Steve Rouse is leading the fight to keep mining operations from destroying Southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley. Measure 49 would provide Steve and his neighbors with the knockout punch they need.

Two property owners are using Measure 37 to bring mining operations to an area that is home to farms, families, a scenic river, a threatened fish species and a growing wine industry.

“The community has come together in support of Measure 49,” Steve says.

Rouse, an electrical contractor, says one mining operation would pull raw materials from 80-acres of Applegate River floodplain. The other would open 150-acres of hillside to mining.

Just one of those operations would create some 200 heavy truck trips a day on a winding country road that serves homes, farms and wineries.

Then there are the myriad environmental concerns. The Applegate River is home to Chinook and coho salmon and is a popular destination for serious fishermen who pump serious dollars into the local economy.

Floodplain mining could cause erosion and sediment problems that would hurt already fragile fish runs and would destroy the scenic qualities of a much-loved community resource, Steve says.

“I’m definitely a strong personal property rights advocate,” Steve says. But those rights must be measured against impacts to an entire community, he adds. When it comes to mining, it’s not possible to limit the impact to the property boundaries, especially when a river’s involved.

That’s why he never bought into Measure 37’s posturing as a property rights initiative. “I clearly saw through the charade to what it was.”

So did many of his neighbors. They’ve banded together and forced the mining proposals to go through multiple appeals.

Measure 49, however, would end the charade for good, Rouse says.