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wallowa.com
November 21, 2018
Wallowa County Chieftain
Punches replaces Oester
as area’s OSU forester
By Paul Wahl
Wallowa County Chieftain
John Punches loves trees.
He always has.
“I have always been an out-
doors person. and one of the
great passions of my life is
being around growing things,”
said Punches who became the
OSU Extension Forester for
Wallowa, Union and Umatilla
counties July 1.
Punches holds associate
professor rank with OSU and
conducts field appointments
and produces educational pro-
grams on anything to do with
forests.
Much of his work is done in
partnership with state and fed-
eral agencies.
Punches holds a degree in
forestry from Michigan Tech
in Houghton, Mich., wood sci-
ence from Virginia Tech and
forest ecosystems from Ore-
gon State.
Prior to coming to La
Grande to replace Paul Oester,
who retired, Punches spent 24
years in Roseburg, Ore. In his
spare time, he enjoys mountain
climbing and is a volunteer
search and rescue and moun-
tain rescue instructor.
Most of his work in Wal-
lowa County pertains to stew-
ardship issues and fire risk
reduction on private property.
In all three counties, prop-
erty owners rarely own just
timberland.
“Typically, they have a
home in a forest or on ag lands
that has forests or they may
end up being people who live
in town who are interested
in the forests around them,”
Punches said.
His job is to help imple-
ment best practices using the
science OSU has developed.
Once of his primary field
questions is “why is my tree
dying?” He wrote one of the
university’s seminal works
on the topic in 2008. Another
topic is reducing fire risk on
private property. He’s also
available for consultation on
federal regulatory issues.
LEARN MORE
Exten-
sion for-
ester John
Punches
will host a
free class,
“So You’ve
Got a For-
est ... Now What,” 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 6 at Wallowa
Resources Stewardship Cen-
ter, 401 NE 1st St, Enterprise.
The classes will feature
speakers from Wallowa
County who will answer the
most common questions
new forest owners (or those
new to managing their for-
ests) ask. The session will
provide an overview of
how forestland is assessed
and taxed (with emphasis
on how to get into the low-
est-cost option), how zoning
and land use planning rules
impact forest management,
where to get technical assis-
tance, how to access cost-
share for forest improve-
ment and fire risk reduction,
when to contact ODF or
other agencies for permits
or notifications and how to
request help developing a
forest management plan.
Similar sessions will be
offered Dec. 5 in La Grande
and Dec. 12 in Pendleton.
Preregistration is requested.
Call 541-963-1010 or regis-
ter at bit.ly/2TktrO4.
Phoenix Gomes
Bodee Bauck
Rhyilynn Compton
Halloween costume contest winners
Here are the top vote-getters in the Chieftain’s First-Ever Facebook Halloween Costume contest. Third: Phoenix Gomes,
Second: Rhyilynn Compton and First: Bodee Bauck. Entrees were chosen from among contestants who visited The
Chieftain office Halloween night. They were then placed online, and readers were allowed to vote. Sixteen contestants
were part of the competition. Visit facebook.com/Wallowa.
Election crew carries its weight
Women work to
keep everything
fair after voting
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
“Sometimes they will say
they are hearing that a partic-
ular law is changing or a new
regulation is forthcoming and
how will that impact me,”
Punches said.
One of the hot-button
issues over the past few weeks
with major wildfires in Califor-
nia has been how to avoid trag-
edies such as have occurred in
far-nothern and far-southern
parts of that state.
“In Oregon, we are at risk
of catastrophic fires in many
areas, not quite like California,
but 100 plus years of fire exclu-
sion has done its damage,”
Punches said. “We’re finding
we can never really replicate
the impact of fire in our forests
in a way that really maintains
the property balance.”
When it comes to elections,
things change over the years,
but the era of the human ele-
ment in ballot counting is far
from over.
That job falls under the
purview of Wallowa County
Clerk Sandy Lathrop, who is
assisted by Tracey Hall.
The clerk’s office handles
all aspects of county, state and
federal elections. They don’t
do it alone.
The county has two elec-
tion boards that actually take
on a good portion of the work
load. In the courthouse base-
ment, a group of eight women
work to facilitate the election
process. Six of the women
serve on a board that consists
of equal numbers of Republi-
cans and Democrats.
In action, the women get
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Accessories
Ellen Bishop/For the Chieftain
Nancy Hall, left, Carol Batten, Sue Womack and Elaine Isley work on ballots during the final
hours of the 2018 election in the lower level of Wallowa County Courthouse.
divided into two groups of
three that face each other
across parallel cafeteria-type
tables. Each side also has
another person who serves as
chair of the group.
The county has 12 voting
precincts. Odd-numbered pre-
cincts sit on one side of the
table with even-numbered pre-
cincts on the other side. The
seated board members are
staggered by party. One non-
partisan member sits on the
board.
“You can’t have two party
members sitting side by side,”
Lathrop said. “Not that they
would do anything, but to be
politically correct, you have to
separate them.”
Board members are paid
minimum wage for their
efforts but must provide their
own food and beverages.
The women do not count
votes. That is done by an Elec-
tions Systems and Software
machine that the county pur-
chased in 2009. Two peo-
ple constantly monitor the
machine when it’s in use.
The board members make
sure the ballots are correctly
filled out, partially for the sake
of the vote-counting machine.
Absentee ballots are handled
in the same manner.
On Nov. 3, the board,
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called a counting board,
opened ballots. Incorrectly
filled ballots are duplicated:
The information is transferred
to a clean ballot to go through
the machine, which is not put
to use until election day. The
Nov. 3 ballots are put into
totes and brought back to the
machine in one tote at a time
on election day.
Noma McDaniel is tem-
porary chair of the even side
board while Elaine Isley is
chair of the odd numbers.
Isley started her vote-count-
ing career in the ‘70s in Camp
Sherman, when ballots were
counted by hand.
“I’ve been doing this here
for about 20 years,” she said.
“I enjoy it because it’s good
civic duty, and if anyone wants
to know how this system
works I can explain it.”
She said she enjoys the
camaraderie of the board, but
everyone is aware of their
purpose.
“We’re still doing our busi-
ness,” she said. “Everything’s
very accurate.”
Board member Sue Wom-
ack began her tenure in 2016,
shortly after retirement from
Wallowa Memorial Hospital.
She heard Lathrop had a need
for more people and applied.
“It was a good fit for me,
and it was a good fit for her,”
she said. “It’s fun, and it makes
you feel like you’re doing your
civil duty.”
Lathrop is glad to have the
help and wants the women to
know it.
“I really appreciate these
ladies,” Lathrop said. “They
make the whole process fun.
They’re rock stars.”
Voters had turned in only
about 27 percent of ballots by
Nov. 3.
By the time Nov. 6 rolled
around, Lathrop and the board
had their hands full. The clerk
was surprised at the turnout for
a mid-term election. County
voters came out in droves --
76.9 percent of eligible vot-
ers cast their ballot. The board
finished its duties sometime
around 2:30 a.m. Nov. 7.
“I received a letter from the
secretary of state that said we
had the second-highest turnout
in the state,” she said. “I was
kind of tickled pink.”
After a snafu caused by an
outside printing press and the
resulting public outcry, Lath-
rop said she learned some-
thing about Wallowa County
voters.
“I think more than any-
thing, I’ve learned how pas-
sionate people are about their
elections.”