OREGON SHERIFF STANDS UP AGAINST THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE

Josephine County, Oregon -When Gil Gilbertson was sworn is as Sheriff of Josephine County, a rural county in southwest Oregon, in 2007, he had 30 years of law enforcement experience behind him, both in the United States and with various military missions overseas.

So when citizens of the county began coming to him complaining of “harassment” by U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers (LEO), he said he’d investigate their concerns, figuring he could work things out with the local ranger district. After all, as the county’s chief law enforcement officer he was in the “club” and moreover had gotten along with the “feds” -- though he disagreed with their road closing policies and other efforts to keep the public off public lands which cover 68 percent of the rural county.

“You know, until about a year ago this wasn’t even on my radar,” Gilbertson told NewsWithViews. “It was the miners that were coming to me saying they were being harassed. I said I’d look into it.”

He contacted the local ranger district for information, but instead of answers he was bluntly told that No, they couldn’t, wouldn’t discuss anything about any complaints with him, but he could file a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request and they’d get back to him.

“Go Pound Sand”

As talk-radio host Bill Meyer [of KMED] put it in an interview with Gilbertson, the Forest Service had essentially told the sheriff to “go pound sand.” Federal agencies are notorious for taking months and years to answer FOIAs Meyer said.

“I’m not going to file any FOIA,” Gilbertson told Meyer. “I think that they’re obligated to impart that information to me.”

On May 5, Gilbertson sent a blistering letter to the District Ranger of the Wild Rivers Ranger District in Caves Junction, setting down in no uncertain terms his objections not only to the Forest Service response to his requests for information but his dissatisfaction with USFS policies.

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