants Lincoln County Community Rights. The lawsuit was filed in response to the ban on aerial pesticide spraying imposed by the vote of the people on May 16, 2017. During yesterday’s hearing, and after delivering their arguments, the parties asked for a Summary Judgment from Judge Backart in a courtroom packed by attending public.
Lincoln County Community Rights, Intervenor-defendants, held a rally at the intersection of Highway 101 and Highway 20. LCCR was supported by a crowd of over 30 people, who waved signs at passing vehicles calling out the issues that motivated Measure 21-177, among them the harm done by aerial pesticide spraying to people and ecosystems, the injustice of laws drafted by corporations for approval by our legislature which make it illegal for the people to protect their health and safety more stringently than the state’s regulations allow. This is known as State preemption. “Preemption laws are emblematic of the “top-down” hierarchical, authoritarian control preferred by corporations. Rather than have to contend with thousands of town and counties, the corporations need only seduce state and federal legislators who are always on the prowl for campaign cash,” said LCCR member John Colman-Pinning. LCCR members also called for better protection of our ecosystems and for recognition of the Rights of Nature. Honking horns saluted the sign waivers.
Attorney for Plaintiffs, Gregory A. Chaimov, argued for full annulment of Measure 21-177, on the grounds that it is preempted by state legislation, which declares that pesticide regulation is the exclusive province of the state and are more powerful than the right of the people to make law that advances greater protections for health and safety.
Lincoln County, represented by County Counsel Wayne Belmont, although defending only a small portion of the ban on aerial pesticide spraying as applying to county property and to land located within urban growth boundaries, did say that the people’s right to bring new law forward through the initiative process needs to be protected. In his argument, Wayne Belmont favored salvaging portions of Measure 21-177 and asked for advice from the judge in doing that. The judge can comment on the ordinance, but cannot add language to it or subtract language from it.
Attorney for Intervenor-Defendants Lincoln County Community Rights, Ann Kneeland, raised the argument to the high moral ground where it belongs by bringing in the language of the Declaration of Independence (recognized as an organic law of the United States and part of the United States Code), and of Section 1, Article 1 of the Constitution of the State of Oregon. Both documents refer to the people’s inherent right to local community self-government in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, listed in each. They also refer to the government power that is inherent to the people, and to their right to change that government when it fails to protect their fundamental rights. She also referred to the power to influence legislation which corporations have acquired through the Supreme Court ruling that “money is speech”, exposing where our government is failing us by allowing our legislatures to be influenced by the profit interests of corporations, although there is no law that states that they can do this.
Judge Bachart did not issue a final ruling on the lawsuit questioning the legality of Measure 21-177 and will take the time she needs to review all arguments and reach her decision. That time may or may not come until the beginning of next year. To see all of the filed court documents please visit www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/court-documents.
ABOUT LINCOLN COUNTY COMMUNITY RIGHTS
Lincoln County Community Rights is a public benefit organization that seeks to educate and empower people to exercise their right of local community self-government in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, their natural environment, their quality of life, their health and their safety. Given the harms that people and ecosystems suffer from the practice of aerial spraying of industrial forest land with pesticides, the group drafted an ordinance to ban aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County, Oregon. Measure 21-177 was adopted by voters in May 2017, making Lincoln County the first county in the United States to ban aerial pesticide spraying through the vote of the people. www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/press-info/
Today in Lincoln County Court
Hearing on October 9th to look at Lincoln County’s measure 21-177 a ban on aerial spraying of pesticides
October 9, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Maria Sause
mkrausster@gmail.com
541.574.2981 541.961.6385
Rio Davidson
riodavidson@gmail.com
541.961.5606
Newport, Oregon: On the morning of October 9th, Judge Sheryl Bachart will hear from parties in the lawsuit Rex Capri and Wakefield Farms, LLC vs. Dana W. Jenkins and Lincoln County, and intervenor-defendants Lincoln County Community Rights. The lawsuit was filed in response to the people’s affirmative vote to ban aerial spraying of pesticides in Lincoln County on May 16, 2017. The ballot measure, Measure 21-177, has been law in Lincoln County since early June, and no documented aerial spraying has occurred since then.
In their original complaint and associated briefs, plaintiffs Rex Capri of Newport and Wakefield Farms LLC of Eddyville claim that the county’s ban on aerial spraying of pesticides is overridden by state preemption laws. If that claim is upheld, it would mean that the authority of corporations to engage in aerial pesticide spraying for profit is held to be superior to the right of the people of Lincoln County to ban such spraying due to its documented harms to public health and the environment.
The most recent evidence of the toxic effect of pesticides came to light a month or so ago when it finally became possible to release an extensive collection of documents, now referred to as the Poison Papers (www.poisonpapers.org). The documents had been stored for several decades by Lincoln County resident Carol Van Strum, a key figure in getting the government to stop aerial pesticide spraying on federal forests in Lincoln County back in the 1980’s.
The plaintiffs claim additionally that the measure should never have been voted on in the first place because the county lacked the authority to even pose the question of an aerial spray ban to the voters of Lincoln County.
“Do we, as a community, have the right to determine to protect ourselves, our children, and our environment from a clear harm like the spraying of pesticides from aircraft into the atmosphere?” asks John Colman-Pinning, long-time Lincoln County resident and activist with intervenor-defendants Lincoln County Community Rights. “We wholeheartedly believe we do have that right and that is what the court must affirm as a legitimate right.”
In defending the authority of Lincoln County voters to enact the ban, Lincoln County Community Rights (LCCR) will be asserting the people’s right of local community self-government. LCCR will argue that, based on their inherent and inalienable right to self-govern, the people of Lincoln County have lawfully enacted local rights to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the County’s residents and environment more stringently than the state is willing to protect them. The voters’ approval of Measure 21-177 also protects the community’s rights to clean air and water. Additionally, LCCR argues that, even under the state’s laws, the ordinance is lawful because local laws are presumed to be valid except where the law conflicts with preemptive statutes. LCCR maintains that the laws can be read to coexist where they seek to achieve different purposes.
“This case gets to the heart of who and what our laws are meant to protect: the people or corporations? Community welfare or corporate profits? Lincoln County Community Rights is standing up to say that the law must recognize the right of the people, not corporations, to decide fundamental issues in the communities where they live.” says Ann Kneeland, attorney for LCCR.
The hearing on the parties’ motions for summary judgment will be heard at 11:00 am on Monday, October 9th, in front of Judge Sheryl Bachart, in Courtroom 300 of the Lincoln County Courthouse in Newport.
ABOUT LINCOLN COUNTY COMMUNITY RIGHTS
Lincoln County Community Rights is a public benefit organization that seeks to educate and empower people to exercise their right of local community self-government in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, their natural environment, their quality of life, their health and their safety. Given the harms that people and ecosystems suffer from the practice of aerial spraying of industrial forest land with pesticides, the group drafted an ordinance to ban aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County, Oregon. Measure 21-177 was adopted by voters in May 2017, making Lincoln County the first county in the United States to ban aerial pesticide spraying through the vote of the people. www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/press-info/
###
Siletz River to Appear in Court
Hearing on September 11th to determine granting intervention to the Siletz River Ecosystem.
September 6, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts for Lincoln County Community Rights:
mkrausster@gmail.com riodavidson@gmail.com
541 574 2961; cell 541 961 6385 cell 541 961 5606
Newport, Oregon: In the morning of September 11th, Judge Sheryl Backart will hear from proponents of the Siletz River Ecosystem why it should be granted admission into the lawsuit Rex Capri and Wakefield Farms LLC (Plaintiffs) v. Dana W. Jenkins and Lincoln County (Defendants), and Lincoln County Community Rights (Intervenor-Defendant).
The lawsuit, filed in June by Rex Capri of Newport and Wakefield Farms LLC of Eddyville, claims that voter-approved Measure 21-177 cannot ban aerial spray of pesticides because plaintiffs have more legal rights to continue to spray aerial pesticides than the people do to ban the practice. Measure 21-177 has been law in Lincoln County since early June, as approved by voters on May 16, and since then no documented aerial spraying has occurred.
Pesticides have been documented as being toxic and harmful to people and the environment for a long time. The most recent evidence of that, and of collusion of the EPA with the pesticide industry to falsify and hide that evidence, came to light when 20 tons of documents stored for close to 40 years in a dusty barn by Lincoln County resident Carol Van Strum, were finally scanned, digitized and made available to the public this last August through the efforts of Carol Van Strum and Peter Von Stackelsburg, her publisher, with the help of funding from The Center for Media and Democracy. Carol Van Strum was a key figure in getting the government to stop aerial pesticide spraying on federal forests in Lincoln County back in the 1980´s. The collection of documents stored in her barn has been made available to the public at – www.poisonpapers.org. Access to the complete and continually updated documents is available at http://thegemstonefile.org/the-documents.html.
The Siletz River Ecosystem filed a motion to intervene in July, with Carol Van Strum acting as its advocate. Measure 21-177, Section 3a, establishes the following rights, among others (in Sections 3b and 3c) for ecosystems and natural communities:
Right to be Free from Toxic Trespass. All people of Lincoln County, along with natural communities and ecosystems within the County, possess the right to be free of aerially sprayed pesticides.
The intervention of the Siletz River Ecosystem marks the third ecosystem in the United States to take legal action to protect its rights.
“No other river provides more drinking water to Lincoln Co. residents than the Siletz River watershed,” says Debra Fant of Waldport, registered nurse and supporter of Measure 21-177. Corporations granted ‘personhood’ rights seek to protect their profits; the Siletz River ecosystem’s stake is defending life and well-being including that of humans living downstream. It’s time to give voice for Nature’s Rights to be free of poisons and defended in our courts.”
The Siletz River gorge landscape has changed drastically in the last ten years. The entire Siletz watershed has lost 46% of its forest in the last 16 years. Huge clear-cuts have all been aerially sprayed with pesticides multiple times. The steep terrain, barren of vegetation, leads to mudslides and pesticide run-off into the river and smaller feeder creeks. Steep slopes entail a major risk of contaminating the river and streams during the spray season. The Siletz River is an important source of drinking water for Lincoln County. This area is also a crucial salmon and steel-head habitat.
Over the last year, high courts in New Zealand, India, and Colombia have recognized rights for rivers as a means of creating a higher standard of protection for those ecosystems. In Ecuador, the federal constitution has recognized the rights of nature since 2008, and has held in two different legal cases that rivers have rights which human activity has violated and that restitution goes to restoring the damaged ecosystems.
The hearing on the motion to intervene will be heard at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, September 11th, 2017, in front of Judge Sheryl Bachart, in room 300 of the Lincoln County Courthouse in Newport.
ABOUT LINCOLN COUNTY COMMUNITY RIGHTS
Lincoln County Community Rights is a public benefit organization that seeks to educate and empower people to exercise their right of local community self-government in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, their natural environment, their quality of life, their health and their safety. Given the harms that people and ecosystems suffer from the practice of aerial pesticide spraying of industrial forestland, the group drafted an ordinance to ban aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County, Oregon. Measure 21-177 was adopted by voters in May 2017, making Lincoln County the first county in the United States to ban aerial pesticide spraying through the vote of the people. www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org
###
All documents filed in this lawsuit are available to the public at http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/court-documents/
Press information and photos are at www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/press-info/
Siletz River Takes Legal Action to Defend Its Rights
July 24th, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT
| Maria Sause
mkrausster@gmailcom 541 574 2961; cell 541 961 6385 |
Rio Davidson
riodavidson@gmail.com cell 541 961 5606 |
Newport, Oregon: This afternoon the Siletz River Ecosystem filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit Rex Capri and Wakefield Farms, LLC v. Dana W. Jenkins and Lincoln County, and Lincoln County Community Rights. This is the third ecosystem in the United States to take legal action to protect its rights, secured in this case by Measure 21-177, which was adopted by Lincoln County voters in the May 2017 election.
The two plaintiffs – Rex Capri of Newport and Wakefield Farms of Eddyville – claim that their “right” to spray toxic pesticides aerially is greater than the right of the people of Lincoln County to protect public health, clean water, and the rights of ecosystems and natural communities not to be poisoned from the air.
Lincoln County Community Rights (LCCR) was granted intervention in the case on July 2, 2017, after the county made it clear that their interest lies merely in getting an opinion from the court and not in actively defending the law adopted by voters in May.
“I have lived in Lincoln County for 43 years in a home surrounded by river and forest. I am part of the ecosystems of Lincoln County,” says Carol Van Strum, advocate for the intervention of the Siletz Ecosystem. “The Declaration of Independence itself asserts that the laws of nature pre-empt human law. Like the Lorax, I speak for the rights of waters and forests and wildlife to challenge human violations of natural law.”
For the first time, the Siletz ecosystem and all Lincoln County natural communities and ecosystems have secured the right to be free from toxic trespass from aerially sprayed pesticides, a right that is essential to ecosystems’ on-going health, function and survival. That right is stated in Section 2(a) of Measure 21-177 or the Freedom from Aerially Sprayed Pesticides Ordinance of Lincoln County.
The Siletz watershed has lost 46% of its forest in the last 16 years. Huge clear-cuts resulting from strip logging abound in the area and have all been aerially sprayed with pesticides multiple times. Barren of vegetation, the steep terrain causes mudslides and pesticide run-off into the river and smaller feeder creeks, posing a major risk of contaminating a major source of drinking water for Lincoln County, and additionally destroying crucial habitat for salmon and steelhead.
Over the last year, high courts in New Zealand, India, and Colombia have recognized rights for rivers as a means of creating a higher standard of protection for those ecosystems. In Ecuador, the federal constitution has recognized rights of nature since 2008, and two different legal cases have affirmed that rivers have rights and that human activity violates those rights. Restitution penalties go to restoring the ecosystem.
“Protecting nature’s rights through law came from rural, conservative Pennsylvania”, says Kai Huschke of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, the public interest law firm representing LCCR and the Siletz Ecosystem. “Decades of environmental destruction in Pennsylvania made it a no brainer for folks there to protect – at the highest level – what sustains them. Today over three dozen communities in the United States, including Lincoln County, have stepped forward to secure nature’s rights.”
Though the lawsuit continues to move forward, there is no indication as to how soon the court will respond to the motion to intervene by the Siletz River Ecosystem.
ABOUT LINCOLN COUNTY COMMUNITY RIGHTS
Lincoln County Community Rights is a public benefit organization that seeks to educate and empower people to exercise their right of local community self-government in matters that pertain to their fundamental rights, their natural environment, their quality of life, their health and their safety. Given the harms that people and ecosystems suffer from the practice of aerial spraying of industrial forest land with pesticides, the group drafted an ordinance to ban aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County, Oregon. Measure 21-177 was adopted by voters in May 2017, making Lincoln County the first county in the United States to ban aerial pesticide spraying through the vote of the people.
http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/press-info/
Measure 21-177, which is also known as the Freedom from Aerially Sprayed Pesticides Ordinance of Lincoln County, secures the rights of people to be free from toxic trespass, the right to clean air, water, and soil, and the right to enjoy outdoor recreation all free from the harm of aerial sprayed pesticides. In addition, the rights of ecosystems and natural communities in Lincoln County are also protected from aerial spray of pesticides.
Lincoln County Bans Aerial Pesticide Spraying
Measure 21-177 increases its lead to 61 votes, winning a highly contested election
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Maria Sause Rio Davidson
mkrausster@gmail.com riodavidson@gmail.com
541 574 2961; cell 541 961 6385 cell 541 961 5606
Newport, Oregon – A majority of voters who returned to sign unsigned ballots approved Measure 21-177, bringing the total vote to 6994 for the ban versus 6933 against it, making the ban on aerial pesticide spraying in Lincoln County a reality. Thanks to the many people who volunteered and campaigned so valiantly, the vast amounts spent by corporate opponents failed to convince voters that profits are more important than health, safety, and the right to informed consent.
By this victory, Lincoln County is the first county in the United States to ban aerial spraying of pesticides by the vote of the people. This is not the first time Lincoln County has spoken truth to power and won.
“Back in 1976, folks here put Lincoln County on the map by winning a huge landmark case against the United States government, stopping federal spraying of Agent Orange on our forests and homes and waterways,” said Susan Parker Swift. “Now Lincoln County has done it again. I couldn’t be prouder to share this repeat victory!”
Barbara Davis, co-petitioner of measure 21-177, says our win brought to her mind the following quote by Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
This election was the first major hurdle Measure 21-177 had to overcome to become a reality. Implementation of the measure, and the obstacles to it that opponents will raise, among them superior “rights” to override the rights of the people, including the people’s right to vote and their constitutional right to safety, are next. Citizens for a Healthy County will continue to meet those challenges, and welcomes all who are willing to join us in the effort.
Citizens for a Healthy County
For more information www.yes-on-21-177.org
Facebook www.facebook.com/yeson21177
You Tube Vote Yes on 21-177 to Ban Aerial Pesticide Spraying
Lincoln County Bans Aerial Spray of Pesticides
Despite unprecedented spending by the timber industry
and other corporate interests voters say yes to Measure 21-177
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Maria Sause
mkrausster@gmail.com
541-574-2961
cell:541-961-6385
Rio Davidson
riodavidson@gmail.com
cell:541-961-5606
yes-on-21-177.org/
Newport – Voters made their minds known where it comes to the industrial timber practice of aerially spraying pesticides by voting to accept Measure 21-177, the Freedom from Aerially Sprayed Pesticides of Lincoln County ordinance, by 6,928 to 6,901 votes. Campaigning under the banner of “Protect Our Children, Our Water, and Our Rights” the Yes on Measure 21-177 campaign has successfully adopted a law that would put an end to the 40+ year practice of aerially spraying toxic pesticides in order to protect the rights to clean water, public health, and environment.
Measure 21-177 is in the lead for now. Final results will be available on May 30th, after 100 voters who turned in unsigned ballots have been given time to come in and sign their ballots. If the lead that Measure 21-177 holds now persists, Lincoln will become the first county in the United States to ban aerial spraying of pesticides and to do so by the vote of the people.
“It’s been a long time building and voting YES on Measure 21-177 marks the culmination point on putting an end to legal poisoning of people, animals, and water”, says Barbara Davis, co-petitioner of Citizens for a Healthy County, the political committee of the Yes on Measure 21-177 campaign. “We are extremely grateful for all the support and most of all that the obscene amounts of corporate money against the measure failed to sway voters.”
Measure 21-177 goes into effect 30 days after adoption and prohibits the aerial spray of pesticides in order to secure the right to clean air, water, and the overall right to health of people and ecosystems. The common practice of the industrial timber industry is to aerially spray toxic pesticides (1 to 2 applications yearly over a period of 3 to 5 years) on clear-cuts to kill off vegetation “competing” with newly planted and young commodity crop trees. This practice eliminates diversity of our forests, drifts in and contaminates our air, water, and soil. It harms our wildlife, sickening and killing animals, including deer and salmon. It contaminates us through our water, repeated exposures making many of us sick, and killing a considerable number of people.
An organized group of citizens in Lane County is actively petitioning for a similar ban on aerial spraying with the goal of reaching the May 2018 ballot. The community rights efforts in Lincoln and Lane counties are connected to a state-wide initiative effort in Oregon to amend the constitution in order to secure the right of local community self-government. The amendment would place the right of the people in communities to protect their health, safety, and welfare over that of so-called corporate “rights” being used today to drive unwanted projects and practices into communities. To read about this effort, please visit www.orcrn.org, www.oregoncommunityrights.org .
“The banning of the toxic spraying is big, but so is the fact that the people of Lincoln County voted to exercise their right of self-government over that of big corporations calling the shots”, says Rio Davidson of Lincoln County Community Rights.
Supporters of the measure and Lincoln County Community Rights are prepared for the possibility of a legal challenge by the timber industry and/or other corporate supporters. Such a lawsuit would deny the right of the people and their vote to adopt Measure 21-177 as well as pit the so-called “rights” of private corporations to aerially spray toxic pesticides over the right of the people of Lincoln County to ban harmful corporate practices in order to protect specific rights related to health, safety, and welfare.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For more information, visit: yes-on-21-177.org/ and lincolncountycommunityrights.org
