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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2017)
Wallowa County Chieftain Outdoors wallowa.com Contributed photo I Dipper sits on a rock in a stream. Dippers are solitary, stream-loving birds BIRD- WATCHING EH Van Blaricom M y bird of the month is a Dipper. Other names are Water Ouzel or Teeter Bird. Their habitat is on cold, fast running mountain streams from Alaska to Central America. They appear to be related to the wrens and they are indeed a songbird, but it is difficult to hear their songs over the roar of the creek or river. Since I have been a life-long trout fisherman who specialized in fly-fishing on fast running creeks and rivers, I have had an opportunity to observe these amazing Dippers on almost all of the streams that I fished. I have even found their nests, which is difficult because they frequently hide their nests behind the spray of a waterfall. There are so many peculiarities about Dippers, it is hard to tell about them in a few sentences as they seem to defy the laws of physics. For instance, they are quite buoyant yet they can walk around on the bottom of a fast moving stream. That’s where they get most of their food, which are periwinkles and helgramites. They are non-migrant and quite territorial and never live in flocks as they are never with more than their mates except when they are training their fledglings. Their weirdest habit is how they got their name by dipping up and down. I differ with most other birdwatchers, who claim this dipping is for communication. The ones I’ve always observed are most always alone, so who are they communicating with? My theory is they are mostly sitting on a rock in the middle of a fast moving stream so if they stood still they would be most likely to be seen by predators than if they are in constant motion with the fast-moving creek. In other words it’s a survival tactic. Dippers also eat snails, fish eggs, small fish and all sorts of aquatic insects. Another oddity is they just stay 10 or 15 yards ahead of me while I am wading upstream. Then when I get a long way from where I started, they suddenly fly right past me to go back to where I first encountered them. One other thing, the females do all of the nest construction and do all of the incubating plus most of the feeding but the male also brings in various insects and water creatures and helps in training what are usually just 3 youngsters. That’s all I have room for Dippers. E.H. Van Blaricom resides in Joseph. Lions Club takes over Fergi By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain Wallowa County skiers can rest easy knowing that the Fergison Ridge Ski Area (lo- cally known as Fergi) will re- main open for the foreseeable future. The Enterprise-Joseph Lions Club just took posses- sion of the ski area from Wal- lowa County. Charlie Kissinger, presi- dent of the ski club since 1983 and owner of the ski shop at Fergison, recently announced the transition to The Chief- tain. Kissinger explained the club originally leased the ski area from Joseph Forest Prod- ucts in 1983. JFP was an area sawmill that went bankrupt about two years into the lease. In order to save the proper- ty for community skiing, 10 of the ski club members, in- cluding Kissinger, formed a corporation called the 10280 Corporation, and bought the land at a sheriff’s auction in 1985. The 10280 represents 10 investors for the 280 acres of land the ski area occupies. “Gardner Locke (ski club president at the time) bought the property and basically the 10 of us made payments on it and leased it to the ski club until about five years ago,” Steve Tool/Chieftain Fergison Ridge Ski Area should remain open for many years to come, the result of a land purchase of the ski area by the Enterprise - Joseph Lions Club from Wallowa County. Kissinger said. He added that 10280 eventually decided they wanted to donate the property to the ski club, but the club’s lack of 501(c)(3) non-profit status made the transaction complicated. Fortunately for everyone involved, Wallowa County offered to step in. “It was really great: 10280 donated the property to the county for five years to clean up the tax situation, and the Lions Club bought it from the county for $100,” Kissinger said. The ski club already had a long-standing relationship with the Lions Club as many members of the ski club were already Lions members. “It was a pretty smooth transi- tion,” Kissinger said. He cred- ited local attorneys Rebecca Knapp and Roland Johnson along with accountant Jeff Edison and the community as a whole for their efforts in fa- cilitating the transition. “It’s all been a commu- nity effort to make it work,” Kissinger said. According to Kissinger, all the parties involved with the ski area are satisfied with the land transition. “The Lions Club now owns the ski property, and the ski club still owns all the buildings and equipment,” Kissinger said. “As a ski club we’ll continue to operate Fer- gi with a lease from the Lions Club instead of the 10280 or the county.” Kissinger said that every- one’s efforts ensured commu- nity access to skiing for years to come. “It’s been a major thing in my life, and it’s a great thing for the community to have,” he said. January 18, 2017 A9
