Business AgLife
B
Thursday, March 4, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Boise
real estate
fi rms opens
offi ce in
Baker City
By LISA BRITTON
For EO Media Group
BAKER CITY — An Idaho real
estate fi rm is expanding to serve
Eastern Oregon.
Keller Williams Realty Boise
is basing its new offi ce, Keller
Williams Four Rivers, in Baker
City to cover Baker, Union, Wal-
lowa, Grant, Morrow, Umatilla and
Wheeler counties.
“We’re super excited
about this expansion,”
said Stacie States,
co-owner and president
of Keller Williams.
The Four Rivers
Smith
branch will have fi ve
agents, including Jeff
Anderson, who grew
up in Baker City. Mary
Smith is the designated
broker.
“We couldn’t be
States
more excited to launch
our new Oregon brokerage,” Smith
said.
The offi ce will be virtually based,
meaning the agents will work out of
their own spaces.
“At this point we don’t have plans
for a brick and mortar,” States said.
A company press release stated
Keller Williams “expects to see con-
tinued rapid growth as they sup-
port top agents and teams, as well
as expand their luxury, commercial,
and farm and ranch divisions.”
States said the real estate market
is booming more than she’s seen in
her 16 years in the business.
“It’s the wildest ride we’ve ever
seen,” she said. “And I don’t see an
end in sight.”
In line with the virtual approach
to the Oregon expansion, States said
Keller Williams focuses on tech-
nology and training. She described
it as a “coaching, education and tech
company” that is involved in real
estate.
“Everyone can plug in — wher-
ever they are,” States said of the
training.
See, Real estate/Page 3B
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Angus bulls mill around the feedlot Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, after Botts Angus Ranch’s fi rst bull sale at its new facility just outside of Enterprise.
LOTSA BULL
AT BOTTS ANGUS
RANCH
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
E
NTERPRISE — There
was plenty of bull just
west of Enterprise, last
week, as Beau Botts held
his fi rst bull auction at his new auc-
tion warehouse at the family ranch.
Botts and wife, Kristen, hosted
what they plan as an annual event
Thursday, Feb. 25, after con-
structing the new facility over the
past year. They have previously
worked with a feedlot in Pilot Rock
where they used to haul their bulls
for sale. He said they wintered and
fi nished their bulls there in pre-
vious years.
“We’ve been involved as part-
ners in Rollin’ Rock Genetic Part-
ners in Pilot Rock for the past eight
years and we decided to go off on
our own,” Botts said. “We built a
new facility here in the past year
and it’s our fi rst sale here this year.
We’ll be back every year.”
Of the 90 Angus bulls listed in
the buyers’ brochure, 74 were sold,
Botts said. About 150 buyers came
from Montana, Nevada, North
Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming and
other states.
“We had buyers from all over
the country,” he said.
The buyers were greeted with
lunch and snacks prior to the 1 p.m.
sale, presided over by auctioneer
Joe Goggins. Prospective buyers
were able to view the bulls from
early morning. Those purchased
See, Auction/Page 3B
Giving a lift
to business
ventures
Eastern Oregon nonprofit
partners on angel
investing workshop
By PHIL WRIGHT
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A local non-
profi t is looking to fi nd some wings
to help entrepreneurial enter-
prises get off the ground in Eastern
Oregon.
Eastern Oregon Ventures has
teamed up with Oregon Tech-
nology Business Center in Bea-
verton to host a free
virtual workshop on
angel investing. Wilson
Zehr, business faculty
at Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity, La Grande,
owns and operates
Zehr
EOV, which has funded
the activities of the EOU Entrepre-
neurship Club and Pub Talk. Angel
investing, he said, is another way
to support the local entrepreneurial
ecosystem.
“The majority of the research
shows that it is diffi cult for new ven-
tures to thrive in isolation,” Zehr
said. “We need investors, entrepre-
neurs, advisers, skilled employees,
service providers, heroes and a
number of other elements.”
Oregon Technology Business
Center has been offering a suc-
cessful program like this in Bea-
verton for many years, Zehr said,
and it is similar to successful pro-
See, Investing/Page 3B
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Buyers mill around in the new auction facility at Botts Angus Ranch after its fi rst sale there Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. Botts plans an annual
sale of registered Angus just outside of Enterprise each year.
Hammond Ranches loses grazing permit
New administration rescinds rights for Eastern Oregon operation
By MAXINE BERSTEIN
The Oregonian/OregonLive
WASHINGTON — A senior adviser in
the U.S. Department of Interior on Friday,
Feb. 26, rescinded the January decision by
former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt
to grant Hammond Ranches Inc. a 10-year
grazing permit and directed the Bureau of
Land Management to further consider the
matter.
The maneuver came as Congress was
moving to confi rm President Joe Biden’s pick
of Deb Haaland as the new Interior secretary
and followed a day after four environmental
advocacy groups fi led a federal lawsuit to
block the grazing permit for the Hammonds.
It also came just days before the cattle
were expected to be turned out on the more
than 26,000 acres of public lands neighboring
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge about 45
to 70 miles south of Burns.
The action marked the latest twist in a
yearslong saga surrounding the grazing rights
of Dwight Hammond Jr. and son Steven
Hammond after they were convicted of set-
ting fi re to public lands and served prison
time.
The new memo from the Interior secre-
tary’s offi ce found that the Trump adminis-
tration hadn’t allowed for suffi cient time to
receive and consider public challenges to the
permit.
A proposal to grant the permit was dated
Dec. 31 but the public wasn’t immediately
alerted to it until days later “resulting in con-
fusion” about how the department would cal-
culate an authorized 15-day protest period,
according to the memo from the Interior sec-
retary’s offi ce.
Friday’s memo was signed by Laura Dan-
iel-Davis, a senior adviser to the secretary
exercising delegated authority of the assistant
secretary of land and minerals management.
“Because the protest period had not prop-
erly concluded” before the fi nal Jan. 19
decision was issued, “I am rescinding the
See, Hammond/Page 3B