Susie Kunzman is an alpaca farmer in rural Clackamas County. She and her husband have 30 alpaca on 20 acres of land that they bought several years ago. They borrowed against everything they owned, bought 8 females and began what they both say is a wonderful adventure.

Susie says a lot of their success is based on their farming practices: They use the best grains, the best grasses, and their location affords an abundance of fresh air and clean water. The water comes right out of the ground on their property in several springs that feed into Teasel Creek.

But Measure 37 could bring an end to Susie and her husband’s dream. They are surrounded by three Measure 37 claims. One claim is for a 30-home subdivision, another is for a smaller subdivision…and a third is for a gravel quarry.

Susie says she honestly couldn’t believe it when she first heard the news that one of her neighbors proposed a gravel quarry on his 80 acres. It’s 300 yards from her front door and less than 50 feet from her alpaca pastures.

The subdivisions are terrible enough, she says. They’ll bring traffic and sprawl to a very rural area. How rural is the area? Right now, when she’s on her farm, Susie neither sees anyone nor hears anyone. The alpacas thrive in this peaceful environment and Susie says that, frankly, so does she.

But the gravel quarry is just unbelievable to Susie. She is terrified at the thought of it operating six days a week, 12 hours a day…the sound of bulldozers, rock crushers, blasting, and conveyors.

According to Susie, alpacas are very gentle, sensitive creatures. Any stress in their lives results in wool breaks. The disturbance from a gravel pit will mean that Susie will have wool that she can’t sell. And if the mills won’t buy because of stress breaks, Susie wonders what will she really have?

Susie says she and her husband have put everything into their alpacas. It is their retirement. She says she can’t believe it could all disappear because of Measure 37.

Susie Kunzman says she just wants the right to farm. The situation could put the couple out of business. But then what? They could move, she says, but wonders who would buy their place with a gravel mine next to it?

Susie is a native Oregonian. She knows that our state has a history of protecting the environment. She says she can’t believe that people voted for Measure 37 so that her neighbor could build a gravel pit in her backyard – or anybody else’s. Measure 37 sounded good when it was on the ballot, but its loopholes desperately need to be fixed. That’s why Suzie Kunzman supports Measure 49

Measure 49 will provide that fix. It will prevent claims for gravel pits where they simply don’t belong. And it provides relief for small property owners the way voters intended. Measure 49 provides common sense balance to our land use laws.

Read more Oregon stories for Measure 49.