Wallowa County Chieftain
From A1
wallowa.com
LOGGING
Continued from Page A1
Extension Service Master Forester
and instructor for the Oregon Tree
School program.
Tanzey says he owes a lot to How-
ard Johnson of Wallowa.
”When he was 92, he was still
out there cutting with a chain saw,”
Tanzey recalled. “I worked with him,
and I manage timber the way he man-
aged timber.”
Johnson was a rancher turned tim-
berman. He owned 4,000 acres on
Smith Mountain north of Wallowa,
Tanzey recalls, and “he raised trees
like he raised cattle: top of the line,
state tree farmer one or two years,
was up for national tree farmer.
Growing trees is no different than
raising sheep, cattle, horses, dogs,
goats, whatever.”
That’s a particularly Wallowa
County view.
Logging in Wallowa County has
changed, Tanzey said. There is not a
single commercial lumber mill in the
county, and Tanzey trucks saleable
logs to Lewiston, Idaho, and earns
a fraction of what loggers earned
pre-1989.
“We’ve lost the infrastructure of
logging in Wallowa County,” he said.
But he doesn’t mean just the phys-
ical infrastructure of mills in the
county. He means the infrastructure
that supports land management of
February 21, 2018
That knowledge, that men who are now retired
have in their minds on how to manage that land,
has got to be passed on through generations.”
— Butch Tanzey
any kind — an infrastructure that sup-
ports a human community. That kind
of social infrastructure depends upon
generational knowledge and love for
a specific place.
“That knowledge, that men who
are now retired have in their minds
on how to manage that land, has got
to be passed on through generations,”
Tanzey said. “There’s more knowl-
edge there than we’ll be able to teach
in a college or school.”
Because that knowledge is spe-
cific to the natural landscape, much
of what one needs to know about
managing land must be learned both
on the ground and in the community.
“Doesn’t everything work hand in
hand?” Tanzey asked. “It’s a strong
chain: logger, rancher, business per-
son who sells fuel or insurance or
grain, works at the hospital, or what
have you. You take one link out of it
and it’s worthless. That’s all we are ––
a link in the chain. It’s all infrastruc-
ture. We all depend on each other.”
On a recent day, Tanzey is work-
ing on the sheep ranch of Skye Krebs
outside of Enterprise. Krebs own
quite a bit more land, but this lot is
more than 3,000 acres, of which 760
acres is timber.
Krebs uses timber money to help
maintain his two-state livestock busi-
ness, but he wants to preserve and
improve his timberland at the same
time, Tanzey said. Although Krebs
runs bands of sheep on the lot, he has
always sought to manage both to the
benefit of the other.
Tanzey points to a large green
meadow.
“See that meadow?” he asks. “That
was a rock scab before Krebs ran his
sheep here. Now it’s the first place the
elk show up because it’s green. And
all that sheep manure helps ‘my’ trees
grow. If you don’t give back to the
soil, it’s not going to give to you.”
Giving back is why Tanzey
mulches so much of the slash left after
logging and thinning. He then plants
a special Wallowa County blend of
grass, sweetened with a nitrogen-fix-
ing high-altitude clover that helps the
trees digest the mulch.
First in a multi-part series
“My strategy on most of the lots I
manage is that every 10 years I come
in and do some logging and thin-
ning on a lot –– and I’ve got the land
broke up into 100-200 acre lots (in
my plan),” Tanzey said. “You take
an even mix of big and little trees so
you have the diversity and you have
red fir, larch, Ponderosa pine and dif-
ferent species. As you log your big-
ger trees the little trees come along to
replace them.”
That’s a long-term strategy that is
radically different than that of com-
mercial logging operations which
requires clear-cut to maximize
income on timberland.
Although commercial operations
are operating in line with forest prac-
tice rules and regulation and replant
immediately, it will still be 70 to 80
years before the replanted stands are
mature. These newly planted forests
are sold.
New owners often buy with the
previous owner’s profits in mind
FISHTRAP
Continued from Page A1
Nella Parks of Cove, who
operates a vegetable production
business on half an acre and
Mary Hawkins of Wallowa,
who operates a small meat pro-
cessing business, Hawkins Sis-
ters Ranch Chickens, were also
panelists.
The trajectory toward sus-
tainable farming included years
of education, internships at sev-
eral different agricultural busi-
nesses along the way, the assis-
tance of family and neighboring
farmer and ranchers, the volun-
teer labor of extended family,
and numerous “side hustles” or
day jobs to raise money to keep
the farm going.
The reward was worth the
effort, both women said.
Hawkins benefited from
access to third generation fam-
ily farmland and relatively low
startup cost, she said. Parks is
also on family land she leases
and opened her greenhouses
with a Natural Resources Con-
servation Grant.
“My whole story would not
have been possible in another
place outside this community,”
Parks said. “I had so much
help in Cove. People who have
spent 30-40 years in agriculture
just wanted to give me their
Panelist, rancher and coun-
ty commissioner Todd Nash
listens with interest as Flora
rancher and farmer Elizabeth
Enslin asks followup ques-
tions during the presentation.
Photos by Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Winter Fishtrap panelist Mary Hawkins of Hawkins Sisters
Chickens in Wallowa tells the story of how she became a
New Agrarian in Wallowa County at the Winter Fishtrap con-
ference Feb. 16-18 at the Josephy Center in Joseph.
knowledge. They had no one
coming along behind them.”
Hawkins is the only small
(under 20,000 birds) chicken
farm and processing plant oper-
ating in Oregon — but a small
operation that feeds nonGMO,
locally
sourced,
custom
chicken feed has high costs.
“My chicken costs five
times more than meat in the
grocery store,” Hawkins said.
“But my customers know me
and my chickens are healthy
and happy. My customers are
on a list for chickens. I sell out
all the time.”
Breakout sessions that fol-
lowed the panels allowed for
brainstorming of solutions to
the problems presented and
swapping information. Land
trusts, formal lease agreements
between private individuals,
the possibility of putting phil-
osophically-motivated inves-
tors together with young agrar-
ians, new lending models being
presented by banks, developing
intern programs and develop-
ing educational opportunities
were considered.
The program sought to
answer the questions: Who are
WALLOWA COUNTY
Health Line
519 W. North Street, Enterprise
the new generation of farmers?
What are the barriers to begin
farming today? And how has
farming and ranching changed
over the past 30 years?
Turns out, three days was
not enough to solve all the
issues, including plans for suc-
cession –– who will be tomor-
row’s farmers?
In Oregon, agricultural land
A7
and no experience in management,
Tanzey said. And new forests espe-
cially require management or they
turn into a tangle of too many trees
competing for limited resources.
Grass growing unchecked until it’s
rank and unpalatable for wildlife cre-
ates extreme fire hazards.
“(Managed forestry) is constant
maintenance,” Tanzey said. “You
can’t plant a garden and not come
back because the weeds are going
to take over. Clear-cutting is a good
management tool, and in some places
it’s the only option if you’ve got a
stand of timber that is all full of root
rot and mistletoe and different dis-
eases. You’ve got to go in there and
remove that stand of timber and
change the species for one cycle.”
But one cycle can be a long time.
“We live in a semi-desert coun-
try here,” Tanzey said. “On the coast
they can clear-cut every 35 years or
so. One human generation can do two
clear-cuts in a lifetime –– not here.”
By logging and thinning “his for-
ests” every 10 years, Tanzey reckons
he will get two to three times the vol-
ume of wood harvest over 60 years
compared to clear-cut and “you’ve
never lost the original aspect, never
changed the ecosystem, all the lit-
tle critters that were there the day
you started are still there, you’ve got
good pasture, good water, wildlife ...
and you’ve kept a sustainable soci-
ety here: you’ve kept the mills, tim-
ber and grazing.”
makes up 25 percent of the state
–– 16.3 million acres –– but in
the next 20 years, 64 percent of
those lands will change hands.
By one estimate, 80 per-
cent of farmers do not have a
succession plan: no one in the
family is willing to continue the
farm and they know of no one
who can purchase the farm and
continue operation.
Oregon’s farmland is in
danger of fragmentation, and
once land is subdivided, it soon
becomes lost to agriculture,
permanently.
There are significant finan-
cial barriers.
“Student debt crushes the
ability to get started at any-
thing,” said Kate Greenberg of
National Young Farmers Coali-
tion, one of the Winter Fishtrap
speakers. Studies have shown
that student loan debt is the
second greatest obstacle to land
ownership.
“You probably aren’t going
to own land for a long time.
None of us are going to have
the same trajectory that the
generation before us had,”
Greenberg said.
Fishtrap leadership declared
the event a resounding success.
“Everyone who attended
walked away with something
new,” executive director Shan-
non McNerney. “This is just
what we hoped for.”
Presenters came from a vari-
ety of fiends and backgrounds.
“We’ve got people from
the full spectrum here in Wal-
lowa County. Ranchers who
have been here for generations
and newcomers,” McNerney
said. “That diversity of experi-
ence and knowledge is what we
wanted (to present) when we
brought back Winter Fishtrap.”
Around 75 mostly from
Washington and Oregon
attended.
DON’T
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WACKO,
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TOBACCO
Drawing done by
Josiah Surber 4th grade, of Wallowa
541.426.3413
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Celebrating 150 Years of the National Grange
Hurricane Creek Grange
is Hosting
A Wallowa County 4-H Fundraiser
A Not-Quite Traditional Old-Time
Box Social
5:00 PM, Saturday, February 24 th , 2018
At Cloverleaf Hall
Decorated Boxes with delicious meals to be auctioned.
Free coffee, tea, and punch. Live entertainment.
Home-made Dessert Auction.
Everyone is invited.
Enjoy a great meal and support our 4-H Program.
The Wallowa County Ducks Unlimited Committee wishes to thank all the patrons,
businesses and donors who helped make our 2018 DU event successful .
Silver Sponsors: The LaVigne Family, Burke & Tammy Lathrop, Keith & June Newburn, and Gene & Marge Bieraugel
Bronze Sponsors: Paul & Jakki Boehne, Chris & Tina Borgerding, Chris & Mary Cunningham, John Duckworth,
Duncan Hunter, Jeremiah & Christina Moffit, Jim Reese, Brian & Amanda Rahn,
Chance & Cricket Waters
Ace Hardware
Anton’s Home & Hearth
Arrowhead Chocolates
Bank of Eastern Oregon
Bee Crow Bee
Bennett Insurance
Bird Dog Signs
Blue Mountain Barbers
The Bookloft
Bronson Log Homes
Carpet One
Central Copy & Shipping
Community Bank
Copper Creek Mercantile
David Bronson Photography
Diane Knox
Double-Arrow Veterinary Clinic
Eagle Cap Firearms
Embers Brew House
Emily Cunningham
Gene & Marge Bieraugel
Greg & Joleen Bieraugel
Hancock Forest Management
Henderson Fuel
Henderson Logging
Horseshoe Bar & Grill
Hunter’s Firearm Services
James Reese
John Duckworth
Joe Hall Ford, Lewiston
John L. Sullivan
Joseph Hardware
Keith & June Newburn
Kevin’s Tire Shop
Kim Hutchison
Kni-Co Manufacturing
Les Schwab Tires
Mad Mary’s
Mae McGinnis
NAPA/Thompson Auto Supply
North 40, Lewiston
Olaf Pottery
Outlaw Motor Sports
Ram Auto & Hardware
Red Horse Coffee Company
Rogers Motors, Lewiston
Ron’s Place in Wallowa
RY Timber, Bruce Dunn
Safeway
Schaeffer Auto
Sports Corral
Sportsman’s Warehouse,
Lewiston
Stangel Industries
Stein Distillery Inc.
Stewart Jones
Sugar Time Bakery
Susie Madigan
Terry Bates
The Sheep Shed
Terminal Gravity Brewing
Tri-county Equipment
Trudy Turner, Silversmith
T-Zion
Uptown Art
Valley Bronze
VFW
Wallowa County Grain Growers
Wallowa County Nursery
Wallowa Lake Lodge
Wallowa Rod & Gun Club
Wal-mart at La Grande
Water Dog Tenders
White Lightning Glass
Wild Carrot
Please bring a Box Lunch for two, or plan to purchase your meal at auction.
(Those with special diet needs may order a lunch made to order.)
A special thanks to Diana of Chuckwagon Sisters, Leo of El Bajio, the Enterprise FFA assistants,
Kate of Community Bank, and Ellen Bishop. All of us on the DU committee
appreciate everyone’s support.
For further information visit: www.HurricaneCreekGrange.org/BoxSocial
or call Darlene Stephens at (541) 786-4089
Thank you!