NEWS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
A17
Fiddle Camp keeps Wallowa on its toes
Megan Futter
For the Chieftain
Ellen Morris Bishop
Writer Molly Gloss (“Jump-off Creek,” “Hearts of Horses”)
describes her mentor, Ursula LeGuin’s, teaching style
while Scott Russell Sanders (right) and Luis Alberto Urrea
listen. The panel marked the closing of this year’s FishTrap
Gathering, and a year dedicated to LeGuin’s work.
Fishtrap goes
out with a bang!
Ellen Morris Bishop
Wallowa County Chieftain
Megan Futter for The Chieftain
Fiddle camp kept Wallowa residents and fi ddle camp participants on their toes with great
tunes for dancing.
the current director, took
over. Arnold resides in La
Grande and teaches music
for the school district.
According to her, the aim
is to encourage, inspire and
support the next generation
and foster a love of music
in youth. This year’s camp
included a mini kids camp
for children ages 3 to 10
The mini camp included
dancing, art and making
instruments.
The Fiddle Camp offered
instruction for banjo, man-
dolin, stand up bass, guitar
and dance from 11 profes-
sional musicians. The camp
is sponsored by the Wal-
lowa Valley Music Alli-
ance, a non-profi t whose
focus is bringing music to
rural communities.
Wolfpack kills calf in southeast Washington
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Grouse Flats wolf-
pack in southeast Washing-
ton killed a calf in a 160-
acre fenced pasture, the
state Department of Fish and
Wildlife said today.
Fish
and
Wildlife
employees found the dead
400- to 450-pound calf July
8 in the department’s 4-0
Ranch Wildlife Area. The
calf belonged to a rancher
who has a permit to graze
livestock there.
The wolfpack is in Asotin
County, which borders Ore-
gon and Idaho. The depart-
ment confi rmed the pack
attacked two calves and one
cow last year.
Only one other depre-
dation has occurred in the
past 10 months. Depart-
ment policy calls for it to
consider culling a pack
after four depredations in
10 months or three depreda-
tions in 30 days. Previously,
the most-recent depredation
was Oct. 28.
Fish and Wildlife Direc-
tor Kelly Susewind ordered
the department Wednesday
to kill one or two wolves in
the OPT pack in the Colville
National Forest in northeast
Washington. The depart-
ment has not provided an
update.
The calf found dead in
Asotin County suffered
wounds infl icted by wolves,
Fish and Wildlife investi-
gators concluded. Most of
the hindquarters were con-
sumed, investigators said.
The rancher monitors the
herd regularly and removes
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife/Capital Press
A calf has been killed by wolves in southeastern Washington state, offi cials said Friday.
livestock carcasses to avoid
attracting wolves, according
to the department.
Since the most recent
attack, the rancher has added
motion-detection lights and
will check the herd more
often until the cattle can be
moved to a different pasture,
according to the department.
The Grouse Flats pack
had at least eight wolves
at the end of 2018, accord-
ing to Fish and Wildlife’s
count. It was the state’s sec-
ond-largest pack. The pack’s
territory extends south into
Oregon.
The Wallowa County Chieftain,
an aggressive weekly in the incredible
scenic northeastern corner of Oregon,
has an opening for a reporter equally
at home covering hard news, sports and
writing features and service pieces.
Everyone on our three-person editorial
staff reports, takes photos, breaks
stories to the Web, and interacts with
our followers on social media.
Wallowa County offers exceptional
outdoor recreational opportunities and
boasts a thriving arts community, cattle
ranches, farms, a major tourism industry
and traditional small-town life where
there are no traffic lights.
David Jensen
E st.
1923
B REWS
&
V IEWS
from the Deck
D AILY 3:30 - 5:30 PM
Serving beer, wine
& appetizers
Wallowa Lake Lodge
60060 Wallowa Lake Highway • Wallowa Lake, Oregon
541-432-9821 • wallowalake.com
Journalism degree and two years of
experience reporting in the Northwest
or a rural community preferred. This is a
rare opportunity to grow with a family
newspaper company that believes in
the value of community journalism.
Full time position offering insurances,
401(k) retirement plan and Paid Time
Off (PTO). Send cover letter, resume
and clips to hr@eomediagroup.com.
REPORTER
WANTED
Fishtrap’s week of
workshops and week-long
gathering went out with
a bang Saturday night
as thunderstorms rolled
out of the Wallowas and
descended on Wallowa
Lake while The Gathering
paid homage to award-win-
ning writer and Fishtrap
mentor Ursula LeGuin.
Securely ensconced under
a big tent at Wallowa Lake
Lodge, Fishtrap attend-
ees watched a screening
of “Worlds of Ursula K.
LeGuin,” an upcoming,
hour-long American Mas-
ters PBS documentary
about LeGuin’s life and
writing. Words of wisdom
from LeGuin herself in
the fi lm included “I never
wanted to be a writer. I just
wrote.” And “Every story
must make its own rules.
And then break them.”
Three of Fishtrap’s
workshop faculty, Molly
Gloss, Scott Russell Sand-
ers, and Luis Alberto
Urrea, who had all been
mentored by LeGuin,
shared their experiences
and memories. Sanders
related that in the 1990’s
when LeGuin was taking a
walk with him while stay-
ing at his Indiana home,
she stopped, looked at
him and said, with some
degree of quiet amaze-
ment, “There’s water run-
ning under here.”
“She didn’t mean it like
there was something seep-
ing under the sidewalk,”
he said. “She meant water
moving freely, deep under-
ground.” And LeGuin was
right, he said. “I told her
that, yes, it was limestone
country, and that there
were caves and under-
ground rivers beneath the
surface. She was extraor-
dinarily perceptive of her
surroundings.”
LeGuin could be a
demanding teacher, but
she was good at work-
ing with writers who were
just starting, Gloss said.
“She would always fi nd
something, maybe just one
thing, that was lovely, and
she’d say “This is beauti-
ful.” And then she’d fi nd
one thing to change that
would improve the story.
Those students always left
feeling inspired.” For the
gathering attendees, it was
a banner evening.
This year’s gathering
and workshops provided
one of the best ever expe-
riences for attendees, said
Fishtrap Executive Direc-
tor Shannon McNerney. “It
was wonderful,” she said.
“We had a great diversity
in our participants—dif-
ferent ages, different cul-
tural backgrounds. That
may have been partly
because of the workshops
we offered—they included
Chicana writers, younger
writers, and different kinds
of workshops. Our Fellows
were also really diverse,
and came from a pretty
large geographic area.”
McNerny also touted
the support and involve-
ment of the community
in Joseph and Wallowa
County. “Our youth work-
shops had 28 students, and
half of them were from
Wallowa County,” she
said. Most of those students
received scholarships. And
Joseph Charter School pro-
vided transportation for the
students. “Everyone did
what they could to help,”
she said. “We are so very
thankful for that.”
The positive vibes also
extended to Fishtrap Gath-
ering and workshop partic-
ipants. “My favorite quote
from one of our attend-
ees, McNerny said, is
“This place is heaven, and
if heaven isn’t like this, I
don’t want to go there.”
Wallowa was surrounded
with the culture of music
as the 2019 Fiddle Tunes
Camp kicked off at the Wal-
lowa School July 5-12. The
school yard fi lled up with
tents as over 100 musicians
and their families came
from as far as San Diego
to participate in Wallowa’s
Fiddle Camp. This week-
long music and dance camp
offers traditional string
instrument instruction for
young and old alike. Musi-
cians and instructors from
the camp held performances
and a dance free of charge
for the community.
The camp has been held
in Wallowa since 2005 and
was started by local musi-
cian Peter Donovan. Don-
ovan ran the camp for 7
years before Carla Arnold,