November 6, 2021
American Mineral Research and Josephine County Commissioners collaborate to put our county on the map in Washington, D.C.
After almost three years of warning the Josephine County Commissioners about how much Josephine County and SW Oregon is being damaged by our congressional delegation and a series of mineral withdrawals and wildland expansion acts proposed by Rep. DeFazio and Senator Wyden, we have finally caught someone's attention in Washington, D.C.
As we've tried to shout from the rooftops in 2021, Josephine County now faces no less than three major federal bills that would lock up hundreds of thousands of acres of federally managed lands in Josephine County and SW Oregon. Most of them have been proposed in 2021, but we’ve known for years the damage that DeFazio and Wyden intend to do to Josephine County’s economic future.
Josephine County Commissioners finally got the hint in 2021 and started paying attention. While County Commissioners have much more to do to fight these damaging proposals in our view, a letter they sent to D.C. back in September 2021 finally got someone’s attention.
On September 8th, 2021, Josephine County Commissioners sent a letter to all US Senators and all members of the US House Natural Resource Committee which requested Josephine County be removed from the acreage within these damaging land lockup proposals. In the letter they highlighted American Mineral Research’s discovery of high levels of Tellurium in certain parts of Josephine County and the fact this rare critical mineral needs to be protected for green energy manufacturing (used to make a certain type of high efficiency solar panel). They also attached our Op-Ed that called out Senator Wyden for misrepresenting the voices of those of us that live in rural Oregon in the areas that would actually be affected by these costly and unnecessary Acts. That September letter is here: Josephine County Letter 9.8.21 H.R. 803 and S.192.pdf
At the end of October, County Commission chair Dan DeYoung was invited to testify on November 9th about one of these bills to a subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources. On Friday November 5th the County submitted additional information to the record for this hearing, including resubmitting the September letter plus a new four-page letter written by American Mineral Research explaining how damaging these proposals are to Josephine County.
The congressional subcommittee hearing starts at 10am PT this Tuesday November 9th and can be watched on the committee’s YouTube page. Ten separate bills are before the subcommittee in this hearing so Josephine County and this topic may not get much “airtime,” but let’s hope Commissioner DeYoung is bold during his 5 minutes of allowed oral testimony time. These Acts are unnecessary and very damaging bills to Josephine County, because current law already protects our watersheds and the salmon and we would be losing billions, perhaps trillions, of future economic potential just in the mineral values that would be locked up forever.
Let’s hope Congressman Bentz, who is expected to attend this hearing, speaks out publicly for the first time on how damaging these proposals are. To date, he’s been largely silent on what we see as the biggest long-term federal issue facing Josephine County other than being quoted in an editorial from the Capital Press on August 5, 2021, as having surveyed the County Commissioners in his district and 53 of 63 County Commissioners oppose the River Democracy Act. The River Democracy Act would unnecessarily lock up huge amount of acreage in Josephine County and over 3 million acres in Oregon.
But that’s not all! American Mineral Research also drafted a new six-page letter and requested Congressman Bentz submit it to the record for this upcoming hearing. Congressman Bentz, since your new district lines will soon include all of Josephine County, it’s time to stand up for what the vast majority of Josephine County citizens want and need.
For the full story of why this should be on the radar of everyone in Josephine County, please see our new six-page letter here:
American Mineral Research - Additional Congressional Testimony 11-9-21 Hearing.pdf
News for American Mineral Research
June 3, 2021
American Mineral Research shines light on past, present, & future federal land lock-ups in SW Oregon.
Filmed in spring of 2021, this mini-documentary linked above includes a variety of discussions by the management team and a board member of American Mineral Research. This covers the impacts resulting from how federal land is managed in Josephine County and SW Oregon, some of this area's rich critical mineral and precious metal mineral development opportunities, and information about past, present, and pending federal mineral withdrawal and wildland expansion proposals.
* Disclaimer: American Mineral Research does not have any mineral properties that would be directly affected by these federal proposals and is merely acting to protect SW Oregon's economic and tourism future. Our state geology department (DOGAMI) hasn't ever had a budget to do significant field mineral research in SW Oregon and American Mineral Research has been collaborating with local governments and agencies such as DOGAMI / Oregon State University to inform the public of the billions of public and private opportunity costs and fire risk costs that come with these federal land lockup proposals.