NEWS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
A5
Fishtrap Fireside
The 175-acre conservation easement boundary.
Landholder and land trust work
to preserve moraine land
Working with Wallowa
Land Trust, landowner
Anna Mae Quint, volun-
tarily extinguished all future
development and subdivi-
sion rights on her 175-acre
East Moraine property at
Wallowa Lake.
“The moraine is very
important — there’s nothing
like it on earth,” Quint said.
The property encom-
passes two lateral moraines
before rising to the crest of
the East Moraine at its west-
ernmost boundary. Con-
sidered the southern tip of
Zumwalt Prairie, Quint’s
property is
comprised
of 53 acres
of
crop-
land
and
122 acres of
bunchgrass,
QUINT
including
habitat for
the wildfl ower Spalding’s
catchfl y. It is also a critical
winter range for mule deer
and habitat for fox, coyote
and a variety of grassland
birds and raptors, among
other species.
Quint did reserve the
right to graze cattle and
farm on the property, cit-
ing working lands as a big
part of her Wallowa County
heritage.
Quint, 85, of Redmond,
grew up on the south-
ern edge of Joseph in a
house her parents bought
when she was in elemen-
tary school. Her father grew
up on a ranch outside of
Joseph on Walker Lane, she
said. Helping conserve the
moraine was important to
Quint long before Wallowa
Land Trust was formed.
More than a decade ago,
Quint and Wallowa Land
Trust began discussing the
idea of putting the property
into a conservation ease-
ment, which is a voluntary
legal agreement between a
landowner and a land trust
which protects a property’s
agricultural viability, nat-
ural habitat, rural heritage,
and scenic open space in
perpetuity. The conserva-
tion easement that encom-
passes the Quint property
permanently extinguishes
all development and subdi-
vision rights while reserving
recreation, hunting, farming
and grazing rights.
February’s Fishtrap
Fireside features long
time Fishtrap friends,
Rick Bombaci and
Sara Miller, plus a new
and emerging voice in
Enterprise High School
student Nodya Papin-
eau. An open mic fol-
lows where audience
members have a chance
to get up to the podium
and share their stories,
too.
Fireside is a free
monthly event for Wal-
lowa County writers
to read and share their
work. The program has
enjoyed a tremendous
following in Wallowa
County and beyond.
Fishtrap Fireside takes
place the fi rst Friday of
the month from October
through April at Fish-
trap, 400 East Grant
Street in Enterprise.
Find a seat by the fi re
and hear stories writ-
ten by your friends and
neighbors.
January’s Fireside
is sponsored by The
Bookloft.
Firewood
provided by Jay Zee
Lumber.
More about Febru-
ary’s featured readers:
Rick Bombaci grew
up in rural Connecticut.
After a brief stint living
and working in Portland
when, for $125 a month,
you could rent a nice
apartment with hard-
wood fl oors and a view
of Mt. St. Helens before
it blew up, he moved
to Wallowa County,
where he’s been ever
since. Rick has worked,
in order, as a U.S. For-
est Service wilderness
ranger, a waiter, a bicy-
cle mechanic, a high
school teacher, a com-
puter consultant, a grant
writer, a nonprofi t con-
sultant, and a USFS wil-
derness ranger. That’s
known as either com-
pleting the circle or
spinning your wheels.
He has one daughter
that he knows of, and a
number of obsessions,
including long distance
hiking.
Sara Miller likes
to experiment, “What
I love about Fishtrap
is encouragement to
experiment creatively.
Being invited to read at
Fireside allows me to
say, well I better write
something then.” Miller
is a poet and writer of
creative nonfi ction. She
has been called a loud
talker, ponderer, dis-
tractor and over-imag-
iner. She appreciates
opportunities to create
ritual and help with hard
work, especially babies
and birth, death and
love, ranching and wild
lonely places. Some-
times her audiences per-
form unexpectedly.
Nodya Papineau is
a 19-year-old aspiring
poet from Enterprise.
She’s been writing and
performing poetry for
six years now through
various Fishtrap pro-
grams for students and
young writers such as
Student Showcases and
at Summer Fishtrap
both in 2016 and 2017.
This is her fi rst Fishtrap
Fireside reading.
Unions look to take advantage of Democratic leadership, strong economy in 2019
By Aubrey Wieber
Oregon Capital Bureau
In November, educators
and school children got a
champion. The homeless got
an advocate and environmen-
talists got a steward. But per-
haps the people most happy
with Gov. Kate Brown’s
re-election reside in Oregon’s
union shops.
Brown has long been pro
union. She has publicly sup-
ported them and even had
the president of a national
teachers union stump for her
during her campaign.
Unions have backed
Brown as well. Her six big-
gest union donors gave nearly
$1 million combined in 2018.
Now, with Democrats hav-
ing a stronger majority in
the House and Senate, union
leaders say it’s time to push
their pro-worker agenda.
“It’s time to do something
bold,” said Melissa Unger,
executive director for Ser-
vice Employees International
Union Local 503, which rep-
resents about 70,000 state
workers and caregivers.
Unions have weakened
through the country compared
to their power in decades past
but remain strong and active
in Oregon.
In the 2018 election, SEIU
49 gave House Speaker Tina
Kotek $50,000 though she
had no serious challenger.
SEIU 503 provided $42,000
in in-kind contributions to
Future PAC, which covered
wages, general expenses and
surveys. Future PAC is the
House Democrats’ campaign
fundraising arm.
The Oregon Educa-
tion Association gave Sen.
Shemia Fagan’s campaign
$15,000 and she received
$20,000 from the Oregon
chapter of the American
Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees,
despite having a large lead in
her primary contest.
Unions also gave to the
Senate Democrat Leader-
ship Fund, which then spread
money around to various
caucus leaders. SEIU gave
$15,000 to the PAC in 2018
in the form of travel expenses
and wages. The national
AFL-CIO gave $10,000.
House Majority Leader
Jennifer Williamson also got
$10,000 from AFL-CIO, as
well as $13,500 from Local
48 Electricians. United Food
& Commercial Workers
Union Local 555 gave Sen.
Rob Wagner, chair of the
Senate Education Commit-
tee, $5,000 in 2018, as did the
Oregon School Employees
Association.
With the Legislature con-
vening, union lobbyists will
be a signifi cant presence.
Unger said her union sup-
ports higher taxes for busi-
nesses and wealthy individu-
als and legislation to improve
the cost of housing and to
help education.
Her primary focus during
the session, though, will be
the 30,000 caregivers SEIU
represents. She said their
work, often underpaid, under-
appreciated and done by
women, can be vital to rural
economies.
“How do we create sys-
tems to really lift up this
work?” she said. “It’s often
low-wage work, but it is at the
core of how families succeed,
and something we should
really value as a society.”
The union wants a
smoother regulatory way
for home workers to move
to jobs in other places, such
as a nursing home. She also
wants a central background
check system. Unger said
under the current system, she
has seen website advertise-
ments for jobs such as com-
ing into a home to bathe an
adult. That’s unregulated, she
said, and isn’t safe for work-
ers or clients.
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