Tag: forest fires

13-35 The Habitat Conservation Plan Designed to Destroy Habitat

13-35 The Habitat Conservation Plan Designed to Destroy Habitat

Show 13-35 Summary: From all appearances, Oregon’s Board of Forestry seems determined to press forward with their disastrous habitat conservation plan (HCP), regardless of how much opposition there is against it. But there are still a couple of chances to stop it. We talk with Jennifer Hamaker of Oregon Natural Resource Industries about the looming vote in Salem this week and what can still be done to stop Oregon from abandoning its state forests for 70 years. Plus, where is all this heading? Are Oregon’s other natural resource industries also on the chopping block?

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The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: September 2nd & 3rd, 2023 | Guest: Jennifer Hamaker

This Week – The Habitat Conservation Plan

We check in with Jennifer Hamaker from Oregon Natural Resource Industries (ONRI) to get an update on Oregon’s disastrous “plan” for it’s state forests: abandon them for 70 years under a Habitat Conservation Plan. The board had originally pushed the decision back to November but suddenly moved it back to September 6th and 7th — this week. For a 70 year plan, you’d think they’d take the time to get it right. But as we learn, the reality is, they were going to do it regardless. Once again, government has forgotten it works for the people.

Anyone else think they just laugh and laugh at that thought behind closed doors?

Board of Forestry Salem Meeting

Oregon’s Board of Forestry is meeting in Salem, September 6th and 7th, to decide to rubber stamp this disastrous plan. We say rubber stamp because if you read their resolution, the wording is all but identical whether they pass it or not. They will still pursue an HCP. See for yourself:

ODF chair's resolution regarding the Oregon habitat conservation plan
It’s the identical except for “current process.” (click image for full size)

But all that is needed is for one board member to flip their vote to delay the process. A seventy year project needs more discussion. Especially since affected state agencies and school districts, like the Jewell School District, have not known the full consequences or extent of the loss of funding. And the state still has no plans to make up the lost revenue. Revenue, which Tina Kotek calls an “outdated funding model.”

Want to go to the Salem Meeting? The comment period is from 8am – 10 am both days, September 6th and 7th. The Oregon Department of Forestry headquarters is at 2600 State St, Salem (Google map). Even if you can’t testify (all the spots are currently taken), you can drop off written testimony. And just being there in opposition sends the message.

Oregon’s Habitat Conservation Plan Won’t Work

Because Oregon is abandoning 53% of its state forests, with no human activity allowed, this habitat conservation plan — despite its (allegedly) good intentions —  will destroy the habitat it’s intended to protect. Why? Because here in Oregon, we get forest fires. Lots of them. And with lack of management, we get more of them. What do you think will happen in “protected” areas that have zero management. Does the State think squirrels will don fire gear and put them out?

Find out more about Oregon’s HCP at Oregon Stronger Together

What’s this about “no human activity,” you ask? But Oregon’s habitat conservation plan doesn’t do that, you say. They tell us so.

Yes, they do. But like so much of government, the HCP is just one layer. While Oregon’s habitat conservation plan doesn’t rule out human activity, the next layer does. The Forest Management Plan. Ah, yes. There is always another layer to bureaucracy. That way, they can scoff, honestly, about the HCP not stopping human activity. Silly citizens! Oh, but the Forest Management Plan? The plan we’re not talking about? Well, yes. As you’ll hear from Jennifer Hamaker, that plan will keep humans out of the forests.

And the bigger question is: where is all of this heading? If the state is taking these lands offline, in contravention of its own laws, what’s next? Fishing? Farming?

Perhaps this article will give you a clue: “These 14 American Cities Have a ‘Target’ of Banning Meat, Dairy, and Private Vehicles by 2030.”

And that’s why this effort by the “environmentalists” to seize Oregon’s state forests and lands needs to be stopped. Now.

HCP Lawsuit

If the state plows through with its plan, the answer is to do what the environmental Left is already doing. Sue the state. According to a Statesman-Journal article, the multiple lawsuits brought by environmental groups to do more to protect endangered species. ONRI is currently looking for a lawyer to take on this case. That will take a lot of money. Please consider helping them hire an attorney. Unlike leftist “non-profits,” ONRI does not get millions in taxpayer dollars from Global Warming.

We’ll have Jennifer on again to get updates later on in the fall.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Jennifer Hamaker is president of Oregon Natural Resource Industries, or ONRI. Their websites are www.onri.us and www.oregonstrongertogether.com . Please donate to help ONRI stand up for Oregon’s natural resources! Right now, they need to raise funds for an attorney.

Why does Oregon need a Habitat Conservation Plan to govern state forests? (Statesman Journal, Aug 19, 2023)

3 years after historic wildfires, report suggests state contributed (Statesman Journal, Aug 18, 2023)

What’s coming next? “These 14 American Cities Have a ‘Target’ of Banning Meat, Dairy, and Private Vehicles by 2030” (The Federalist, Aug. 19th, 2023).

Exposing Election Fraud; Help for Wildfire Victims

Exposing Election Fraud; Help for Wildfire Victims

Show Summary: You might think election fraud and wildfires have nothing in common. Except of course election fraud determines who gets into office. And those who are elected then set policies like let-it-burn forest management. This week we look at the audits uncovering election fraud in Arizona, which are spreading like wildfire to other states. And if they uncover election fraud, what then?

Coverage Map of I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of June 2021
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.

Six Different Times, on Eight Different Stations. Listen anywhere! All stations stream live!

Saturdays
8a – 9a: KYKN 1439AM (Salem/Keizer) | Direct Link to KYKN Live Stream
10a – 11a: KFIR 720AM (entire Willamette Valley) | Direct Link to KFIR Live Stream
Note: This week KLBM & KBKR’s live stream is down
11a – noon: KLBM 1450AM (Union County) 
11a – noon: KBKR 1490AM (Baker County) 
7p – 8p: KWRO 630AM (Oregon Coast & Southeastern Oregon) | Direct Link to KWRO Live Stream

Sundays
8a – 9a: KWVR 1340AM (Wallowa County) | Direct Link: KWVR Live Stream
7p – 8p: KAJO 1270AM or 99.7FM (Grants Pass/Medford) | Direct Link: KAJO Live Stream

Mondays
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Original Air Dates: July 31st & Aug 1st, 2021 | Horace Cooper & Valerie Odai

This Week: Election Fraud & Relief Angels

When there are threats that surround you, and you can’t figure things out on your own, the first reaction is usually to find the experts who know how to deal with the problems. This week’s show we turn to two experts to help us understand the magnitude of what’s happening.

We start with election fraud. Because the far-left wants you to believe that by questioning results you are somehow the one who wants to destroy elections. Which is a form of intimidation by shutting down the discussion rather than examining the problem. But Arizona has stayed strong, finishing up their ballot audit and are now preparing the final report. So far, the preliminary reports have been damning.

See the election fraud list of what’s been uncovered so far in Maricopa

Even still there are those, like Biden’s administration, that will do what they can to stop the process. So we turn to a constitutional expert to help us plow through the smoke and mirrors the far-left has been instrumental in placing before us.

Election Fraud with Horace Cooper

First up, and new to our show, Horace Cooper who is a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, Co-Chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board, and a legal commentator. Mr. Cooper taught constitutional law at George Mason University and has been observing elections and their results—and the fraud involved—for years. He discusses past elections and crimes by election officials, along with the current election audits. We also tackle the misconceptions that the far-left is desperately spinning to distract.

And what if there is evidence of actual fraud here? What then?

Help for Oregon Wildfire Victims: Relief Angels with Valerie Odai

Then our next guest is also a newcomer to I Spy, Executive Director, Valerie Odai, of Relief Angles at www.relief-angels.org. Right now, Oregon has the largest forest fire in the nation, the Bootleg fire in southern Oregon, which is approaching half a million acres. While the fire fighters are making headway, the relief efforts in these remote areas are only just beginning.

We asked Ms. Odai to come on, to give us updates on the relief efforts that are ongoing and what is needed for the families impacted by this devasting fire. But she gives us much more by giving us a glimpse into the efforts that volunteers are doing to keep necessary goods going to the families in need and what other regions that they are involved in. Listen to hear about the courageous work so many volunteers are willing to do and find out how to help them achieve their goal of making people less fearful and rebuild their lives.

We hope you’ll join in. With all the hurt and damage, what a great thing to know that even a little help is huge when you’ve lost everything.

Be sure to visit Relief Angels! Every bit helps. Little bits add up to big bits.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Links & Info

The list of voter/election fraud in Maricopa County, Arizona

In a state Biden “won” by 10,457 votes, here’s the findings so far:

  • 3,981 people were allowed to vote despite registering after the Oct 15 deadline
  • 11,326 people in the county who voted in the November 3 election were NOT on the voter rolls on November 7, but were added to the voter rolls by December 4. In other words, they registered AFTER election day but still had their votes counted.
  • Roughly 18,000 voted but were removed from voter rolls after the election
  • 74,243 mail-in ballots were counted in Maricopa even though there is no evidence of the ballots ever being sent to the “voters” in the first place
  • Thin ballot paper used for approximately 168,000 ballots led to markers “bleeding through” the paper, damaging ballots, 
  • Most Republicans vote on election day. Prior to election day, a Maricopa County official had told staff to remind people to use a ballpoint pen. But ON elections day, that same official ordered staff to hand out Sharpie markers to same-day voters even though she knew about concerns with the Sharpies
  • Signature verification disappeared. Originally they used a 20-point verification for signatures, then 10, then five. And then eventually, staff were told to not verify them at all. (Maricopa County is withholding mail-in ballot images that can be used as evidence.)
  • Thousands of ballots had no serial number or was so light as to be unreadable and unverifiable
  • failure of Maricopa to turn over the 40% machines, the passwords that Dominion still refuses to turn over, & tens of thousands of unauthorized queries demonstrating how insecure the election was
  • The election voter data base was breached. There were over 37,000 anonymous administrative queries

Horace Cooper Additional Info

  • “No Truth Whatsoever” to Biden’s Voter Suppression Claims (Project 21, Jul 14, 2021)
  • Audit team reports 74,243-ballot discrepancy in Arizona mail-in votes (World Net Daily, Jul 15, 2021)
    • “…according to election records, more mail-in ballots were counted than were mailed out”
  • Arizona Election Audit: Maricopa County Stonewalling – Will Not Turn Over Routers, Chain Of Custody, Ballot Images As Discrepancies Found (Zerohedge, Jul 16, 2021)
    • Maricopa County has refused to turn over necessary items – including routers, chain-of-custody documentation, and images of mail-in ballots.
  • Video: Georgia Voter Integrity Bill Is HUGE WIN for Rule of Law and Monstrous Blow to Democrat Election Fraud (GWP, Mar 26, 2021)
  • All of the Audit War Room accounts were suspended from Twitter without explanation, including Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Nevada. (William Hall, Gab.com, July 7, 2021)
  • Breaking: Twitter Suspends All Election Audit ‘War Room’ Accounts; Senator Wendy Rogers Predicts She Will Be Next (Gateway Pundit, Jul 27, 2021)
    • “Twitter permanently suspended all nine of the official ‘Audit War Room’ accounts from its platform”
  • Video: AZ State Senator Sonny Borrelli on Maricopa Officials: Charges Should be Levied, People Should Be Prosecuted (Gateway Pundit, July 27, 2021)*“Senator Borelli said criminal charges should be levied and people should be prosecuted for not following the Arizona Senate statute and not turning over the requested routers, hardware, and data to the Senate investigators.”

More Election Fraud Audits Coming?

  • Now Florida – State Representative Sabatini Calls for a Forensic Audit of the Five Largest Counties in the State (Gateway Pundit, July 26, 2021)
  • Jay Sekulow is Asking All Arizona and Pennsylvania Voters Who Were Given Sharpies When Voting to Contact His Law Firm (GWP, July 28, 2021)
  • Georgia Voter integrity organization: VoterGA.org
    • On May 21st we received approval to inspect Fulton Co. mail-in ballots that have been in question since the Nov. 14th and 15th hand count audit of the Nov. 3rd Presidential election results. But now high- powered Fulton Co. lawyers retained at Fulton Co. taxpayer expense will make a last ditch “Hail Mary” effort to stop us and oppose election transparency similar to recent efforts by the Secretary of State and Attorney General.

A History of Election Fraud

  • Days Away From An Election That Will Help Decide The Future Of America, This Long History Of Voter Fraud Proves The Demonrats Will Resort To Crime In Attempt To Steal Back Their Lost Power (All News Pipeline, Oct 31, 2018)
    • “Project 21 Black leadership recommends voter identification and proof of citizenship. It recommends the purging of voter rolls. Co-Chairman of Project 21 Horace Cooper states that black voters are drowned out by the voting of illegal aliens, convicts, and noncitizens.”
  • Voter Fraud Is Major Election Threat Based on Recent Cases, Analyst Says (CNS News, Feb 1 2012)
    • The legal analyst cited “ghost voting” as the biggest problem. The term “ghost voter” is used to describe dead people that remain on the voter rolls.
    • “If even 1 percent of the vote is fraudulent, he says or implies that’s something we shouldn’t be concerned about,” Cooper said. “We ought to be outraged about it. …What ghost voting is successfully able to do is change what the actual outcome was going to be, to a different outcome.”
    • In the Troy, N.Y., case, … City Councilmen John Brown and Anthony DeFiglio [plead guilty.] … The probe was into whether they forged signatures on applications for absentee ballots and on actual ballots in the 2009 primary race … The Albany Times-Union newspaper reported that most of the fraudulent names were of residents of public housing authority apartments. The paper quoted DeFiglio calling it a “normal political tactic.”
      • In other words, they routinely cheated. Boys will be boys — politicians will be politicians
    • THIS: “What we see in Colorado and in this West Virginia plea agreement is that it’s pretty sinister and there are high-level people that can participate and manipulate the process and they can get away with it,”Cooper said.
When it comes to Leftist Policies, Science and Reality don’t Matter

When it comes to Leftist Policies, Science and Reality don’t Matter

Show Summary: Oregon is the Petri Dish of Leftist policies. Find out how and why that when it comes to economics and environment, leftist policies leave reality behind.

Coverage Map of I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of November, 2018
I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of Nov 2018. Click for full-size map.

Five Different Times, on Seven Different Stations. Listen anywhere! All stations stream live!

Saturdays
10a – 11a: KFIR 720AM (entire Willamette Valley) | Direct Link to KFIR Live Stream
11a – noon: KLBM 1450AM (Union County) | Direct Link to KLBM Live Stream
11a – noon: KBKR 1490AM (Baker County) | Direct Link to SuperTalk Live Stream
7p – 8p: KWRO 630AM (Oregon Coast & Southeastern Oregon) | Direct Link to KWRO Live Stream

Sundays
8a – 9a: KWVR 1340AM (Wallowa County) | Direct Link: KWVR Live Stream
7p – 8p: KAJO 1270AM or 99.7FM (Grants Pass/Medford) | Direct Link: KAJO Live Stream

Air Dates: Apr 27 & 28, 2019 | Ethan Blevins

This Week: It’s spring with farmers preparing fields, rains soaking our rich soils, and forests turning green.  Our skies are clear from heavy smoke and the air is fresh.  But August is coming when things are far more dry, brown, and dusty.

Oregon’s Forests: A Victim of Leftist Policies

Leftist policies - A product of the socialist brain of a liberalBelieve it or not, August in Oregon used to be free of major forest fires for decades but why isn’t it now?  Why have massive fires become a way of life for the summer landscape in Oregon, California, and the rest of the West?

We’ll talk about this with Dr. Bob Zybach, someone who studied Oregon’s history of forest fires for his dissertation and is an avid proponent for bringing back practical and realistic forest management policies to Oregon. A state that should be leading the way on setting proper forest management polices. Except we’re too concerned that environmentalists will froth at the mouth over policies that actually acknowledge mankind is part of the environment. But we digress.

Dr. Zybach is also a frequent guest on I Spy Radio. Dr. Bob is back on to take us through what should be happening with our forests during spring time as summer is fast approaching. We know that farmers and ranchers are busy during this time of year preparing for the growing season, so should foresters.

Are We Preparing Scientists or Activists?

We hear so much about preparing today’s youth for the challenges of tomorrow. So what exactly is the curriculum currently being taught in today’s forestry classes? And how well prepared are young foresters when they graduate?

Don’t miss the updates on the Elliott State Forest that is supposed to be making the state millions. Yes. The Elliott State Forest is supposed to generate money. Not cost money. Can it?  Yes.  Is it?  You’ll hear about that and what the future may bring for this vital state resource and how it could pave the way for other states. If they just listen.

Pacific Legal: Fighting Leftist Policies

But first up: Ethan Blevins. Mr. Blevins is an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. This is a group that we’ve been following for a long time. No, we’re not stalkers. But this our first time to have them on I Spy Radio.  Pacific Legal Foundation has been growing leaps and bounds and are now all across America, working to hold the government accountable. Just our kind of group.

Oregon’s New Rent Control: Ignoring Science AND Economics

Mr. Blevins litigates cases involving the First Amendment, property rights, school choice, and the separation of powers.  So we talk to him about the new rent control Oregon’s legislature just passed and why its policies will end up raising costs of living—the exact opposite of what they propose to do.

Why? Because the policy completely ignores one of the most basic elements of economics. Not one of those fancy a computer models that predict global cooling—wait, no, warming, er, no, change!—but from long-tested and proven economic science.  But what do we know?

And don’t miss our conversation with Mr. Blevin about Oregon’s supermajority and the potential abuse of powers that come with it. Yes, the Democrats have a 3/5ths supermajority in the House and Senate and yes they hold the governorship. But there’s still hope. And from a surprising source. And it’s why Republicans can’t and shouldn’t give up.

Podcast Version

Links & Further Info

Ethan Blevins (Segments 1–3)

  • Unelected bureaucrats must follow the law, too (Pacific Legal Foundation, Dec 19, 2018)
  • Supreme Court vacates 9th Circuit ruling against EPA victim, Joe Robertson (Free Range Report, April 23, 2019) This is a Pacific Legal Foundation case
  • The Hill: Environmental regulations have become impossible to follow (The Hill, March 18, 2019) found on PLF’s newsroom webpage
  • Ethan Blevins article: Beware the false promise of rent control (Fox News, March 30, 2019)
  • OVERVIEW: How Rent Control Works in New York City (via Oh My Apartment)
    • “People in New York City who have the advantage of renting a rent stabilized apartment, have a very hard time parting with them. Monthly rent under $2000 in New York City is very, very cheap – even for a studio or small one bedroom.” = lack of mobility; prevents people from moving to a better job or moving closer to their current job, thereby increasing commuting distance, time, and expense.
  • Some basic history of Rent Control (via Wikipedia): “In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Price Control Act into law. The goal of the act was to prevent inflation in the booming, fully employed wartime economy by setting price controls nationwide. ”
    • (Don’t forget: long-time listeners of I Spy Radio know that this is about the time the IRS screwed up the health care system forever. Due to World War II and wage controls in effect, the IRS decided to allow employers to offer health care as a means around wage restriction policies in order to entice workers.

Bob Zybach (Segments 4–6)