Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 01-17-25_FRIDAY_8AM

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Even more forest news, this time with Jackson County Board Chair Colleen Roberts and U.S. Forest Supervisor Molly Juillerat. Meeting at the BLM Jan 29th, three possible alternative amendments to the NW Forest Plan, important ur there. Open phones follow

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at clouserdrilling.com. Boy, after all that conversation about the fire map, which is not on public land or federal or state land, so to speak, but on, oh man, we will have that conversation. We will open it up to all takers after the 830 News. Okay?

Just wanted to make sure we'll just put it out there in the clear, maybe calm down a little bit. I wonder if I have any of my blood pressure medication. I'll have to go see if I have any in the back. But, you know, the funny thing is, though, is that we have more forest issues, and I imagine fire would certainly be a part of that right now. And joining me in studio, we wanted to make sure and get your voices heard on the Northwest Forest Plan. There's an amendment out there which is being discussed, and the point being is that if you don't get involved and get your voice out, then only particular groups such as the KS Wild will end up showing up and making

comment and then having, you know, an input into where our Northwest Forest Plan is going to be going. This is a big deal here in Southern Oregon and Northern California. And joining me in studio, Jackson County Commissioner Colleen Roberts. We just saw you yesterday. Good morning. Okay, we're back here. And gosh, I'm hoping that I don't mess the name up, but Forest Supervisor Molly Jewelra.

Is that the way? Very good. Did I do it? Yes. Yay! Okay. Well, Forest Supervisor Molly, tell me what is going on with the Northwest Forest Plan. What is the or what are the proposed amendments?

Is there a way to encapsulate that in the talk radio world so we understand it? I will do my best. Okay. So good morning and thanks for thanks for having me okay now you're not going to be doing a computer generated wildfire risk map and then no okay all right i'm going to stay away from that you're going to stay away from that i don't blame you i don't blame you so the northwest forest plan um which some of you may be familiar with um was written almost 30 years ago and a lot obviously has

changed in 30 years certainly um and one of those big things uh is wildfire and the and the realization of needing to manage our forests uh for wildfire risk is this having to uh is the amendment to the northwest uh forest plan does this have anything to do with the uh well what we've nicknamed the let it burn policy of uh of burning the land uh when from for land management purposes with natural ignition is there anything about that no there's there's nothing so this is really a the northwest the Northwest Forest Plan is kind of the umbrella plan that guides our management on 18 different national forests, including the Rogue River Siskiyou. Sure. And it was written back in the days of the timber wars, trying to find a compromise between managing for species and providing timber.

And that's pretty much done at the moment. And it didn't take into account things like wildfire risk. It kind of used, because there wasn't as much, we hadn't seen the big wildfires. If you look at a graph of the amount of acres burned in the Northwest Forest Plan area, and we all know it well here in Southern Oregon, because we're on that, we've been on that edge, right, of experiencing the drought, the wildfires. And as the years have progressed, seen that more throughout the Northwest Forest Plan area, the big fires on the Willamette, on the Hood, on the Umpqua. We've been seeing more of it. Is it not interesting that the corresponding increase in acreage burned and the various tragedies that you've been describing here, Supervisor Molle,

are kind of happening in tandem with the fact that the death of the timber industry and, you know, what kind of connection might there be? Because for the flaws of the timber industry, there at least were people on the land a lot of times that were able to realize what was going on. And chances are we were probably cutting down at least some of the fiber that was being grown. And now I don't think there's nearly as much of that on the federal lands. Is that a fair assessment at this point?

I think that the Northwest Forest Plan, when it was written, it divided up, we call them land allocations, kind of a government-y word. But it decided what we could and couldn't do in certain land allocations. What the proposed amendment would do is take a look at wildfire risk, especially near our communities and other important infrastructure. And important for us here in Southern Oregon is looking at where we have dry forest types. So before it was just kind of lumped into one kind of forest. And we all know that what we have in a lot of places in southern Oregon is very different than the coastal Washington areas.

Okay, so you're going to be getting more granular then on the way you divvy this up. Okay, that makes sense. And so there's different kinds of management needed in those drier forests that are more prone to fire. Yeah, you would treat a drier forest differently from a moisture coastal or a redwood forest, for example. And so this is directly related to wildfire risk and mitigation. And so the proposed amendment has a few different alternatives. And this was written at a regional level.

So on January 29th, we're going to have some of the people that helped write that plan and are familiar with it down to talk about all the different alternatives and ways people can find the information they're interested in because it's a big document. Yeah. And how to comment. And that's really important. And this is very important because I know that I have no doubt that the Dominic De La Sala individual types, you know, in the system will be very well-versed in getting their term in there. There's nothing wrong with hearing from them.

All right. I get that. But I think what happens a lot of times are that the, is that other people that may have a different point of view very rarely comment. Yes, I think my big interest and one reason I wanted to come here today is there are organized groups on both sides of the spectrum. But the people that use our forests, that want to recreate, that cut firewood, that hunt, that fish. Hunt for a Christmas tree. Hunt for a Christmas tree.

They have a say in our forest management as well. And it's really important that we get that whole broad view of voices. All right. Are you looking for written comments right now? Are you hoping to get comments at this meeting on the 29th? By the way, where's that going to be, Commissioner? At the BLM Forest Service office. Oh, right down the road.

Yeah, right down the road here. It'll be from 6 to 8. And we're not taking comments at that meeting. This is an informational meeting, so the people that wrote it can can uh give more information about the alternatives and then we'll be showing people how to comment either on the website or good old fashion mail how many alternatives are there there are three action alternatives and then the um and then there's the just keep it as it is okay status quo status quo is probably not the best i would imagine at this point, given that...

It doesn't address the things that we've seen, like wildfire, like drought, providing a sustainable timber economy and workforce jobs. And by the way, we're not even cutting anywhere close to what was agreed to in the Northwest Forest Plan. Is that true? In most of the areas, we are not. Okay. All right. And is there anything in these alternatives and any of the alternatives that might address this? Because, you know, in some cases, I've just noticed that even when you see BLM and Forest Service

wanting to get, let's see, standing dead timber cut or, you know, those sort of things, the lawsuits start. And then everything just sits in either rots or then burns in the next wildfire, you know, which gets a little bit concerning. Is there anything in the alternatives that speak to this kind of regulatory issue? The plan itself is mostly speaking and giving us a plan where we, if we follow our plan, we're able to do some more treatment, especially in our dry forest type. So by treatment, I mean logging prescribed fire. So fire when we want it on the ground and other kinds of fuels treatments, including biomass treatment. And so being strategic about where we're doing those treatments and making sure we're collaborating across, which we're already doing a lot of here in Southern Oregon. But you're looking for lots of other people rather than the professional protesters.

Yep. Okay. All right. They're organized and they're vocal. And I think the majority of us are not. And when Supervisor Molly and I met, she said, how do I get the word out? And I said, well, you want to go on the radio? Okay.

We need to get the word out. Usually I'm here saying there's a public comment time, you know. But she's the expert on it. So we have a public meeting. If you can't make it to that one, there's one in Roseburg the day before on the 28th. There's one in Klam the day before on the 28th there's one in klamath falls on the 30th um and i'll also give you all the information if you want to post it there's a there's a website folks can go to and get all of the information uh the map i would be happy to uh

to post that information and it seems to me that it would be well worth our time then to by the, does this also include managing the monument or is the monument kind of looked at as a separate? Yeah, that's the BLM. That's the Bureau of Land Management. That's BLM. Okay. Now sometimes forget the jurisdiction. This is just for Forest Service. Just for the Forest Service.

Yep. Just in the Pacific Northwest. All right. Planned area. All right. And I think it would behoove us to attend this and learn and see the presentation of the various alternatives here and decide what might be the most advantageous, I guess, for our particular policy down here. By the way, Commissioner, has the board decided to comment on this one? Has there been a decision made yet? We haven't on this portion.

We comment along the processes every time there's an opportunity and we will be providing comment because we do we want to remove any obstacle to forest management to make our forests healthier and safer and for local jobs for every reason that molly mentioned for our community okay so mark the date it's going be, what day of the week is the 29th? I believe it's a, that's a good question. We'll just look at, well, today's the 17th, so it'd be the 31st.

So yeah, Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday, January 29th, 6 to 8 p.m. on Biddle Road at the Medford BLM and Forest Service office. I'll be there. You'll be there?

Good. Because hearing the alternatives is a good idea. It's one thing to read about it online. That's great. But what is the common period or how long is the common period? March 17th. So we wanted to have our meeting early enough that people had time to get a broad overview. And then if they're interested, be um to dig into some of the alternatives

a little bit more and they have till march 17th to either uh comment by email or by postal if you can get me the information we will post all that'd be great and then i want to attend this too i think this would be interesting to see because it's something that i haven't done enough of just as you know it's right down the street. Gosh, how can we avoid it? I know. I think we've taken every opportunity we have. And that's what we try to do as a board. And we encourage the public to do it as well.

And remember, your silence is your consent. And just like your previous segment, though, that is what the prior rollout of the wildfire mapping. They didn't do any community outreach i challenged them when they went to go roll it out again we want a public meeting in our county for this they promised it they didn't deliver and and that communication and information is important whether it's our private property or public lands when it involves our area and our safety and our public health here in jackson county all right could you uh now i know you can't speak for the board this hasn't

been done yet but and this is i always have an opinion you always have an opinion but do you know if the board is considering uh calling out or opposing the senate i know this is not involving uh julie's wheelhouse, you know, at this point, but, or Molly rather. Julie Ray. Julie Ray. Julie Ra. Julie Ra.

Julie Ra, yeah, there we go. Pardon me. But is the board considering weighing in on this? Because, you know, the boards, both Jackson and Josephine County can get involved in this one. It's a hot, contentious thing. The people are mad. We, I was mad just can get involved in this one. It's a hot, contentious thing. The people are mad.

I was mad just listening to your radio this morning. We have been involved with it all along and have met with Senator Golden. We've met with ODF on all these processes. And we even called Senator Golden out. We said, if you want to help people manage land, that's fine. Take out the sticks. Everything on this seems to be a stick. It's all going to point to a stick, whether it's going to be on rebuilding or insurance or lose your property because it's not good enough for their whatever requirement they're putting out there.

You say follow the law. Well, when they're changing the law right and left, what law is it you're going to follow? Well, I'm just getting them to try to follow the law in the rules about the appeal. That's what I was getting at there. And administrative law judges should not already have a thumb predetermined on where they're going to go. Well, I'm looking at a lot of things and i'm not sure it will bring i know our

board is much has been totally against this wildfire mapping i have no doubt that ron smith and other josephine county commissioners are going to be having a lot to say about this too so that'll be great we send out a letter uh to repeal 762 and senate bill 80 to every county in oregon um a few months ago we got four counties to sign on the letter with us in the whole state that's it huh that is it so disappointing well we turned it in anyway well you know why it's because they don't see the problem the vast majority of the properties affected are down here so that's uh they talked about well it's only six percent of the tax lots have been affected yeah and most of those six percent are down here yeah down here yeah all right so anyway so we're going to have to deal with uh the rogue river siskiyou national forest amendment this big

meeting is going to be the 29th and once again six o'clock medford interagency office on biddle road in medford hope you're going to be there hope you were going to comment and uh forest supervisor molly julia thank you very much for coming on. Thanks for having me. Great meeting you, too. Nice to meet you. All right. And Commissioner, as always, you're welcome back.

Thank you. Thanks so much. All right. We've got a lot to do. That is for sure. All right. This is the Bill Myers Show, KMED. Hi, it's Scuba Steve with Bicoastal Media and KMED.

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And just trying to get people to follow the law when it comes to the administrative process and the rules, you know, the rules when you're up against the judges if you're going to do an appeal. And they should be able to, you know, the law makes it very clear that you're supposed to be able to take into account things that you've done to your property. And to not do this is just utter nonsense. And I don't like being told that utter nonsense is what the law says. But I can read it.

But, you know, that's just me. I'm just an entertainer. Let me go to, I'm just kidding. But let me go to line one. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello. Hi, you're on. Who's this? Welcome. Hello.

Hi, you're on. Who's this? Oh, hi, Bill. Who's this? I've got a meeting left. This is Tracy. Oh, hi, Tracy. Yeah, you sent me kind of a summary of that.

I did. And I didn't have a chance. I've been so busy, you know, actually getting the stuff on the air there, we didn't have a chance to go over it. Why don't you give me your takeover, all? What happened, huh? Well, the meeting was very contentious and unfortunately there were a few individuals that wanted to be heard

to the detriment of everybody else. So that put a damper on things. That's too bad. My overall takeaway from the meeting is Mr. Golden is thrilled about this map. It's his baby. Nothing's going to change because they just don't care.

So if you're in the high risk, too bad, so sad, you're stuck. There was an individual that spoke about all the things he'd done to his property. Didn't matter. Did not matter. But the law says something very different, Tracy, and that's why I keep bringing this up. The law is not, you know, the law must be followed. And even if it comes down to some property owners getting together and suing the crap out of this illegal action, in my view, if they're not going to follow the law.

Okay. I asked Mr. Golden if he would, or his constituents, who the majority of them there were very unhappy last night about this, if he would sponsor a bill to repeal, and he flat out said no, that this bill has benefits. But he did not tell us what those benefits are, and I'd like to ask him that. Well, I think what benefits are, when you look at benefits under the rubric of the state legislature, it's money to pass out to organizations and grant stream funding. I think that may be what is meant by benefits because there's an income stream. And by the way, some of these groups may be helping out with wildfire mitigation. I don't want to throw everybody under the bus. Bill, nobody wants to lose their house, but we don't need a program from the government to help us here.

You know what would be a great idea for Mr. Golden, since he's so concerned about all this? He needs to sponsor a bill to give homeowners like us who've gone over and above, put in generators, spend a lot of money to harden their properties. Cutting down trees costs a fortune. And give us a tax break in the form of a write-off on our state income tax, or for those folks who don't pay taxes but do spend a lot of money to mitigate the possible damage on their property, give them a tax credit. I mean, our insurance rates are going to double, triple, mine personally doubled. A lot of people are losing. So if we're going to have to spend all of this money that a lot of people, frankly, do not have, then return that money in the form of a credit or a write-off. The other thing, though, is that, of course, I don't know if I have the law. I will go

back to the law that reducing wildfire risk does not expand, diminish, or otherwise affect a right, privilege, duty, or function established under federal, state, or local law. And it seems to me that the actual ability to have your right to property is diminished by this. Does that law also preclude the government from doing their duty by cutting the forest and clearing out the brush and doing prescribed burns? Yeah, well, government is never held responsible for these issues here. The main thing is, though, Tracy, that makes this so irritating is that we essentially, and I'm talking about the rural landowners, are being tasked to hardening their properties to withstand being burned by federal public lands, ultimately.

It's not always that way, but the vast majority of the big blazes coming through those areas are coming off of federal land. It's not even really usually starting on most people's private land. Correct, and there were people there last night who spoke of that, saying that they've got their property completely cleared, but they're butted right up to BLM that hasn't been cleared in 20, 30 years. And whether it's going to be through your fees with rural landowners, whether it's going to be through part of their $1 a month or $1 per thousand proposed property tax for statewide, there's all sorts of things. It's always about the money, Tracy. And thanks for sharing your experience on that. Okay. 770-5633. Afternoons, it is your phone calls for the rest of the morning here on the bill myers show here

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As a customer, you can count on Blue Star Gas to provide excellent service for decades and generations to come. For more information, visit bluestargas.com. That's bluestaras.com. That's BlueStarGas.com. It's the Bill Myers Show on KMED, Southern Oregon's place to talk. I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you fire. I'll teach you to burn. Yes, indeed, you in the rural lands, you are just supposed to prepare your land to burn at your expense or else.

I don't know. You know, it's almost as if your cynicism can never be too much out there in front when you're dealing with Oregon laws and Oregon's state legislature, which is in session, of course. It really gets going Monday, Tuesday. Yikes. Let me go to John. Hello, John. You wanted to talk about the wildfire map.

Go ahead. Yeah. It doesn't matter how much you harden your property. If there's 100-foot flames coming at your property, your house is going to burn down. I had a house burn down in Talon that had no trees. It was totally hardened, and it burned to the ground. But the elephant in the room is this. The forest service lands, BLM lands, and the state forest lands, they don't do anything to maintain them properly. Every acre now, I just read, had 20 times the number of trees that it should have in order to have it be at its highest production. And so they should make a map of every acre of all those properties. And until they fix

that, don't bother the private property owner. It's the same thing with the elephant in the room with homelessness. When they created Senate Bill 100, taking away all the developable land that you could use to have affordable housing. Now they spend millions a month to provide housing for people because of what they created in the beginning. And then when you have those situations, that societal decay, and you're not going to go into what's behind the addiction, you're not going to properly do this, but you're just going to say, hey, go ahead and take all your drugs, we're not going to do anything to you. Right.

What do you expect? Jeff is never going to—Jeff feels like he's on the moral high road and that he's helping us stupid people that own this land to make our property safer. He's doing it to help us, and he really is that out of it to think that. I mean, the elephant in the room is, like my neighbor, they had their fire insurance just canceled. They couldn't find anyone to provide fire insurance for them until they found a company out of state.

And their insurance went from $2,200 a year to $38,000 a year. Now, he's a doctor. He can afford it. But that's what's going to happen. And if they didn't take it, their mortgage would be called due. Now, John, I know that Jeff didn't want to go down the conspiracy of rural depopulation. He didn't want to go there. And I understand being a state senator,

you want to sound like you have the respectable opinion, I suppose. But yet, ultimately, it's well known that the gangrene from the left want these areas rewilded, which means they don't want people on those lands. Would you agree with me on that assessment? Yes. The Wildlands project is out there. And so, given that the federal land, well, the feds aren't managing land properly, and the state's not managing land properly, and then they want to put it all on the burden of the private landowner, doesn't this sound like that's part,

like it's not a bug, but a feature of what they're ultimately wanting? So how can you not see it? Well, Jeff started this discussion. He said there's, you know, so much more acres burned in Oregon than there used to be. But what he didn't say is that almost all of those fires started on federal or state land. Almost 90% or more. And that is a takeaway. You know, we're supposed to protect ourselves from something that we have no control of, apparently. Appreciate the call there, John.

Let me go to Keith. Keith's in Cave Junction, I think. Isn't that right? Hey, Keith. Yeah, you're right. Bill, good morning. God, I don't think I can add anything to that previous caller. He nailed it.

Fifty years of this plan has proven that the government and the environmentalists do not know how to exist in a forest or let alone a north american uh whatever i'm i'm i'm i'm guilty of being absolutely flabbergasted that's a polite word by the words they use they don't say thinning and harvesting timber they say treatment um well and and that way the public lands become an expense on the people instead of a bounty which is what it used to be, which I don't understand that. And then there's never enough money to be able to do as much treatment. I'll put that in scary air quotes, as could be needed. There was plenty of timber receipts for any county, any idea that came up in the public sector 60 years ago. 60 years ago, all the ridgetops in Southern California were bulldozed bare. But because of the environmental discrepancies of saving the pick-your-bug, pick-your-animal habitat, you eventually get what you've got.

The Santa Anas have always been there yeah the other aspect of this uh which makes it tough to talk about the timber industry is that there's not a lot of it left unfortunately and that's my plan but where did it start yeah timber industry started with nobody telling them they couldn't do it exactly and now everybody tells them they can't do it and that would almost take that would almost take a repeal and replacing of every person who is a state who is a u.s senator on the west coast and i mean all of them and that is a tall political a political lift okay appreciate the call there keith let me go to the next line i want to make sure everybody gets through because uh hot and bothered. I get it. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome.

Good morning, Bill. This is Jim up in Rogue River. Hello, Jim. Right now, anyway, I just want to say that it comes down to, you know, when you spill everything down, it's fuel, fuel, fuel. And it's their job to take that fuel out, not ours, on their land. And we've got to fight this. We can't allow them to dictate to us what we should be doing when they're not doing their side of the bargain. And they work for us, and they have to perform. That's why I was talking withff at the end and saying that

you know even dictatorships you know i didn't say this to jeff but it is true that even dictatorships require consent of the governed and to a certain extent and down here in down here in southern oregon the consent of the governed is draining away very quickly, and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing to see the consent of the governed being drained away. Now, and I don't know if they realize it at this point, where if all we're going to do is just put you under such a heavy regulatory thumb that you have nowhere else to go, and so you just leave. Maybe that's the goal. I don't know.

I'm not talking about Senator Golden's goal, but I'm talking about the overall rubric of the 762 and the forest and the wild urban interface, wildland urban interface, the WUI. Okay. Let me go to next line. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome.

Yeah, Bill. Yes, Lucretia. Yes, Lucretiaretia yeah i thought you did an incredible job you hit the nail on the head it was amazing how jeff just got right on top of you calling you a conspiracy theorist basically just you know pointing out that these are well you know jeff doesn't want to go there i understand why jeff doesn't want to go there though i get it i know it's respectable and yet when i talked to you know, Jeff doesn't want to go there. I understand why Jeff doesn't want to go there, though. I get it. I know. It's respectable. And yet when I talk to, you know, he used to always talk to Catherine Austin-Fitts. And she told him, I mean, our government was bringing in over half a trillion dollars of drugs to a trillion a year under our own contract with Bush and Clinton, you know, working together. It's like he won't go there. She well knows what our weather's been geoengineered.

We have dry weather on the West. We have super wet. It's snowing on the East. How's that even congruent with climate change? Well, you know,

this is where I'll disagree with you a little bit on the weather thing. I'm still not down with the, hey, we got weather machines selecting everything

and it only hurts us. Okay? And the reason I'm doing this though is that the west has always been dry it's always been dry lucretia with rare exception with rare exception the air force wants to go on the weather by 2025 right in there they talk about carbon black um justin ray well yeah they're talking about cooling the planet they want to cool the planet So on the weather by 2025, right in there, they talk about clobbering blacks. Well, yeah, they're talking about cooling the planet. They want to cool the planet to kill us off. Okay.

Yeah. I just want to be careful about that to think that, you know, for some reason, the West seems to be, in my opinion, and I'm not doing this from a scientific, I'm just talking about observation. The West is reverting to what it is traditionally been known as, relatively dry Mediterranean. It's nothing really unusual. It's not climate change, but it's always changing, but it's just claiming to what is more normal than wet, wet, wet, and cold. Okay? Let me go to the next line. Hi, good morning. Who's this?

Hello? Hello? Hi, who's this? Hi, Janet Neagle Point. Hello, Janet. Is it okay if I talk about something that doesn't relate to fires or weather or anything else? If you wish, go ahead. Okay, really fast. I've heard about this rebuilding or building these low income, low cost homes for the homeless and people. I would not support that. But what I would support is let's build communities, including hospitals and whatever you want to call them. Replace those treatment centers where people who are indigent or mentally ill or drug addicted will be given a safe environment to be, but they must receive treatment and must receive medications if they're mentally ill. And I find that to be much more humanitarian than creating what would eventually just turn into what other big cities call the project. Yeah, you'd probably have to. i mean it it sounds pretty good you'd probably have to uh reform the civil commitment laws you know the commitment laws the ability to force someone into treatment which i

think is pretty hard to do right now unless uh someone is arguably you know at at risk of uh being confined because they're a harm to themselves or others. And most mentally ill people are not violent. And that is true. So a lot of times they're always whack jobs, violent. No, very few of that. But the ones that are violent, a punch above their weight, I would imagine. Let me go to the next one.

Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello. One, weight, I would imagine. Let me go to the next one. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello? One, two, three. Hello? Yeah, you're on. Who's this?

Yes, you're on. Good morning. Hello? Okay. I'm going to say it one more time. You are on the air. Who's this? Am I on?

Okay. Goodbye. Hi, this is Bill. Good morning. Bill, Brad here. Happy Friday morning to you. I'm fine, Brad. am i on okay goodbye uh hi this is bill good morning bill brad here happy happy friday morning to you i'm fine brad what's going on great uh great great show this morning john flying john flying's comments were right right on the on the money so here here's some good news so our congressman cliff bence for, for the next two years, he is going to be right in the thick of all this stuff. He's going to continue to have the chair on the subcommittee on water, wildlife, and fisheries, and he's on the Natural Resources Committee, and he's also on Energy, Bill, we have the best opportunity that we've had in literally ages to get some traction on some of these issues that you've been talking about this morning.

Thank you for the good news. God bless you. I needed that. Good morning. Hi, who's this? Welcome. Hello. Hi, Gene.

How are you? Oh, I'm fine, except the state has got trees that go right down to the ground. And it's on their side of the fence. They expect the homeowner to go cut those. Now, that is a good way to bring the fire right up on a lot of people's property. Oh, now, are you surrounded with BLM land, or what do you have next to you? It's state property. State property?

The property on that side of the fence. Is the state forest land in good shape or not? It's not the state side next to the highway. Oh. Which if those limbs bring the fire up, you've cut down a lot of people's escape routes. Oh, so you're saying that those trees should be trimmed up higher, right, to prevent the crowning? Well, they should have to actually obey their own rules and cut the limbs 12 feet from the ground so that they don't bring the

fire from the road up. I had a fire that came from down by the highway that came up at the corner of my place and the neighbor's place, but luckily it was during the Biscuit Fire. And so the firefighters came by, and they seen what was going on,

and they put the fire out. Thank you for the story. Good hearing from you, Gene. We'll take one more. Hi, who's this? Yeah, it's Joel from the Iron Gate. Hello, Joel. What gets me is we've let these environmentalists take a billion-dollar-plus industry of timber that builds buildings and forest products,

and we've turned it into a complete drain of our funds and our families and turned into a nightmare. Yeah, the land and resources that were a bounty have been turned into a burden. And this is what happens, though, when people who don't really have a common sense worldview are in charge. I can't disagree with you on that one. All right. Thanks, Joel. 855-770-5633.

Might squeeze another call in. Maybe not. I don't know. Another call you can make, though, is if you're having trouble with the insurance side. Yeah, people are talking a lot about fire insurance. But there are a lot of different types of insurance, too. But Steve Yancey covering all of that over at Skypark Insurance, skyparkins.com. It's an independent-owned and operated insurance agency and deals with lots of different companies.

Saved me a lot of money. Great service that he provides there, too. And we also have Lynn Barton. And Lynn Barton, of course, is handling the issues with Medicare. If you have questions about that, Medicare and the Advantage plans and all the other supplementals, talk to her. Her number, 499-0958. But I'm going to give you Steve's number right now.

Steve's number is 261-544-4261-5444. Get your quote. Maybe get your canceled insurance reinstated. Maybe even get a better deal. You never can tell. Skyparkins.com. At Skypark, we make insurance easy. If you're considering a new garage door or opener for a new home or remodel,

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Get your appointment today at centralpointfamilydentistry.com. Paul Princeton writes me, Bill, he was at the meeting last night, by the way. He says, until 30 to 40 years ago, we had a robust timber industry and thriving forests. Fires on the scale we have since witnessed were rare as timber crews were on the scene quickly and expertly put them out. Timber receipts paid for replanting and our counties were well-funded. This all changed through lawsuits and legislation and the timber industry is mostly gone and disasters are now commonplace. You are very much part of this disastrous change.

Politicians, as he's talking about Jeff, politicians seem unable to say mea culpa, we made a mistake. All we have gotten since are more rules, endless funds spent and endless since are more rules, endless funds spent, and endless need for more money, taxes with vague promises that will somehow fix the problem. It won't. We need the timber industry, timber receipts,

and the forestry expertise back. I can only conclude that the goal, and this is what Paul's trying to make here, that the goal is to get we, the rural population, off the land. My comment was well received by the attendees, but not by Jeff. All my best, Paul.

Paul, I appreciate you writing. Okay, the email bill at BillMeyershow.com. We'll talk a bunch more about it Monday. Of course, Monday, Inauguration Monday. Here at American Rent Your Garage, we respect and support those individuals who currently or have previously served this great country and our local communities. As a small token of our respect and appreciation for their service, we extend our Heroes Discount to all active or veteran military personnel and to our active or retired first responders. There is no way to completely

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