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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 2019)
NEWS Wallowa.com Wednesday, January 2, 2019 A9 Future: A snapshot of issues facing the county’s natural resource-based economy Continued from Page A1 In the Hancock model the forest is divided into par- cels of the best and the least profitable timber stands and those parcels are bundled into funds for investors. The idea of the bundling of par- cels is to equalize the risk across 11 different funds, Howard explained. Management of the funds is then based on the best pos- sible return for the investor. As a result, said Howard, companies using the TIMO model have often harvested much faster than forests can replenish, and have man- aged a patchwork of par- cels rather than the forest as a whole. “What they’re planting is a lot more valuable than what they’re cutting, but in Wallowa County it takes 50 to 70 years to grow market- able timber,” Howard said. “So we’re running into a pretty significant stop. The last number I heard was in five years we’ll see a sig- nificant change. Having a 15-year stop would really cripple this economy. This would take away thousands of jobs in a place where there are only thousands of jobs.” Furthermore, timber companies may only be able to sell off these smaller por- tions of harvested timber- land as recreational property. New buyers of these patch- work pieces may close the property to recreation, know nothing about management, could allow noxious weeds to grow and spread, and may make decisions that dam- age the ecosystem of a much larger area than they own. “We’re kind of at a tip- ping point where some- thing needs to happen,” said Howard. One potential solution to eliminating out-of-state man- agement and management models that do not take the forest ecosystem as a whole into account is for a county to purchase the land and man- age it as a whole and for the benefit of local people. Some counties are look- ing at the U.S. Forest Ser- vice Community Forest Pro- Courtesy photo Caleb Howard is a rancher and real estate professional from Wallowa County. gram. The program pays up to 50 percent of the proj- ect costs but requires a 50 percent match. Counties would have to seek their match funds by applying to the Land and Water Con- servation Fund, through log supply agreements, timber deeds and other means. ‘WE’RE KIND OF AT A TIP- PING POINT WHERE SOME- THING NEEDS TO HAPPEN.’ The end of the harvest Caleb Howard, a fifth genera- tion Wallowa County rancher According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 42 percent of the U.S. pop- ulation lived on farms in 1900. By 1990, that number had dwindled to less than 2 percent. In Wallowa County, the majority of farms are locally owned by families who work and live on the land. Clearly, given the shock- ing decline in family farms, there are plenty of chal- lenges to making a living on a small holding. But before one can even get to the chal- lenge of making a living, they must have land. Unless a young farmer inherits land, many find they cannot afford to purchase sufficient property to make a reasonable go at farming or ranching. Ideally the land amassed through several genera- tions of farming and ranch- ing would be passed down to a son or daughter inter- ested in continuing the fam- ily tradition. But the problem is that the retiring generation may have no succession plan or may want to be fair to their children and divide the prop- erty equally among them. Parents may have hoped that one of the children would take over manage- ment of the farm or ranch on behalf of the family, but that is very often a recipe for disaster, Howard said. Everyone has an idea of how the farm should be run. “It tends to turn into dys- functional management and is sometimes too dys- functional to sell,” How- ard said. “Keeping it in the family with everyone get- ting their fair share just isn’t sustainable.” Often the inheriting chil- dren understand perfectly that the farm or ranch can’t support multiple owners so the land is immediately divided and sold — and often permanently lost as agricultural land. Exclusive Farm Use zon- ing may limit the division of the land, but most farms are the result of the purchase of parcels over generations, so division is usually possible. One of the ways a multi- ple-family member owner- ship can work is by using a third party manager, How- ard said. It’s a model he has seen work effectively. However, he contin- ues to see farms that started with three owners become ranches owned by eight owners, multiplying the difficulties. As the number of owners grows, they see smaller and smaller year-end checks. When an owner see a year- end check for $5,000 from a $5 million dollar ranch it doesn’t make them happy, Howard said. son,” Howard said. “That is one of the best things and worst things for our area.” It’s good because Wal- lowa County farms cannot provide the high return that investors want to see, and so Wallowa County farms have so far mostly remained smaller and locally owned. Outside of Wallowa County, farm land may be picked up by investors look- ing for a recession-proof investment. But will Wallowa Coun- ty’s family farms survive succession? “Chopping up farm ground makes it much harder for young farmers to get going,” Howard said. “What you see is young farmers can only get a 40-acre piece here and a 40-acre piece 30 miles away. While they’re get- ting established they have to heavily subsidize their business.” The solution for new farmers remains elusive. Where have all the cowboys gone? In Wallowa County, suc- cessful ranching operations are spread across the var- ied landscape. Some land is owned, some leased and some available through grazing permits. This is nec- essary to maximize the feed available on the unique land- scape of the county. The private portions of these lands face the same dangers that farmland faces — loss of use and frag- mentation. Outside inves- tors with deep pockets may pick up larger ranches and preserve the land, but they may also close those areas to hunting and recreation, or end ranching on the land to create a private park. One successful trans- fer of lands has developed as the Nature Conservancy built their 51-square mile Zumwalt Prairie holdings in Wallowa County. How- ard, whose family grazes cat- tle on the prairie, considers the work done by the Nature Conservancy to be benefi- cial to agriculture in the long term. “The Nature Conser- vancy believes that to keep a landscape healthy it needs to keep working,” Howard said. “They have also devel- oped neat partnerships with other agencies and landown- ers to prevent fragmentation of the land.” Conservation easements are also a good tool to pre- vent fragmentation, Howard said, but they may be diffi- cult to arrange. “The problem is that most aren’t bought, they are donated,” he said. “There are programs to help pur- chase easements but agen- cies have to get donations or raise money through var- ious program such as the Ag Lands Easement Program through the USDA’s Natu- ral Resources Conservation Service.” HAPPY NEW YEAR! SPACE RESERVATION DEADLINES for weekly display advertising is 5pm Friday for the following week. Ad copy is due on Monday at 10am. 10am Ads must be approved by 12pm Tuesday Contact Jennifer Cooney today jcooney@wallowa.com 541-805-9630 The good news and the bad news “Wallowa County has great water rights, great soil, but a horrible growing sea- 209 NW First St. • Enterprise, OR 97828 • 541-426-4567 • www.wallowa.com ATHLETE Sabrina Albee OF THE WEEK the week is This week’s athlete of e basketball ol sophomor Joseph Charter Scho Albee. During the Eagles’ player, Sabrina ory over Dufur, Albee lop-sided 65-23 vict uad with 25 points. led the sq udly Pro onsore d b y p S 201 E. Hwy 82, Enterprise • 541-426-0320 www.edstaub.com WALLOWA COUNTY ENTERPRISE JOSEPH MONDAYS MONDAYS 7 p . m . E n t e r p r i s e G r o u p 1 1 3 . 5 E M a i n S t . 6 p.m. Grace and Dignity (Womans Mtg) Joseph United Methodist Church 301 S. Lake St., Church Basement T U E S D A Y S 12-1 p.m. Enterprise Group 113.5 E Main St. 7-8 p.m. Enterprise Group (Big Bk Study) 113.5 E Main St. W E D N E S D A Y S 7 p . m . E n t e r p r i s e G r o u p 1 1 3 . 5 E M a i n S t . T H U R S D A Y S 12-1 p.m. Enterprise Group 113.5 E Main St. 7 p . m . A l l S a i n t s ( M e n s M t g ) 1 1 3 . 5 E M a i n S t . F R I D A Y S 7 p . m . E n t e r p r i s e G r o u p 1 1 3 . 5 E M a i n S t . S A T U R D A Y S 7 p . m . E n t e r p r i s e G r o u p 1 1 3 . 5 E M a i n S t . WEDNESDAYS 12 p.m. Grace and Dignity (Womans Mtg) 301 S. Lake St., Church Basement Al-Anon Family Group (support for family and friends of alcoholics) meets Tuesday evenings at the Joseph United Methodist Church (basement on north), 6pm-7pm. WALLOWA SUNDAYS 7 p . m . W a l l o w a A s s e m b l y o f G o d C h u r c h 2 0 5 S A l d e r S t .