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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2019)
WALLOWA COUNTY TEAMS PERFORM WELL IN DISTRICT TOURNAMENTS SEE PHOTOS ON B1 Enterprise, Oregon 134th Year, No. 44 Wallowa.com Wednesday, February 20, 2019 $1 Joseph council member looks for legal relief in land-use dispute By Christian Ambroson Wallowa County Chieftain Steve Tool/Chieftain Joseph City Council member Teresa Sajonia, right, looks on at the city’s attorney Wyatt Baum (left). In small communities people often fi nd themselves wearing more than one hat, so to speak. Sometimes those hats confl ict. The city of Joseph recently found itself in a sticky land-use dispute. Scott Reinhardt and Patri- cia Bufford of Joseph have made several claims against the city of Joseph centered on the disputed right to use a water meter and pipeline and the city’s failure to remove such at Reinhardt and Buf- ford’s request. Bufford, a member of the Joseph City Council, brought the suit as a resi- dent of Joseph and not in the capacity as a city coun- cil member, and has recused herself from deliberations on the matter as an interested party. The initial complaint, which was fi led in November of 2018 in the Circuit Court for Wallowa County, claims that Joseph has no legal right to possess the land as it is by using and maintaining the water meter and pipeline. The complaint asserts that there are no recorded liens or easements allowing this con- duct to continue. Reinhardt and Bufford, through their attorney Ben- jamin Boyd of the Hostet- ter Law Group, further claim that they offi cially requested that the city remove the meter and pipeline back in November of 2017. The city, represented by Robert E. Franz Jr. of Spring- fi eld, responded by claim- ing that the disputed meter and pipeline, along with the city’s access to them, have been in use for over 20 years. As such, the attorney claims that the city does in fact have rights to con- tinue using the meter under Oregon’s prescriptive ease- ment laws. Under very spe- cifi c circumstances, Ore- gon law may recognize such an easement right through its adverse possession laws, even without being offi cially recorded. Elk encroachment on Wallowa County ranch-land A COMPLEX ISSUE Ellen Morris Bishop By Melissa Wagoner for Wallowa County Chieftain W hat happens when the bal- ancing act between the human population and nature is thrown off? Is it more important to protect the man-made infrastructure or the natural environment that predated it? These questions and many more are being asked all over Ore- gon and beyond as ranchers struggle to hold their ground while native species of wildlife – in this case elk – encroach on their grazing land, reducing their cat- tle’s feed and leaving them struggling to survive. “Historically the elk were only on the prairie for a few months during the sum- mer,” John Williams, a retired Wallowa County extension agent and Associate Professor of Animal and Range Sciences for Oregon State University, explained. “Now these elk spend most of the year on the prairie.” “Living off ranching is marginal any- way,” 77 year old Bill Tsiatsos, a rancher near Starkey, Ore. said. “And I’m paying more for these elk than I get off the lease of my land.” Although Tsiatsos has always had elk herds grazing on his property, the past 20 years have shown a sharp increase in the herd size and, in direct correlation, the destruction they cause. “Years past the numbers weren’t so high and the damage wasn’t so signifi - cant,” he remembered. “I was born and raised here and in that period of time we never had a problem with elk.” The elk in question, which are made up of two subspecies, are both native to Oregon but because of market hunt- ing in the late 1800s they became nearly extinct. “Settlers hunted elk as a primary source of meat and harvest was unregu- lated. During the latter half of the nine- teenth century ‘market hunting’ and human encroachment on elk range took a heavy toll on Oregon’s elk populations,” said Michelle Dennehy, the Communi- cations Coordinator for Oregon Fish and Wildlife. “Market hunters killed thou- sands of elk for meat, hides and antlers. These products were sold in population centers in Oregon and shipped through- out the nation.” That scarcity led Oregon Legislation to provide protection for the few elk that remained. Conservation efforts led to the restocking of herds – 15 from Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 1912 and another 15 in 1913. “The scale of transplanting in the early 1900s was limited and alone does not account for the rapid increases in elk numbers and distribution,” Dennehy noted. “Recovery of elk in Oregon and elk expansion into much of their original range is largely the result of total protec- tion of local remnant populations.” Although the initial protection lasted only until 1904, when a small amount of hunting became permitted, two fur- ther periods of protection occurred from 1909 to 1932 and again, by decree of the War Department, during World War II – at which time the herd size increased dramatically and complaints about the encroachment of elk on cattle ranches began. See Elk, Page A8 Winter driving in Wallowa County proves hazardous By Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain It was just a patch of slush lurking at milepost 40 on Highway 82. But when Marty Steven’s Honda CRV’s rear wheels hit it on Friday morning, the nor- mally reliable all-wheel drive vehicle spun out of control, struck the guard rail and plummeted into the Wallowa River. The side air- bags deployed. And fortu- nately for Marty and her two dogs, the CRV came to rest on its wheels in the shallow, icy cold river. Even more fortunately, neither Stevens nor her two dogs, an Airedale and Labrodoodle, were hurt. But they were about 25 vertical feet below the roadway, in a spot diffi cult to see. Stevens left her two dogs in the vehi- cle, and then hiked up the steep embankment to sum- mon help. “I was driving really carefully, staying in the bare-pavement wheel tracks,” Stevens said. “Then I hit a patch of icy slush, and the next thing I remember we were in the river. It all happened really fast.” Oregon State Police, Wallowa Fire Department and the Wallowa Ambu- lance responded to her call. Ellen Morris Bishop See Winter, Page A8 Wallowa Firefi ghters watch as Steven’s Honda CRV is towed out of the Wallowa River.