Voters in the Mood for Clearing: Road Signs, Gold Mines, Forests
11/4/98
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Title: Voters in the Mood for Clearing: Road Signs, Gold Mines, Forests
Source: The Associated Press
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 11/4/98
As voters chose to clear up road views in Alaska and gold mines in
Montana, they also allowed the timber industry to continue clearing
forests in Oregon.
Armed with a $3.1 million campaign chest, the timber industry crushed a
grassroots campaign to outlaw clearcutting on state and private timber
lands. But the lopsided victory is unlikely to mark the end of the battle
for Oregon's forests.
"This was a flawed measure," University of Oregon economist Ed Whitelaw
said Tuesday of Measure 64. "You've got all these people coming to the
state, and they ain't coming to look at stumps."
Oregon Forest Industries Council President Tim Wigley said the industry
has shown it is willing to change its ways, going so far as to voluntarily
tax itself to support restoration of salmon runs hurt by generations of
logging. "If it is science-driven, the industry is going to be there at
the table dealing with this," he said.
Trees in Oregon have a more promising future than billboards in Alaska.
Voters there reaffirmed the state's 49-year-old ban on billboards, and
repealed a state law that allowed small tourist-oriented signs on private
property outside the highway rights-of-way.
The state has long permitted directional signs on public land next to
roads, and last year it allowed them on private land, too. Opponents
argued that expansion could be a step toward billboards.
In South Dakota, voters tightened restrictions on corporate farming, in a
measure clearly aimed at big hog farms and their odors. Supporters said
the changes would protect family farmers from the competitive advantages
of large, corporate-backed hog farms.
Opponents argued it would eliminate choices for farmers who want to go
into partnership with nonfarm corporations. The farming business is
changing, and farmers must also change in order to survive, opponents
said.
Hogs were also on the minds of Colorado voters. They decided to require
farmers to put odor-controlling covers on lagoons containing raw hog
sewage. The measure also requires that such lagoons be built with stricter
standards to protect groundwater.
Californians offered mixed environmental messages. Voters in Southern
California rejected a proposal to protect farmland from urban sprawl,
while voters in Northern California embraced the chance to thwart
development on their open land.
In Montana, voters banned cyanide leaching technology at n open-pit gold
mines and mine expansions. Cyanide is used to separate gold from low-grade
ore.
Supporters of the ban said the technology was too dangerous, while
opponents said the initiative targeted mining itself and would hurt the
economy.
"This is a blow to jobs in Montana, ... a blow to Montana's future," said
Mike Collins, president of Independent Montana Miners.
Copyright 1998. The Associated Press.