A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
August 9, 2017
Wallowa County Chieftain
Lostine project
helps ‘bend the
climate curve’
With smoke enveloping Wallowa County and the governor
declaring another wildfire state of emergency, we need fresh
perspective on forestry and forest management. The forests
of eastern Oregon have been dramatically modified by human
activity since the late 1800s. These changes have reduced for-
est resiliency to wildfire, insects and disease –– and climate
change is amplifying these threats.
Scientists largely agree that we can do something about
this. Over the past 30 years, research and new management
strategies have broadened our understanding of forest systems,
and how to manage for resilience. The effectiveness of fuel
reduction treat-
ments to reduce
wildfire severity
is one example.
While
we
lacked conclu-
sive evidence
Nils Christofferson
10 years ago,
the scientific lit-
erature has expanded significantly. Numerous reviews of this
evidence conclude the same thing –– that fuel reduction treat-
ments reduce wildfire severity in mixed-conifer forests if they
treat surface fuels (especially by prescribed burning), retain
the larger fire resistant trees and open the canopy.
The interaction of stand conditions, fuel loads, plant suc-
cession and climate are complex. Thinning does affect fire
lengths and rates of spread in drier fine fuels below a resto-
ration treatment. But the overall effect remains a reduction in
wildfire severity since fuel loads and connectivity are reduced.
Properly implemented fuel reduction treatments result
in more low severity fires running through the understory
and fewer high severity stand-replacing fires. The reduction
in stand density, and increased air flow, also mitigates insect
infestations. These are all good restoration outcomes.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science
advocacy group, agrees. They identified eastern Oregon as
an area where management actions can help “bend the cli-
mate curve” away from the potential for complete forest loss.
Analysis published in 2016 calls for fuel treatments to pre-
vent crown fires and thinning to reduce insect mortality, and
for Congress and the public to give forest managers greater
flexibility to achieve long-term forest health goals.
The Wallowa Whitman National Forest has recently signed
two project decisions that incorporate these recommendations
in their design: the Lower Joseph Creek Restoration Project
and the Lostine Corridor Public Safety Project. While differ-
ing in their primary purpose, both projects are based on an
improved knowledge of forest ecosystems, and fire behavior.
Both highlight the profound shift from a more open and
diverse forest landscape a century ago to a denser more homo-
geneous forest landscape today. These changes are well doc-
umented by ecological historians, comparative photos and
recent stand exams. And they both advance new approaches
to forest management designed to restore forest resiliency, as
well as provide the structure, species composition and land-
scape patterns important to wildlife conservation including old
growth protection and restoration.
GUEST
COLUMN
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L
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Contents copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
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Volume 134
1 Year
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Drugs and cowboys not a good mix
Just wrapped up a great week. Chief
Joseph Days rodeo and a house full of
people. My grandkids have been threat-
ening to come for a visit and followed
through on the threat.
Three beautiful girls, one 17 and two
18 and one boy 17 with his friend. This
was their first rodeo, and they didn’t miss
a performance. As if having five teenagers
around wasn’t enough, I got a call from a
cowboy from California wanting a place
to stay for him, three other cowboys and
four horses.
Young girls and rodeo cowboys, what
could go wrong? Having nine extras made
things busy, but we all had a ball. I wisely
refrained from telling my two sons and
daughter their children would be bunk-
ing with four rodeo cowboys guessing
they would veto the whole trip. Every-
thing worked out, and two of the cowboys
placed in the team roping, winning almost
$1,600 each. The cowboys left for other
rodeos on Thursday giving my wife time
off from monitoring the girls.
I have always thought that if you can
raise your kids without them making some
irreversible mistake, you have done a good
job. There are two things that do worry me
about young people –– drugs and texting
while driving. These are things I never had
to deal with when I was young.
There were no drugs around, and you
were lucky if to have had a land line. If
you did talk on the phone, there was usu-
ally a parent around eavesdropping on the
OPEN RANGE
Barrie Qualle
conversation. While the cowboys were
here, we discussed drugs and why a few
of the PRCA cowboys we knew had suc-
cumbed to dabbling in them. Some of
them to the point their rodeo careers lan-
guished and died.
When I asked them why those guys had
gone down the wrong road, they agreed it
was too much down time between rodeos,
and if you won, you celebrated. If you lost
you took drugs to feel better. All agreed
this was a lame excuse.
Marijuana, now legal, is thought to be
a harmless drug. Maybe for some people;
however, we discussed a cowboy we all
knew that smokes a lot of weed, and now
that’s all he does. He could rope with the
best of them. His dad supplied him with
good horses, and his mother supplied air-
line tickets, a credit card and a new pickup
with a Bloomer living quarters trailer.
He went to the finals several times and
was always in the top 15. He lost inter-
est in all this and now sparks one up for
breakfast and then stays with it. I guess
staying high is one way to get through the
day. Helps you forget you accomplished
nothing yesterday, and today doesn’t show
much promise either. Kind of a shame
though.
The Stock Growers Ranch Rodeo is
Aug. 19 at the fairgrounds arena. This is
a chance for everyone to watch local cow-
boys compete in several ranch type events.
I encourage all to attend for a great time.
I am pleased to see so many ranch
cowboys enter these events. I found that
by competing, I sharpened my roping
skills and horsemanship. When you com-
pete, you are not just completing a task,
your focus is sharpened and you try to do
things more accurately and quickly.
Your horsemanship becomes increas-
ingly important, and the horse you ride
and the training you have put into him are
critical. Competition forces improvement,
if you have any interest in winning.
When practicing events like team
roping, it is necessary to make every
run count. One or two aspects of each
run should be worked on, and every run
should have a purpose. Otherwise you are
just making dust.
Once again Fred Steen’s timed event
crew at Chief Joseph Day has won the
coveted award of prettiest crew. Thanks to
Abby, Rya, Hannah and Brianna. Hard to
believe girls this pretty can be so handy.
Dan Ackley and all the rodeo judges
totally appreciate their hard work. Fred
does know how to audition for talent.
Barrie Qualle is an all-around work-
ing ranch hand, author and ranch rodeo
enthusiast. He lives in Wallowa County.
We need to capture the ‘Dunkirk’ spirit
If you go to see the movie “Dunkirk”
–– and I hope you will –– please pay
particularly close attention to one of the
closing scenes in which the role of the
local hometown community newspa-
per is highlighted. I won’t say too much
more, not wanting to be a spoiler.
Several reviewers have opined that
you will need to see the movie at least
twice to unravel director Christopher
Nolan’s time-twisting technique. It occa-
sionally gets in the way of the storytelling.
And his characters aren’t well-developed.
I am as much a fan of avant-garde as
anyone, but there comes a point where you
just want to stand up and yell at the screen
because you have no idea what’s going on.
I couldn’t help but note that the spirit
of “Dunkirk” is something that’s sorely
missing in our country today. We could
use a little more working together and
uniting behind a noble cause rather than
spitting, fussing and fuming.
Can you image capturing a “Dunkirk”
moment and applying it to a major national
crisis like health insurance and crafting a
solution everyone could live with? Now
that would be worth the price of admis-
sion. I’ll bring the popcorn.
SHORTLY AFTER I moved here, I
was introduced to Don Swart and his wife,
WAHL TO WALL
Paul Wahl
Evelyn. Since Don had been the face of
the Chieftain for so many years, I wasn’t
sure what to expect. How delighted I have
been to find both of them to be a won-
derful source of encouragement in my
work. They are among a handful who
truly understand what it means to bear
the responsibility of producing a weekly
newspaper.
I especially appreciate Don’s sense of
humor. It has long been my theory that in
the newspaper business, you either get a
sense of humor or check yourself into an
institution.
Last week, the Wallowa County Rotary
Club presented Don with an award for
“Exemplifying the Rotary values of Lead-
ership, Service And Friendship.” I can’t
think of anyone more deserving of the
accolades.
The story is told of an elderly newspa-
per publisher who hired a young reporter.
The reporter noted a rather odd behavior
in his publisher. Every time the train went
Use our apex brain in
managing wolves, elk
LETTERS to the EDITOR
In response to the letter from Garik
Asplund on the elk problem, I am quite
sure that most people in this county
thought your letter was much more laugh-
able than Dallas McCrae’s. Dallas was
just more humble in his suggestion.
In case you are not aware, there is
already an elk fence in the county, built
many moons ago, that does a pretty good
job of keeping the elk out of the Prairie
Creek area.
The elk were brought in here more than
50 years ago by train and were not native
to this area. They have done well, and in
the past, we had hunters come in every
year who kept those numbers to a reason-
able total.
In recent years, as the elk have become
more of an issue for ranchers who are rais-
ing food for livestock in addition to food
for people like you, the powers that be
in ODFW have reduced tags, raised the
prices and limited hunts to the point that
most people think it’s pointless to spend
the money to come here and try to take an
elk.
They have also raised the objec-
tives of elk numbers in areas, which has
made it harder for ranchers to keep suf-
ficient grass for cattle as the elk come in
and eat down the new spring grass. Now,
you might ask yourself, why would they
want fewer elk harvested when the elk
are becoming a major issue for ranchers
who are having these huge animals, who
eat more than a horse, raiding haystacks,
tearing down fences, permanently migrat-
ing into planted fields and losing their fear
of humans?
I’ll save you the trouble of thinking up
excuses. They need large game animals
to feed the growing wolf population, and
if the wolves don’t have game meat, they
will prey more on livestock, which means
more chaos for ODFW as the wolf-lovers
condemn the need to control wolf num-
bers. Make sense?
by, the publisher would jump up and
stand at the door and watch it until it dis-
appeared over the horizon.
One day, the reporter worked up
enough gumption to ask what his actions
were all about.
“Well,” said the wizened publisher
chewing on a cigar, “it’s the only dang
thing that goes through in this town with-
out me having to get behind and push it.”
Thanks Don and Evelyn for your
friendship and support.
PLEASE TAKE the opportunity this
week to stop out and catch the action at the
Wallowa County Fair at the fairgrounds.
There is perhaps nothing more iconic than
a county fair and all that goes with it.
It’s somewhat sad that country fairs
are on the decline nationwide. It seems
the “hand” in the 4-H pledge is rapidly
becoming more of a thumb, as in texting
and surfing online.
It takes a number of dedicated folks to
make the Wallowa version happen each
year.
Let’s do all we can to support them,
and let them know that the county fair
still has a vital role to play in our commu-
nity. We hope to be out capturing images
this week and plan to bring you results as
quickly as they become available.
You also need to be educated to the fact
that the Canadian Gray Wolf is also not a
native of Wallowa County. There were a
few native timber wolves here in the past
who were never an issue with livestock.
Those wolves were a different subspe-
cies just like the Mexican wolf is a differ-
ent subspecies. (That is another misunder-
stood issue.)
And by the way, as proven in Yellow-
stone, wolves do not move game around.
They did not keep the elk away from
streams so little trees could grow. Elk go
where they have to so they can find food
and survive.
So to your comment about the “oxy-
moronic pretense of managing elk.”
You’re right.
There is no management of elk and no
management of wolves at this point. Peo-
ple need to learn that as the apex brain on
the planet, we must control animal num-
bers and sometimes, including this case,
that means lethal control for both these
species.
Connie Dunham
Enterprise