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2 CapitalPress.com July 22, 2016 People & Places Rancher engages through storytelling Diane Josephy Peavey shares the story or rural life through her writing Western Innovator By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press CAREY, Idaho — There’s a lot of emphasis today on the need for agriculture to share with the broader public how it grows food, but Diane Jose- phy Peavey was doing it long before “tell your story” was a catch phrase. Her own story — an evo- lution from city girl to ranch- er, writer and sheep industry advocate — is an interesting narrative that took her from a Washington, D.C. and New York City childhood to the open landscapes of Idaho ranching country. Peavey left the East Coast to attend college in Califor- nia, spending summers at a farm her father bought in the Wallowa Mountains of north- eastern Oregon as a base for his research on the Nez Perce Tribe. After college, she worked two years at the U.S. Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York and spent a year in Spain before returning to the U.S. to work for Time magazine as assistant news editor. The years following took her to San Francisco, where she worked with inner city youth, and to Capitol Hill, where she worked as a con- gressional staffer, in President Richard Nixon’s media pro- gram — under Donald Rums- feld and Dick Cheney — and at the Interior Department under then-Secretary Cecil Andrus, a former Idaho gov- ernor. But it was her four years in Alaska that set the stage for her rural storytelling and ad- vocacy of those who steward natural resources. For the irst time, she en- countered people whose en- tire lives were connected to the land, who depended on the environment. “What I really came to un- derstand was the passion peo- ple had for the land, their care for the land … so tied to place and community and family,” she said. She went to Alaska in the early 1970s after her irst marriage broke up, wanting to learn everything she could about the state. “It was an interesting time to be there. The pipeline was being built, it was a huge tran- sition period for the Alaskan people,” she said. Her irst job was doing demographic surveys with research funding from the federal government. She then went to work for the governor, Diane Josephy Peavey Home: Carey, Idaho Husband and partner: John Peavey, third-generation rancher and former Idaho senator Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press Sheep rancher and writer Diane Josephy Peavey relects on life on the ranch while sitting on the porch of the 100-year-old cabin she and her husband, John, call home north of Carey, Idaho, on July 11. engaging with Native Alas- kans to develop public policy regarding Native land claims. That work took her back to Washington, D.C., initially as a Senate staffer and then with the Interior Department to work on Alaskan lands is- sues with the Bureau of Land Management. It was a great job, explain- ing the issues on Capitol Hill, but her tenure at Interior end- ed with the administration change when Ronald Reagan came into ofice, she said. Fork in the road Her intention was to return to Alaska and pursue personal interests, including writing. On the way, she visited her brother, who lived in Hailey, Idaho. While there, she met John Peavey, a local rancher and state senator, and the two hit it off from the start. She decided to work on a short-term National Science Foundation project in Mon- tana, and the two stayed in contact. When the project was inished and she was unsure of her next move, John invited her to spend the summer at his ranch, where she could write in solitude. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I inally took him up on it,” she said. Upon her arrival at Flat Top Ranch in the foothills of the Pioneer Mountains, she was struck by the incredible silence. “It was like a welcoming hug. I didn’t want to make a noise or move,” she said. The following summer, the two were married on the ranch, and a new chapter be- gan in her life. “I spent the irst ive years trying to igure out what I was doing here, why I was here … how to be helpful. You’re try- ing to igure out, Can you be something you’ve never been before?” she said. She came to realize she wasn’t going to be “cowgirl of the year,” roping, riding and castrating. But she could write about the people who did work the land and live- stock, she said. She started writing and compiled a collection of sto- ries. In the early 1990s, she took those stories to National Public Radio in Boise and was told to take them home and re- cord them. The effort earned her a weekly radio spot narrat- ing her writings on ranch life. “I was writing for a more urban audience, but who bet- ter — I didn’t know anything 10 years ago,” she said. Her earliest writings were about the devastation of the farm crisis in the 1980s. Trav- eling the West on ranching business with John, she vis- ited with ranchers and drove through small towns that had been boarded up and ag land that had gone to weeds. People in rural America were frightened. Everything was changing. Third and fourth generations were losing the ranch. There was despair and a longing to retain that connection to land, place and family history. Overcoming is the story of ranching, but this time there was no “next year” for many people, she said. “I wanted to tell the stories because it became clear to me the people who are not living these stories know nothing about us,” she said. They don’t understand that people who know themselves best on the land are lost when that’s taken away, she said. Claiming the life The writing and storytell- ing was also a way of mak- ing this place — the ranch, Idaho — her own. The farm depression hit Flat Top Ranch as well, and she wanted to be able to remember what she and John had on the ranch — and the fear of what they could lose, she said. The radio spot wasn’t just about her or raising awareness, it was also about giving a voice to ranchers and others in the rural community who were too busy to do it themselves, she said. She wrote about many top- ics for the public radio spot, which was well received by urban and rural folks alike. The gig lasted 18 years, until Peavey started to feel as though she was repeating herself. Storytelling was also the genesis of the Trailing of the Sheep, a now international- ly recognized annual festival, which she and John co-found- ed. Blaine County, home to many transplants, had wanted to build a bike path along a cor- ridor that had been used for de- cades as a stock trail. Ranchers had no problem with the idea until the irst year they trailed sheep along the new paved bike path. The Peaveys’ phone rang off the hook with complaints from residents wanting the sheep off “their” bike path. “John said, ‘Let’s invite them to help us walk them and keep the sheep off the path,’” and the festival was born, she said. It started small with efforts by local chambers of com- merce. Along the way, Peavey wanted to add stories — a col- lection of narratives by ranch- ers and herders telling the his- tory of the area and ranching — and make it a folklife fair that showcases the area’s cul- tural heritage. Last year’s festival drew 26,000 people from 36 states and eight countries, and this fall will mark the 20th year of the festival. “What it is to me is how you share your life with people who don’t know anything about it,” she said. There’s been such growth in the Wood River Valley in Cen- tral Idaho. The festival helps Business: Flat Top Sheep Co.; sheep and cattle; 25,000 private acres plus public grazing land Writer: Former longtime weekly contributor to Idaho Public Radio; published in numerous magazines and western anthologies; author of “Bitterbrush Country: Living on the Edge of the Land,” a collection of her radio essays. Calendar Sponsored by: To submit an event go to the Community Events calendar on the home page of our website at www. capitalpress.com and click on “Sub- mit an Event.” Calendar items can also be mailed to Capital Press, 1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem, OR 97301. July 22-July 24 California State Fair, 1600 Ex- position Blvd., Sacramento, 916- 263-FAIR, http://www.castatefair. org/ Friday, July 22 the sprout, without which his canola plants can’t grow. Swinger said the sprout, called a cotyledon, only ex- ists for a few days and once it grew slightly the birds didn’t want to eat it anymore. “We are looking at a two- or three-day window. Once the plant starts photosynthe- sizing, the birds aren’t inter- ested in it anymore,” Swinger said. “They must really like Idaho Water Resource Board meeting, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Best West- ern Edgewater Resort, 56 Bridge St., Sandpoint, Idaho. Website: idwr.idaho.gov/IWRB/ Columbia County Fair, 10 a.m.- 11 p.m. Columbia County Fair- grounds, 58892 Saulser Road, St. Helens, Ore. Saturday, July 23 Columbia County Fair, 10 a.m.- 11 p.m. Columbia County Fair- grounds, 58892 Saulser Road, St. Helens, Ore. Sunday, July 24 Columbia County Fair, 10 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. Columbia County Fair- grounds, 58892 Saulser Road, St. Helens, Ore. Tuesday, July 26 FSPCA Preventive Controls for Human Food Course, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Yanke Family Research Cen- that tiny tip. I don’t know what else is driving them.” Washington State Uni- versity professor Bill Schil- linger said he too has faced the lark issue and can’t ind a solution. While tending to canola research plots over the past 10 years, Shillinger said he’s tried a variety of things to deter the determined birds including plastic owls, pro- pane-powered cannons, garlic oil and netting but nothing worked. Shillinger has called cano- la farmers and experts in other parts of the country and they don’t see the birds, leading him to believe it’s a sites-spe- ciic problem. Swinger said he also thinks it’s a local problem, that the birds have learned to feed on the canola and that they bring their off- spring back to the ield. Established 1928 Board of directors Mike Forrester ..........................President Steve Forrester Kathryn Brown Sid Freeman .................. Outside director Mike Omeg .................... Outside director Corporate oficer John Perry Chief operating oficer Capital Press Managers Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher Joe Beach ..................................... Editor Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager Entire contents copyright © 2016 EO Media Group dba Capital Press An independent newspaper published every Friday. Capital Press (ISSN 0740-3704) is published weekly by EO Media Group, 1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97301. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR, and at additional mailing ofices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR 97308-2048. Industry advocate: Co-found- er of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival; American Lamb Board vice chairman; irst director of the Idaho Rural Council To Reach Us Education: Bachelor’s degree in English, Scripps College; graduate work in journalism News Staff Interesting note: Her father, Alvin Josephy Jr., was a World War II combat correspondent; a writer and editor for Time Magazine; a noted historian, author and government consultant on the Nez Perce Tribe and Native Americans; and the irst chairman of the Smith- sonian’s National Museum of the American Indian residents understand it’s so beautiful because of the people who came before them, who protected and cared for open spaces. Without ranchers and a working landscape, it would be developed, she said. “The people who live on the land have an intima- cy with the landscape and a knowledge that newcomers don’t. Without knowing those stories, we will miss out about why we love this place,” she said. The festival is also an op- portunity to promote lamb, which is her mission as vice chair of the American Lamb Board. Lamb is served at fes- tival venues and local restau- rants and is the focus of cook- ing classes during the ive-day event. The festival is another part of Peavey’s evolution to rancher, storyteller and rural advocate. “I had a terriic life before I came here. But living on the ranch, I am a part of this. This is my story now,” she said. Canola ield in Eastern Washington plagued by larks LIND, Wash. (AP) — A canola farmer in Adams County has been left with- out his whole crop thanks to hundreds of birds that have decided to use his ield for a buffet. J.R. Swinger told the Spokesman-Review that he irst thought the horned larks were eating the seeds, but on second inspection they were snapping up the very tip of Capital Press Even though Shillinger hadn’t found a solution to the lark problem, he decided to submit a scientiic paper that was published in Industrial Crops and Products earlier this year. “Most of the time, I sub- mit scientiic papers based on years and years of research,” Schillinger said. “I wrote this paper simply because it’s an interesting problem.” Toll free ............................. 800-882-6789 Main line ........................... 503-364-4431 Fax ................................... 503-370-4383 Advertising Fax ................ 503-364-2692 N. 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The new FSMA regulation requires every processing facility to have a trained resource person or “Preventive Controls Qualiied Individual“ who has completed a specialized training course such as the one developed by the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) that is recognized by the FDA. This person will oversee the implementation of the facility’s food safety plan and other key tasks. www.techhelp.org/events/279/fsp- caboisejuly2016/ Wednesday, July 27 Fresno Food Expo, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Fresno, Calif., Convention & Entertainment Center. http://www. fresnofoodexpo.com Hood River County Fair, noon- 11 p.m. Hood River County Fair- grounds, 3020 Wy’east Road, Hood River, Ore. Gates open at noon each day, carnival rides begin at 1 p.m. Gen- eral admission is $8 per adult Wednes- day and Thursday, and $10 per adult on Friday and Saturday. Children ages 6-12 (inclusive) are admitted for $3 every day; children younger than 6 are admitted free. Season tickets are avail- able ($30 for adults, $10 ages 6-12 inclusive). Fair parking is free. FSPCA Preventive Controls for Human Food Course, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Yanke Family Research Center, 220 E. Parkcenter Blvd., Boise, Idaho. This is a continuation of Tuesday’s course. www.techhelp.org/events/279/fsp- caboisejuly2016/ Thursday, July 28 Fresno Food Expo, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Fresno, Calif., Convention & Entertainment Center. http://www. fresnofoodexpo.com Hood River County Fair, noon- 11 p.m. Hood River County Fair- grounds, 3020 Wy’east Road, Hood River, Ore. Gates open at noon each day, carnival rides be- gin at 1 p.m. General admission is $8 per adult Wednesday and Thursday, and $10 per adult on Fri- day and Saturday. Children ages 6-12 (inclusive) are admitted for $3 every day; children younger than 6 are admitted free. Season tickets are available ($30 for adults, $10 ages 6-12 inclusive). Fair parking is free. 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