G OVERNOR ’ S HUSBAND RECALLS COUPLE ’ S
W ALLOWA C OUNTY BEGINNINGS
- page A3
www.wallowa.com
Enterprise, Oregon
March 11, 2015
$1
Snowpack low here, worse elsewhere
Nearly half of the monitoring sites in
state show lowest levels on record
As Oregon’s snowpack levels are
generally measuring terribly low for
a second straight year, the bad news
locally is that, as of March 1, condi-
tions here aren’t as good as they were
Rob Ruth/Chieftain last March, when the local snowpack
A view of some of the Wallowa was the only bright spot in an other-
Mountains bordering Alder Slope wise bleak statewide report.
on Monday morning, March 9.
Oregon’s mountains continue to
Commission
OKs Hayes
Ranch partition
Director received
decision appeal
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
After years of contested
attempts to subdivide the
Hayes ranch near Joseph,
the Wallowa County Plan-
ning Commission gave the
green light to the estate
of Mary Louise Hayes and
Eastern Oregon Property
Development LLC to create
two two-acre parcels from
the approximately 150-acre
ranch.
Some interested par-
ties promised fireworks at
the Feb. 24 meeting of the
planning commission, but
although interested parties
nearly packed the room,
scarcely anyone raised a
voice during the discussion.
Planning Department Di-
rector Harold Black opened
the meeting saying the plan-
ning commission at its Jan-
uary meeting had asked him
to answer two questions:
first, whether an access road
to a Measure 49 parcel can
be allowed to pass through
a non-Measure 49 parcel;
and second, if there are any
requirements for setbacks
and/or easements to provide
access and maintenance to
the Cove (irrigation) ditch.
Black answered the first
question by referencing a
reply from the Oregon De-
partment of Land Conserva-
tion and Development that
stated no regulations pro-
hibit the access road.
See HAYES, Page A8
C HIEFTAIN
WA L L O WA
Planners
apologize
for input
snafu
experience record low snowpack
levels, according to snow survey data
from the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS).
Statewide, warm February tem-
peratures generally resulted in more
rain than snow in the mountains.
While February brought a few snow
events across the state, the snow
accumulation was not enough to
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term snow monitoring sites are at or
near the lowest snowpack levels on
record.
“Without snowpack in the moun-
tains to support spring runoff, many
streams and rivers across Oregon
will likely experience below normal
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NRCS Oregon snow survey super-
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summer have many implications
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livestock, city municipalities and hy-
dropower operations. Reservoir op-
erators have at least been able to take
advantage of the rain by increasing
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The Wallowa Basin’s snowpack
was reported to be 73 percent of av-
erage in the March 1 report, as com-
pared to 102 percent in March 2014.
See SNOWPACK, Page A7
CHANGE IN
DIRECTION
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County citi-
zen Katherine Stickroth
wanted to express her
concerns on the Hayes
Ranch partition by letter
to the Wallowa County
Planning Commission.
According to the public
notice, the commission
planned to accept public
input until 5 p.m. on Feb.
23.
Stickroth attempted to
submit her letter to the
planning department at
approximately 2:30 p.m.
on the end date, only to
have someone in the of-
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comment period passed
the month before. The
person refused to accept
the letter although Stick-
roth pointed out the no-
tice on the planning com-
mission door.
Stickroth attended the
Feb. 24 planning com-
mission hearing on the
Hayes partition because
of her interest in the mat-
ter, as well as to voice her
concerns about public in-
put.
See APOLOGY, Page A8
MODEL WATERSHED CUTTING
BACK ON LOCAL PROJECTS
By Rocky Wilson
Wallowa County Chieftain
T
he La Grande-based Grande
Ronde Model Watershed
(GRMW), which has invested
more than $4.8 million in Wallowa
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in the past 10 years, is redirecting
its top priority to two watersheds in
Union County through 2018 where
“populations of Chinook salmon are
LPSHULOHG´
So says Jeff Oveson, a 1970 Wal-
lowa High School graduate and exec-
XWLYHGLUHFWRURIQRQSUR¿W*50:IRU
the past 15 years.
Oveson estimates that at least
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ects will be invested in Wallowa
County between now and 2018. This
SURMHFWHGGROODUDPRXQWZRXOGEH
well above the $480,000 spent here
on average through those previously
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below annual investments here in
WKHSDVW¿YH\HDUVZKHQ*50:¶V
budget expanded dramatically.
See PROJECTS, Page A7
C O U N T Y
Wallowa County’s
Newspaper Since 1884
Volume 132 Issue No. 47
© 2015 EO Media Group
PROFILE
Bob Jackson: Forester, conservationist
”
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Bob Jackson uses a walk-
er, wears a knee brace and
resides at Wallowa Valley
Senior Living, but he’s one
of those people you can tell
spent a lifetime outdoors.
He still wears the flannel
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enthusiastically about his
former professions.
Jackson, a former long-
time forester and surveyor
in the Wallowa Valley, said
his birth took place 12 hours
into 1926 on a farm on the
edge Mason City, Iowa.
“From the fifth grade on,
I grew up in Dunbar (Iowa)
in Marshall County. It was
in Dunbar that I had polio.
That’s why I’m in here now,
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son said.
Jackson contracted the
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12th birthday. Unlike many
of his era who suffered de-
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Wallowa Valley Senior Living resident Bob Jackson is the
center’s resident storyteller and prankster as well as a link
to the county’s past.
bilitating effects, Jackson
made a nearly full recovery as
his family utilized the “Sister
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ing and engaging paralyzed
muscles rather than immobi-
lizing them as standard treat-
ment of the time dictated.
“The only time I ever knew of
my father fainting was when
I STILL HEAR PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT
THE BATES MILL, AND IT DIDN’T HAVE AN
S AT THE END.
Mother told him she thought I
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He credits polio for giving
him the idea to do something
special, which for him meant
forestry. He began by wander-
ing the creek near his home
and birdwatching. He said the
experience helped him realize
a life of desk work did not in-
terest him.
After graduating from
high school, Jackson at-
tended Iowa State Univer-
sity, earning a forestry de-
gree. He spent a summer
at a college work program
in the Priest River country
of northern Idaho where
he learned a logger’s way
of navigating rivers. “We
lived at a summer forestry
camp about 11 miles above
- BOB JACKSON
Priest River, and when we’d
come down from Priest
Lake to about a mile north
of the camp, we’d get a log
and roll it into the river and
ride it down into the camp.
I came closer to getting a
good suntan that year than
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son said.
After graduation Jackson
made his way west. “I took
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to me, in Heber, Arizona
with the Forest Service.
From there they promoted
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He spent most of his time
marking trees for cutting
and handling timber sales.
See JACKSON, Page A7