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Bill’s Guests for: Friday, January 5, 2018:
6:10: Dr. Steven Greenleaf, “Steve The Marine,” talks with Bill this morning. Today, we talk about the fledgling marijuana industry, and the Trump Administration’s new decree that the federal government will not slack when enforcing marijuana laws.
7:10: Greg Roberts, Mr. Outdoors himself from RogueWeather.com calls in to bring to you the Friday, Water World Boat & Powersport, Outdoor Report.
7:15: Capt. Bill Simpson, retired U.S. Merchant Marine officer, emergency preparedness expert and outdoor journalist at MyOutdoorBuddy.com and The Western Journal talks with Bill.
Capt. Bill has been trying to respond to an op-ed that was printed in the Medford Mail Tribune, but has not had much luck, for whatever reason. He checks in to talk about it.
8am State Representative Julie Parrish (R-Tualatin/West Linn) talks with Bill briefly. Rep. Parrish is here to talk about some of the issues, regarding some upcoming measures in the special election. Especially Measure 101, which looks to tax you on your health insurance.
January 4, 2018
The Medford City Planning Commission is set to hold a series of four open house meetings concerning transportation plans in the city. The goal is to gain input from residents on the future of transportation in Medford. The meetings are tentatively scheduled as follows.
Ward 1: Tuesday, January 9, 2018, at North Medford High School Commons. 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
Ward 4: Wednesday, January 17, 2018, at The Smullin Health Education Center. 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
Ward 2: Tuesday, January, 23, 2018, at The Medford Library – Carpenter Room. 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
Ward 3: Wednesday, January 24, 2018, at The Santo Community Center. 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
Bill’s Guests for: Thursday, January 4, 2018:
6:35: Gary Byrne, former Secret Service agent and New York Times Bestselling author of the book: “Crisis of Character,” talks with Bill today. Gary has penned a new book, and is here to talk about it with Bill today!
“Secrets of The Secret Service: The History and Uncertain Future of The U.S. Secret Service.”
Gary’s new book offers an inside peek of the Secret Service and the inner-workings of an agency plagued by politicization and corruption, and why Congress needs to hold oversight hearings before one of the most important agencies in the world suddenly poses serious danger to the President and the nation. Gary provides eyewitness accounts and reporting that reveal politicians who routinely break protocols to serve their personal needs, while at the same time the agency doesn’t do enough to discipline those who break protocols within their own ranks.
Pick up your copy today by clicking this link!
7:35: State Senator Alan DeBoer calls in to tell you what to expect as we head into the next State legislative session.
8:10: Cliff Maloney, President of Young Americans for Liberty calls the show today.
Today, Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) confirms that, thanks to the efforts of YAL students and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Skyline College has eliminated its unconstitutional restrictions on free speech that prevented student and YAL Chapter President Eric Corgas from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution and rolling around a free speech ball.
Young Americans for Liberty is comprised of students who engage in activism to promote the ideas of liberty and freedom. YAL activism includes handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution on college campuses to promote an open and civil discussion as a part of the national Fight for Free Speech campaign. YAL’s efforts have restored First Amendment Rights to 633,080 students and revised 30 unconstitutional free speech policies.
In October, Eric and other YAL members were holding a free speech ball event and handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution when Skyline administrators informed them that they needed to complete a permit application before engaging in any expressive activity on campus.
Following the incident FIRE attorneys informed Skyline College and the San Mateo County Community College District, of which Skyline is a part, that its policies violated the students’ First Amendment rights and were inconsistent with a district policy on expressive rights on campus. The college responded in agreement and subsequently amended its policies to ensure students can engage in expressive activity outside of the school’s free speech zone. Furthermore, permits are now no longer required to exercise First Amendment rights on campus.
“There are too many colleges like Skyline that have unconstitutional free speech policies restricting students’ abilities to educate their peers on the ideologies they believe in” said YAL President Cliff Maloney. “The First Amendment does not require a permit, and I am glad Skyline College now agrees.”
“Public colleges can’t limit student expressive activity to ‘free speech areas’ or require that they fill out permits before engaging in expressive activity,” said FIRE Staff Attorney Brynne Madway. “We commend Skyline and the District for changing Skyline’s policies so quickly in response to our letter, and we are glad that Skyline students will return to school in 2018 with policies that would earn a ‘green light’ in our Spotlight Database.”
Follow the Young Americans for Liberty on Twitter: @YALiberty, and, check out their website for more great content, and to find a local chapter of YAL: YALiberty.org.
Bill’s Guests for: Wednesday, January 3, 2018:
6:35: Dr. Paul Nathanson, an inter-sexual dialogue academic, and co-author of the book: “Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture,” talks with Bill.
Perhaps it was inevitable that equal time should have been granted to those who claim that modern popular culture is biased against men. Nathanson and Young (religious studies, McGill Univ.) use an extensive appendix of antimale bias in film, television, and even greeting cards to show that in the past ten years, the pendulum has swung too far.
During the last 2 decades journalists and ideologues exploited media events in ways that created a worldview based on gynocentrism and misandry. In that atmosphere, courts and legislatures established systemic discrimination against men. This not only institutionalized misandry, but also undermined the moral and democratic foundations of society.
In the first three volumes of this series, Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young challenge theories about patriarchy that ideological forms of feminism have promoted. In this volume, they argue that we must replace those misandric theories with one that takes seriously the needs and problems of boys and men no less than those of girls and women; at the same time, they add, we must maintain the reforms that egalitarian forms of feminism have promoted.
Get your copy of the book right HERE.
7:10: Dr. Tracey Wilen, author of the book: “Digital Disruptions: The Future of Work, Skills, Leadership, Education and Careers in A Digital World,” talks with Bill. Dr. Wilen joins the show today to bring you 10 Disruptive Predictions for 2018.
You can pre-order your copy of her new book at Amazon.com, and check out Dr. Wilen’s website: TraceyWilen.com. You can also follow Dr. Wilen on Twitter: @traciwilen, on Instagram and Facebook.
7:35: Lt. Justin Ivens of the Medford Police Department drops by the studio to bring to you the Crime Stoppers of Southern Oregon Case of The Week.
8:45: Lee Greene from JC Concerts joins Bill, live in studio, and also, Ron DeStefano a singer and professional tap dancer calls in from New York City for today’s segment of “Whose Business Is It Anyway?” This Sunday is JC Concerts presentation of: Two On Tap.
Bill’s Guests for: Tuesday, January 2, 2018: Happy New Year!!
7:10: Greg Roberts, Mr. Outdoors from RogueWeather.com, calls in to bring to you, the Water World Boat & Powersport, Outdoor Report.
7:15: Capt. Bill Simpson, retired U.S. Merchant Marine officer, emergency preparedness expert and wilderness survival journalist calls in. Today, we’ll break down how a Greenie professor pretends to want to buy Capt. Bill’s land to spy on his “Wild Horse,” brigade.
Dear Editor:
I think it only fair that I have equal access to air my perspective and provide a rebuttal to the assertions made by Dennis Odion, Dominic DiPaolo and Dominick A. DellaSala (‘ODD”) in their Guest Opinion: All the king’s horses can’t make wildfires go away, which you published 12:01 on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2017. Using misleading statements, they have attacked my thesis regarding instrumental role that grass and brush plays in relatively recently evolved super-hot catastrophic (abnormal) wildfires that are now plaguing the western United States, as well as a reasonable cost-effective solution known as Wild Horse Fire Brigade.
Here is my rebuttal for publication:
—————————————————————————
The Local Wildfire Policy Battle Has Begun: Let’s Save Our Forests And Much More!
By: William E. Simpson II
Recently an opinion article was published in the Medford Mail Tribune titled All the king’s horses can’t make wildfires go away, by Dennis Odion, Dominick DellaSala & Dominic DiPaolo; hereinafter referred-to as ‘ODD’).
From my perspective as well as those of their many critics, they seem to prefer to let our forests burn and in doing so, kill much of the wildlife, flora and fauna and devastate watersheds and fisheries rather than re-introduce native-species wild horses into and around carefully selected wilderness forest areas where they rightfully belong and had existed for millennia. Wild horses have existing in North America for many millennia, as well as the past hundred-years or so as recorded in local newspapers and writings.
I am sorry that ODD hasn’t had the time, the money or both that are needed to accumulate the prerequisite knowledge and years of field experience with wild horses and their behavioral ecology required to fully comprehend the thesis posited by the Natural Wildfire Abatement And Forest Protection Plan, also known as the Wild Horse Fire Brigade, which has found support and endorsement by many scientists, politicians and tens of thousands of American voters.
Most readers don’t have any idea as to who I am, so a cursory introduction seems indicated. Sure, I earned couple college degrees, so what? Does a PhD or any degree for that matter come with some guarantee of unconditional trust, reliability, infallibility, or fiduciary duty? I think not.
I believe that motive and experience are just as important (maybe more?), and that book-learning, field trips and videos are no substitutes for spending years (24/7-365) in an ecosystem. Also of great import is how much a person truly cares for the well-being and livelihood of fellow Americans, including complete strangers, as evidenced by walking the talk. And caring enough that, with forethought, placing your own life on the line for others, as our military, police, fire and EMS personnel do, is evidence of such caring.
I have done that for my fellow man on several occasions by sailing-out into a tempest when all other sailors were desperately seeking a safe port, to search for complete strangers lost overboard in the angry seas (http://williamesimpson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/USCG_rescue.jpg).
I care for people, I care for our Country, and I care for our natural resources, which are finite. This is no hobby for my family and I, it is our way of life. We own and manage hundreds of acres of wilderness lands and forest with an eye for sustainability and a bright future for our children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren and our neighbors. So we have skin in the game. Our lands share the fence with Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, which is dangerously overgrown and loaded with ground fuels; a tinder-box ready to burst into a firestorm. And so that potential fire problem is also our fire problem. And it’s not a matter of ‘if’, it’s just a matter of when.
As I read the Opinion by ODD, it seemed as if they were disconnected from the realities of catastrophic wildfires and their true causation due to excessive grasses and brush stemming from severely depleted deer populations, which had previously abated these annually grasses and brush.
ODD seems to fail to understand or even acknowledge what citizens have already endured on the west coast! Such as; wildfires that can jump across two-miles of water, as the Eagle Creek wildfire did when it jumped the Columbia River (so much for defensible space, right?); toxic smoke so dense it sends people in towns and cities miles from the fires into the hospitals with cardio-pulmonary issues. And wildfires so hot they devastate millennia-old fire-resistant genetic lines of conifers, while pasteurizing soils with abnormally high temperatures that devastate soils, and in some cases altering them permanently.
ODD seems to care little (if any?) for the millions of west coast citizens who, thanks to the previous 30-years of obtuse influence on forest and wildlife management policy by similarly-minded environmentalists, have seen their family members, friends and/or neighbors burned-alive in California’s recent wildfires, their homes incinerated by the thousands, and who are now seasonally exposed to deadly toxic wildfire smoke, as is detailed in this report: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5010409/
The published Opinion of ODD contains the following glaring disparities:
1) The authors (‘ODD’) completely avoid the debate about deadly ground fuels (grass and brush) as seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WepUi3U5J3o
Instead they focused on the debate related to “thinning forests” and with good reason; the logging debate is where they had past success (ca. 1990), and is much easier ground for their debating experience.
Wild Horse Fire Brigade is about abating ground fuels, wildfire prevention, and rebuilding fire-damaged soils using native species American wild horses, something they know little (nothing?) about.
Unlike ODD, we live among wild horses and have done so on our privately-owned forested lands for the past 4-years. We have studied, documented, photographed and videoed the behavioral ecology of the wild horses in the local ecosystem. Added to this, a highly experienced ODF firefighter has traveled our lands over the past years and has seen the positive effect that wild horses grazing have had on our lands and had this to say:
“I have seen the work they [wild horses] have done on your property and it looked good but spotty with the low numbers they have. Additionally I really think they have a place in the fuel reduction world. ”
2) ODD falsely claimed I spoke at Senator Alan DeBoer’s town-hall in Medford, OR; I did not have that privilege. I did speak at the town hall in Ashland, OR, and I saw Mr. Dominic DellaSala sitting in the front of the church where the event was held, nodding his head in agreement to much of what I said (what was that about?). ODD whines about my opportunity to present a solution to wildfire, but failed to mention that; at the publicly-owned BLM building in Medford, OR, where the first town hall was held, ODD’s comrades from KS-Wild were there handing-out their propaganda at the front door to attendees, as they also did at the Ashland town hall.
3) ODD incorrectly termed American wild horses that are protected under the Wild Burro and Horse Protection Act, as “feral”; they are not. They are a North American native species according to Dr. Ross MacPhee of the prestigious American Museum of Natural History, and that is the best representation of the science today given his status as the ‘curator of vertebrates’, as we read here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-zNiS1uqCWZ9PimwJpaVdY7NC57hxdGKDCLXbCEYb8c/edit?pli=1#!
And here: https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2017/10/23/three-great-myths-america-wild-horses
4) The misleading by ODD continued when they incorrectly claimed that American wild horses are “livestock”; they are not. Livestock (Cattle, sheep and goats) are all invasive ‘exotic’ species in North American ecosystems, which were previous imported from overseas into America. American wild horses are a native species that evolved in North America. And the best available science shows that invasive species (‘exotics’) used in fire-grazing, exacerbates the wildfire regime in wilderness and in other areas.
Furthermore, none of these men (‘ODD’) posited any knowledge of the disturbances to the soils and riparian areas caused by cattle and sheep, a problem that is well researched and expounded upon by numerous leading scientists, and, as we read here: http://www.publiclandsranching.org/htmlres/wr_history_politics.htm
None of the ODD men seem to comprehend or detail the differences of the hoof anatomy between cattle and horses and the effect such differences in anatomy have upon ground-loading, soils disruption and erosion, as is detailed in this article titled: Evolution of wild horses and cattle and the effect on range damage; https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2017/09/25/evolution-wild-horses-cattle-effect-range-damage
5) ODD misled readers by implying that American wild horses had previously been tried as a means of pre-fire ground-fuel abatement and post-fire soils rebuilding by dredging-up an antique study from 1910 about cattle; yep they had to go that far back into ancient history to find anything!
The reality is; pre and post fire regime management has never been tried with American wild horses!
‘Livestock’ (invasive species ‘exotics’ cattle, sheep and goats) grazing has been tried, and such grazing is proven to be further damaging to post-burned areas. On the other hand, wild horses are highly beneficial to post-burned and pre-fire wilderness areas, as outlined in this article titled: ‘Fire Grazing’: Impact of Wild Horses vs. Livestock On Wildfire Regime
As of Dec. 1971, the lands in and around the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (CSNM) should have legally become a Herd Area (‘HA’) under the auspices of the Wild Burro And Horse Protection Act, since wild horses had previously and up to that date existed in and around the entire area of the Cascade-Siskiyou Monument and in many nearby areas numbering in the hundreds and reported in various editions of local publications (including Medford Mail Tribune ca. 1907… 1960’s). They has existing in the area east and south of Medford, OR and north of Yreka, CA in the mountains and alpine valleys since the days of the early settlers, and this is also a fact recorded in numerous historical journals.
Interestingly, the former chairwoman (Grace Bennett; 4th generation rancher) of the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors (now in her retirement) has stated in an email to me that her father (deceased) had, like many ranchers, rounded-up a few wild horses from time to time from the herd area prior to the formation of the Monument (ca. 1950s-1970s) for use as riding horses.
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act, or FLPMA required(s) that: “… wild horses and burros shall be considered comparably with other resource values in the formulations of land use plans” 43 CFR Sec. 4700.0-6
So, when the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was established in June 2000, those existing local wild horses, heritage wildlife, were a ‘natural resource’ and arguably became a resource also protected under the Antiquities Act, as has been consistent with recent interpretations of the Antiquities Act in regard to preserving bio-diversity of the associated flora and fauna, and are also therefore included.
Today, we find that the local BLM office has arguably omitted and failed in providing full and complete disclosure and reporting requirements in land planning under FLPMA, obfuscated facts and has arguably violated their fiduciary duty to the public to protect the local wild horses on the Monument, where there are also wild horse fossils reported. Of course, that is only a whispered fact; and an inconvenient truth.
Now we have these three environmentalists, ODD, who in their opinion piece seem to ostensibly align themselves with the same goal of the BLM in their campaign to demonize American wild horses so as to make their management into extinction less appalling to the public. The Freudian slips comes with their use of the label for our heritage wild horses as “feral” (the ones in the BLM corrals that we seek to repatriate back into and around selected forest wilderness areas). The term ‘feral’ is merely a construct by men to malign almost any animal as something of a ‘pest’.
The Wild Horse Fire Brigade has the support of numerous scientists, who unlike the ODD men, are smart enough to admit that; what had been thought might work has failed since 1990, and it’s time to move on.
Let’s never forget that environmentalists of ODD’s ideology said this in 1990:
Taken from a published document at the University of SantaClara: scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v4n1
“Environmentalists admit that saving the owls’ habitat could cost jobs. But, they argue, these jobs will vanish no matter what. For if cutting continues at its current rate of 125,000 acres a year, the old-growth forests will be gone within thirty years and the mills forced to close anyhow.”
The stark reality of the foregoing folly and lack of vision is now upon us like a horrible plague!
We are now burning forests at a large multiple of their 1990 predicted rate for deforestation due to logging. Environmentalists like ODD are virtually batting ‘0’, but they still want to run the show and coach everyone on how to hit a homerun. Still worse, they are happy to shutdown anyone or any idea ‘they’ don’t like. ODD suffer from the intoxication of their own outdated dogma, which is proven a failure empirically.
Contrary to ODD’s assertion that the Wild Horse Fire Brigade ‘is not a workable plan’, it is eminently workable. Wild Horses are available to counties and states at virtually no-cost simply for the asking under the existing Law (S-3068, Section 110, Humane Transfer of Excess Animals). And private entities can adopt them directly from the local BLM and USFS wild horse storage facilities.
People don’t need a PhD to know that wild horses do not engage in logging, and each native species wild horse deployed eats 30-pounds of grass and brush per day, as we see in this video of a wild horse eating some woody ground fuel: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5zON7zDatuqZG9sOWFxdVFuNWc/view
Now along with other scientists and politicians, we have a renowned ecologist and wild horse expert who has endorsed the Wild Horse Fire Brigade Plan; this article features this revelation:
https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2017/12/27/renowned-wildlife-ecologist-wild-horse-fire-brigade/
Maybe ODD would be more apropos in asking citizens how would we like our forests and wildlife; extra crispy? How about a dab of fire retardant on top? And what about your wildfire smoke? Extra acrid OK?
Read more from Capt. Bill at: My Outdoor Buddy, and The Western Journal.
7:45: Duane Ehmer, a man headed to prison for a year, for digging a hole on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during the 2016 standoff chats with Bill. Duane is in Grants Pass, and is getting ready to ride his horse, yep you read that right, to Lompoc Prison in California.
8:10: Dr. Dennis Powers, retired Professor of Business Law and local historian joins Bill, in studio for this week’s edition of Visiting Past & Present.
This week:
Lost Creek Lake: Its Lost Villages
By Dennis Powers
Life along the upper Rogue River in years past was like many in Southern Oregon: tiny towns and villages, farms, auto campgrounds, covered bridges, hunting lodges, rustic homes, orchards, and even gravel roads. This was a wild and beautiful section of the river then, with excellent fishing riffles for steelhead and deep holes for the salmon. It all changed after the 1964 Christmas flood when the Rogue River flooded and inundated towns, including the tiny communities of Laurelhurst and McLeod.
Owing to this, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished construction in 1977 of the William Jess Dam north of Shady Cove. The dammed Rogue River created 10-mile-long Lost Creek Lake with its 675 square miles that also covered what was left of these villages–Laurelhurst along the east bank and McLeod on the west.
Laurelhurst’s history dated back to 1867, when William and Frances Rumley settled the first homestead near the river and close to what became the lower end of Laurelhurst Road. A gravel road once dropped to the upper Rogue near Rogue’s Roost, a rustic lodge built in the 1920s with a deck overlooking the river. Nearby was another landmark, the Flounce Rock Ranch.
Under the waters near the Takelma boat ramp on the west shore lies what was once Uncanny Canyon–marked by its towering, painted totem pole–and tilted buildings that created optical illusions modeled after the famous Oregon Vortex (but also where water seemingly ran uphill). Below the dam, Casey’s Auto Camp had operated: A rustic resort with cabins, outhouse, home cooking, and the antics of a captive black bear named “Jerry the Bear” that included holding and drinking a bottle of soft drink or milk.
Once a thriving community of 200 people, Laurelhurst was dismantled to become buried under the waters. The Army Corps needed to clear the land for the reservoir and shoreline: Houses, strawberry and pig farms, pear orchards, a fruit-packing facility, trees, a store or roadside stand, and more structures were cleared.
A piece of the old Laurelhurst Road started near Crowfoot Road and Highway 62 by Casey State Park. McLeod Bridge once crossed the river there, until the 1964 flood wiped it out, and this was the main road to Prospect. In Stewart State Park, pear trees are in the campgrounds where a pear orchard once was.
Laurelhurst boasted a bridge even before McLeod came on the scene: The Peyton covered bridge was built in 1899. It linked the eastern end of Laurelhurst Road with Fort Military Road, a forerunner of Highway 62, on the west side of the river. Replaced by a nearby concrete bridge after the 1964 flood, Lost Creek Lake also swallowed up this bridge—all to be replaced by the long spanning Peyton Bridge that now crosses the wide lake.
A massive dam and lake with over 200 campsites, marina, store, café, and adjacent state parks (Casey and Stewart State Parks) has now replaced the tiny villages that once were. It’s hard to imagine what once used to be there.
Sources: Vicki Aldous, “Stories lie hidden beneath Lost Creek Lake,” Mail Tribune, September 14, 2017, at Lost Villages; Bill Varble, “Once-Thriving Oregon Town Is Lost Forever, Thanks To Dam,” Mail Tribune, March 15, 1992 (online at Seattle Times) at Additional Facts.
8:45: Randal Lee & Brent Homan, the men from Advanced Air & Metal join Bill, live in studio, for today’s segment of “Whose Business Is It Anyway?”
You can find out more at: AdvancedAirandMetal.com, or give them a call for a free quote at: 541-772-6866.