Priorities - Marie Sheahan Brown, Camp Sherman

Dear Senator Johnson:

First, I applaud you for taking the lead in co-sponsoring SB 30 to Save our beloved Metolius. My family joins yours in having been stewards of the Metolius for decades. I am the daughter of Joe and Leslie Brown, granddaughter of Lamar and Marie Tooze.

Besides our family cabin on Tract-O on Forest Service land, my four siblings and I own a 20-acre parcel of land on the lower Metolius River, across the river from the Warm Springs Reservation. We inherited this land from our parents. Our forebears and we have continuously owned property of one kind or another on the Metolius River since the 1930s. We have no intention of developing the 20-acre parcel but, rather, see ourselves as stewards of an extraordinary creation.

I am deeply grateful to you and other legislators who, recognizing the need to preserve and protect the remarkable Metolius River Basin, have introduced SB 30 to Save the Metolius. Of current concern, as you well know, is the recent Jefferson County decision opening the door to destination resorts which, while boosting cash flow to the county, in my opinion would threaten the natural resources and other irreplaceable qualities of the Basin. My family and I support SB 30 to Save the Metolius, and we are urging your Senate colleagues to do the same.

A delicate ecosystem, the Metolius River Basin depends on a proper balance of all of its elements ~ the 10 Outstandingly Remarkable Values recognized in its Wild & Scenic River status. Everything affects everything else. Two large destination resorts within its boundaries could not have other than negative and probably irreversible effects on the ecology of the Basin. When financial gain is a primary goal of developers, I frankly have little confidence that ecological concerns will take priority in their plans and actions.

Were the Basin's ecology a priority, these destination resorts would not have been proposed at all.

Sincerely,
Marie Sheahan Brown
Camp Sherman, OR