SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 // 23
BOOKMONGER
Harney County revisited
With the news cycle amped
up to unprecedented volume,
speed and spectacle these days,
two and a half years can seem
like ages ago.
But “Sagebrush Collabora-
tion,” a new book by Uni-
versity of Oregon geography
professor and land-use politics
specialist Peter Walker, con-
tains relevant lessons from an
event that gripped the nation’s
attention back in early 2016.
That’s when heavily armed
and self-appointed “patriots”
from out of state drove their
pickups into the Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge in
eastern Oregon and seized the
headquarters. They refused to
leave until the federal govern-
ment relinquished control of
the land — “letting the ranchers
get back to ranching, getting
the miners back to mining, the
loggers back to logging.”
Led by Ammon Bundy, sci-
on of a Nevada ranching family
that had previous beefs with
the federal government, the
Sagebrush Rebellion had come
to remote Harney County.
In the past, some of the
local residents might have had
philosophical agreement with
the occupiers’ complaints of
federal overreach, but more re-
cently there had been a marked
improvement in the relation-
ship between Harney County’s
ranchers and the management
of the Malheur Refuge.
“For many Harney County
citizens, ‘overreach’ might be
better described as under-lis-
tening,” Walker explains.
But several years prior to
the armed occupation at the
refuge, the locals had figured
out that there might be some
value in coming together to
talk through problems and
figure out solutions together.
Politically conservative
ranchers, progressive environ-
mentalists, tribal members, Bu-
reau of Land Management and
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
employees, and local law en-
forcement had spent probably
more hours than they’d care to
count in developing partner-
ships, initiatives and councils to
respond to a host of concerns.
They’d dealt with water
use, invasive species, protec-
tion of ancient artifacts, the
migration of young people out
of the area and more.
But Bundy seemed un-
aware of Harney County’s suc-
cess in collaborative ventures.
“In fact, despite all the time
he spent inveighing against
federal ‘overreach,’ Bundy
himself did very little listen-
ing,” Walker writes.
The author seems to sug-
gest that while this aggressive
push for “federal free” land
might find a better reception
with disillusioned populations
in other areas of the western
U.S., it failed to impress the
citizens of Harney County. Put
off by an outsider with fiery
rhetoric, they had no intention
of dismantling their thought-
fully crafted collaborations at
his behest.
“Ammon Bundy seemed
unable to grasp that, for most
“Sagebrush
Collaboration”
By Peter Walker
Oregon State
University Press
272 pp
$19.95
Harney County citizens, his
cowboy hat did not make him
local.”
Walker engaged in inten-
sive fieldwork for “Sagebrush
Collaboration” — attending
meetings and interviewing
many of the major players in-
volved in the standoff at Mal-
heur, as well as digging into
court records and researching
the roots of the struggle for
control of federally owned
Western lands.
It must have been a diz-
zying amount of research to
wrangle, and that displays in
occasional unnecessary reiter-
ations of certain points in the
COURTESY OREGON
STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The cover of Peter Walker’s
‘Sagebrush Collaboration.’
text. Another round of editing
would have been beneficial in
smoothing over some of the
redundancies.
The Bookmonger is
Barbara Lloyd McMichael,
who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors
and publishers of the Pacific
Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com.
SEPTEMBER Maintenance and Clean Up tips
INFORMATION FROM THE OSU EXTENSION SERVICE
MAINTENANCE AND CLEAN UP
• Harvest winter squash when the “ground spot” changes from white to a cream or gold
color.
• Pick and store winter squash; mulch carrot, parsnip, and beets for winter harvesting.
• Protect tomatoes and/or pick green tomatoes and ripen indoors if frost threatens.
• Stake tall flowers to keep them from blowing over in fall winds.
• Dig, clean, and store tuberous begonias if frost threatens.
• Harvest potatoes when the tops die down. Store them in a dark location.
• Optimal time for establishing a new lawn is August through mid-September.
• Aerate lawns.
• Early-September: Apply 1 pound nitrogen per 1,000 square feet to lawns. Reduce risks
of run-off into local waterways by not fertilizing just prior to rain, and not over-irrigating so
that water runs off of lawn and onto sidewalk or street.
PLANTING/PROPAGATION
• Divide peonies and iris.
• Plant or transplant woody ornamentals and mature herbaceous perennials. Fall planting
of trees, shrubs and perennials can encourage healthy root growth over the winter.
• Plant daffodils, tulips, and crocus for spring bloom. Work calcium and phosphorus into
the soil below the bulbs at planting time. Remember when purchasing bulbs, the size of
the bulb is directly correlated to the size of the flower yet to come in spring.
From plant nutrients and
fertilizers to ventilation and
air filtration systems, Astoria
Indoor Hydro & Garden has
a huge and wide-ranging
selection of indoor
gardening supplies!
TOPSOIL • COMPOST • BARK • ROCK
Topsoil Sale
12
$
Buy 10 yards
or more only
00
PER YARD
10
$
00
PER YARD
For All Your
Landscaping Needs
(503) 861-6030
at Ft. Clatsop Junction
2060 SE Airport Ln.
Warrenton
Open Mon-Sat
8am-5pm
www.trailsendrecovery.com
487 W Marine Dr
Astoria, OR 97103
astoriaindoor@gmail.com
503-468-0606