[This post is lengthy but it is
necessarily so. It is loaded with evidence that proves our claims.
All information included in this article was procured either by
internet search or FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. All
information and images are either freely available online or are part
of Public Record. Images and extracts that may be subject to copyright are displayed here under FAIR USE.
Please click on the images to enlarge.]
You may not know the name Donald
Rubenstein as yet. But you will. Mr. Rubenstein is going to be the
subject of much debate over the coming weeks. His name will probably
be appearing on local media outlets.
Donald Rubenstein is the Hearings
Officer for Jackson County, an unelected official who sits in
judgment of residents and citizens of the county, subverting due
process, since it is not a court of law and Mr. Rubenstein has sworn
no oath to uphold the Constitution. Much of what Mr. Rubenstein does
is make decisions on Land Use applications, like the one submitted to
him for the removal of Fielder Dam on Evans Creek. The dam was
removed in early August.
As a public official, even an appointed
one, he is required to disclose any and all information that could be
construed as a Conflict of Interest – this is a veritable
sport in Jackson and Josephine counties. In his RFP (Request for
Proposal) for the position of Hearings Officer for JaxCo, he made the
following statement –
We heartily disagree with that statement. We know of many, many conflicts of interest that may interfere with his ability to be an effective Hearings Officer.
At a public hearing in opposition the
the dam removal, called for by the family representative of the
alleged owners of the land upon which Fielder Dam sat, Mr Rubenstein
made a declaration before commencing proceedings. He stated –
“With respect to my, uh, personal participation I would like to disclose I know two people who are involved in one way or another in this application. Brian Barr, who is the applicant is a gentleman I have met on two, perhaps three occasions. I would hardly say we have a close personal relationship, but he is somebody who I have met and had a conversation or two with, from time to time. And secondly, the second applicant, the Geos Institute has on its board Ken Margolis who is a personal friend, and, uh, uh, whom I have known for a number of years. I can assure everyone I have had no contact with either of these people with respect to this issue, I never will have contact with either of these people with respect to this issue. That, I believe, would be improper. I agree I would have to disclose it if I had. But I have not had contact, I will not have contact with them about this matter.”
That isn't really the whole story of
Mr. Rubenstein's relationship with Geos Institute, Brian Barr
or a very important person he omitted to mention, Bob Hunter from
WaterWatch of Oregon. Mr. Hunter is the catalyst for many dam
removals in recent years, including this one.
Upon being asked by Rod Crume, the
representative of the alleged dam owners about his relationship with
Bob Hunter, Mr. Rubenstein was outraged and stated –
“Mr. Crume, I have made disclosures that are both required by law, and are honest and complete. Whatever contact I may have had with Mr. Hunter isn't relevant to this matter, because he is not a party to this matter. He is not the applicant, and does not appear on any of the filings. He may very well have participated in the work, uh, to remove this dam, but he is not a party, he's not an applicant. Now having said that, I will tell you, and I have no obligation to tell you – and you have failed in your decision, in your, uh, purpose in not offending me. I will tell you that I do know Mr. Hunter. Occasionally, perhaps four times. I am not a personal friend of his, and he, uh, this relationship bears absolutely no bearing on my decision.”
Mr. Rubenstein was visibly flustered by
the question; this is obvious in his somewhat rambling choice of
words. His statement, we believe, is entirely false. To say that Bob
Hunter “isn't relevant” to the Fielder Dam removal project is
preposterous. He is the heart and soul of the project, and was the
applicant to procure grant funding from Oregon Department of Fish
& Wildlife (ODFW) in Phase 1 of the project.
So, just how far does Mr. Rubenstein's relationship with these radical enviro groups go?
Very far, indeed. Quite disturbingly far, actually.
POINT ONE –
Mr. Rubenstein is the current Secretary
of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy (SOLC) and has been a
member of this group since 2008. The SOLC office is at 84
4th Street, Ashland - the same address
as Geos Institute (a climate
change alarmist corporation who rake in millions per year to
brainwash the innocent and the ignorant.) Geos Institute
owns the building according to Jackson County Assessor's Office
records.
IMAGE LINK
LINK : Jackson County Assessor's Office Property Data
NOTE: Right now, this address is not searchable – it won't come up no
matter which permutation of the address we try. The only way it comes
up now is to leave the street blank, type in 84 where it says
HOUSE
# and hit SEARCH.
Click on page
3 of the results. You
will see the evidence of the image above.
POINT TWO –
Mr. Rubenstein is the founder of
several environmental groups, including but not limited to The
Marin Agricultural Land Trust, and the Land Trust Exchange
(now named the Land Trust Alliance with 1,700 chapters across
the US.) He also founded the Environmental Law Society at the
University of San Francisco. He has also been employed by enviro
groups, the Land Conservancy and the California Coastal
Conservancy. (Confirmation of all these can be found on his
LinkedIn page.)
POINT THREE –
Bob Hunter of WaterWatch of Oregon
(WaterWatch.org,) an overly-litigious and very aggressive
environmentalist group operating in Oregon and California, is a
thirty-plus year member of the SOLC and is a past board member
(1980s.) Mr Hunter, along with Brian Barr of the Geos Institute,
host nature hikes and birding trips (sometimes jointly,) for the
SOLC.
IMAGE LINK - Bob Hunter Birding Outing for SOLC
IMAGE LINK - Bob Hunter & Brian Barr Birding Outing for SOLC
Mr. Hunter also received a conservation
award from the SOLC in 2015 and attended the 30th
anniversary of their first board meeting. Mr. Hunter donates money
to the SOLC on a regular basis.
PDF LINK - Newsletter featuring both Bob Hunter Honored and Rogue River Preserve articles
SOLC currently runs a project
called Rogue River Preserve. On the “steering committee”
of this project are Mr. Rubenstein and Mr. Barr. Mr. Hunter is
listed as an “adviser” to this committee.
POINT FOUR –
In an attempt to obscure the close
relationship between Brian Barr, the Geos Institute, and
Donald Rubenstein and the SOLC, a false address was listed for
the Geos Institute in the announcement for the public meeting
regarding the Fielder Dam removal. This meeting was requested by
Rodney Crume, representing the owners of the land on which the dam
allegedly sat.
The address, 89 Alder St, Central
Point is actually the address for the Jackson
Soil & Water Conservation District, [JSWCD] [a branch
of State Department of Agriculture,] and listed by Google as a
County Government Office. This address also houses the USDA
Farm Services Agency, Rural
Development, and the Natural
Resources Conservation Service. Also
housed is the Rogue River Watershed Council, a
Non-Profit organization of which Brian Barr is the Executive
Director. This is not the address of the Geos Institute,
which is, as stated above, 84 4th Street,
Ashland. We believe this address was used in an attempt to
willfully obscure the fact that Brian Barr's Geos Institute
and Donald Rubenstein's SOLC reside in the same building.
It should be noted that the 84 4th
Street address is not an office building, but a converted, one-story
house, owned by the Geos
Institute.
NOTE
: It should be noted that Geos Institute is the new name for the
notorious radical enviro group, Headwaters, Inc, also formerly known as NCCSP (National Center for Conservation Science & Policy.) The HISTORY of this
group is truly detestable. These are some of the very people responsible for the destruction of our counties and our natural resources jobs.
Those mentioned in this article are culpable in the poisoning of Evans
Creek.
There
is no excuse for the lack of EIS (Environmental Impact Statement)
prior to removing the dam.
There
is no excuse for threatening land owners with ruin should they not
comply.
There
is no excuse for illegally removing Wimer Dam BEFORE the permits were
in place.
There
is no excuse for creating the environmental disaster that has been
deliberately thrust upon Evans Creek and its residents, both human
and animal.
WaterWatch,
Geos Institute,
Bob Hunter, Brian Barr and Donald Rubenstein – there is no excuse
for what you have done, not in the name of ANYTHING or ANYONE, let alone fish.
