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INSIDE POWDER VALLEY BOYS BASKETBALL TEAM SHAPING INTO CONTENDERS LATE IN SEASON | SPORTS, A7 $1.50 TUESDAY EDITION February 1, 2022 WALLOWA COUNTY Another school offi cial resigns Wallowa High School principal cites ‘lack of support’ from board By BILL BRADSHAW Wallowa County Chieftain Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald, File WALLOWA — Another Wal- lowa County school administrator is leaving, and not under the best of circumstances. Wallowa High School Principal David Howe will leave March 8 after having sub- mitted his letter of resignation to the Wallowa School Board at its meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 12. Howe said he is leaving because there is “a lack of support from the superinten- dent and the board. … It is unfortunate that it has come to Howe this. Despite my best eff orts I can no longer protect my staff or students from those who are bent on tearing us apart. I am saddened that I can no longer pro- mote Wallowa High School in which I have poured out my last six years and still care deeply for.” Accomplishments Howe said much of his time at the school has been productive. “(The high school staff and I) have been able to accomplish some amazing things at Wallowa High School during my time. There are a few things I am most proud of that we were able to accomplish,” he said. “First, we were able to come together as a staff and focus on doing what is best for students. For example, we increased college course selec- tions for students resulting in sav- ings of time and money during their college careers — a recent graduate was able to enter Boise State University with fi rst-se- mester credits completed. Second, prior to the last year and a half, we were able to improve the school culture and spirit in the high school and we were able to return Wallowa basketball teams to competitiveness. We were able to increase the number of electives in the high school by building a business education pro- gram from the ground up. That program enjoyed some great success and provided students See, Howe/Page A5 Rocky Mountain elk congregate at a feeding site in a meadow along Anthony Creek on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. The feeding stations help keep elk from eating farmers’ haystacks. Record snow across much of the Northwest’s mountains has driven animals down to the lowlands this winter, and climate scientists say things may only get worse in the future. Hungry herds Wild elk are feasting on farmers’ haystacks across the Pacific Northwest By ANNA KING She says wildlife will need safe corridors. “They have to move so fast, but they have all this stuff in the way,” Krosby says. “They have roads and highways in the way, they have cities in the way, agri- cultural areas. And all of these form these barriers to wildlife getting to where they need to go to shift their ranges to adapt to climate change.” Northwest News Network LA GRANDE — Anthony Leggett’s farm is nestled in the foothills outside Anthony Lakes in Eastern Oregon. He grows pasture grass and beardless barley and puts up big stacks of hay to earn extra money. Leggett’s farm costs include equipment, chemicals, fencing and fertilizers. But hay makes money. “Your hay is your pay- check,” Leggett told North- west News Network. “That’s how you pay your bills, that’s how you support your family.” That income is being eaten up, literally, by elk. “They just take it,” he said. “You know, they’re animals — that’s what they do.” He says it’s a frustrating situation and he does his best to safely haze the animals. “(But) you know, if I chase them off my property, they just go to the neighbor’s property and get into their haystack,” Leggett says. Across the West, wide- spread drought has left elk, deer and even wild turkeys hungry and in poor condition — even a bit desperate. Wild elk are attacking farmers’ haystacks in Wash- ington and Oregon. Record snow across much of the Northwest’s mountains has driven animals down to the lowlands. And climate scien- tists say things may only get worse in the future. Baker City Herald, File Rocky Mountain elk eat alfalfa hay during a previous winter at the Elk- horn Wildlife Area feeding site west of North Powder. The feeding stations help deter elk from eating farmers’ hay, but they don’t feed all the elk. Every year, elk break fences belonging to Anthony Leggett, a farmer near Anthony Lakes, to get to his hay and crops. Hay prices are up Joey McCanna spends a lot of his winter teaching hay growers and ranchers how to build elk-proof electric fencing. “The other big thing we have going on, that we have staff kind of running frantic on, is we have a lot of elk damage,” McCanna said on a recent wildlife management Zoom. “Elk getting into hay- stacks is one of the big ones.” McCanna is an expert on resolving wildlife confl icts with humans for the state Department of Fish and Wild- life. He teaches farmers how to set up automatic propane cannons to haze them with noise. But elk are smart — and sometimes it doesn’t always work. This year, drought has upped the stakes — hay prices are up across the West. “This summer was very hot and dry. And alfalfa and grass hay is at a premium right now,” McCanna says. Floods and fi res Meade Krosby is a senior scientist at the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group in Seattle. “So, one of the primary ways that wildlife respond to changing climate is by moving,” Krosby says. “They shift their ranges — they want to track the change in climate as it happens.” She says now more than ever before, animals will need to move quickly. Climate-in- duced fl oods and fi res in the Northwest are pushing ani- mals around on the landscape. Starving despite hay Making things worse, elk can starve on hay. Elk have four-chambered guts that change their bacteria with the season and what’s available to eat. In the spring and summer, bacteria col- onies adjust to digest green shoots and high-protein feed. But in the fall and winter, gut bacteria are essentially pro- grammed to eat big quanti- ties of dried twigs and grasses with a lower energy. “The bug is clostridium perfringens,” said Colin Gillin, the state vet for Ore- gon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It’s a bacteria that all ruminants carry in their guts. It’s just you don’t want that clostridium to get out of control. And it’s when you throw corn in there, it starts to have a party.” In this case, the corn is hay. The bacteria break down the walls of the stomach and See, Elk/Page A5 Auction for community center starts soon Funds raised will help restore Catherine Creek Community Center in Union By DICK MASON The Observer UNION — An online and in-person auction that could go a long way toward helping restore the Catherine Creek Commu- nity Center will be starting soon. Money raised from the auction will be used to fund renovation projects for the Catherine Creek Community Center, which is in the former Union United Methodist Church building complex. The complex, which includes the old Methodist Church building, is more than a century old and its meeting hall, which was built more than fi ve decades ago, is in INDEX Classified ......B4 Comics ...........B7 Crossword ....B4 Dear Abby ....B8 need of major renovation work. Money raised from the auction will be spent on roof work and elec- trical system upgrades, according to Terra Richter, a member of Friends of the Historic Union Commu- nity Hall. The Friends of the His- toric Union Commu- nity Hall purchased the Methodist Church com- plex almost a year ago and the group was instru- WEATHER Home .............B1 Horoscope ....B5 Letters ...........A4 Lottery ...........A2 THURSDAY Obituaries .....A3 Opinion .........A4 Sports ............A7 State ...............A8 mental in opening the buildings as the Catherine Creek Community Center. Funds raised at the auc- tion will not only be spent on building upgrades but also will help pay off a loan the community group received to help purchase the property. The old Methodist Church and its meeting hall was put up for sale after the church closed because of declining mem- bership. Ownership of it Full forecast on the back of B section Tonight Wednesday 15 LOW 28/22 A little snow A little snow FIRST-YEAR COACH FINDING SUCCESS then was assumed by the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, which sold the church building complex to the Friends of the Historic Union Com- munity Hall. The community center is becoming a popular community gathering place. It is now the home of many community pro- grams, including a senior See, Auction/Page A5 CONTACT US 541-963-3161 Issue 13 2 sections, 16 pages La Grande, Oregon Email story ideas to news@lagrande observer.com. More contact info on Page 4A. Online at lagrandeobserver.com
