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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 2019)
NEWS Wallowa.com Wednesday, October 9, 2019 A7 State’s no-hunting buffer removed from Wallowa Lake Some concerned about safety and sportsmanship By Steve Tool and Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain In the 2019 ODFW hunt- ing regulations, a quarter- mile-wide no-hunting buffer around the perimeter of Wal- lowa Lake was removed. Residents and business owners have expressed con- cern that hunting in this area of private residences would endanger human safety, and that given the tame nature of the deer, was unsportsmanlike. Residents and busi- ness owners in the Wal- lowa Lake Village area expressed strong concerns about ODFW’s omission of regulations that prohibited deer hunting in their resi- dential neighborhoods. “The deer here are a tourist attrac- tion, worth a lot to Wallowa County,” Susan Esvelt said. “They walk right up to peo- ple. These aren’t wild deer. This isn’t hunting. It isn’t sportsmanlike.” Beyond the deer, residents also wor- ried about hunting in such a highly populated area. Ellen Morris Bishop Mule deer in Wallowa Lake Village and the Wallowa Lake State Park are tame and very habituated to people. “I especially worry about safety of myself and my dog when we are out walking,” said Jill Zundel. Zundel, who worked for the Wig- gins family at Wallowa Lake Lodge as a teenager, now spends summer and early fall in the family’s long-time cabin along the Wallowa River. “I don’t think any- one should hunt these deer. They’re like pets,” she said. At the Scenic Meadows RV Park, where go-carts occupy the track during the Organic: Following in father’s footsteps Continued from Page A1 toes and some of them are good to go and some need to mature up,” he said. “That’s all part of the reason for hav- ing a variety. It hedges your bets against all your weather patterns, your timing, your disease and pest issues and your climate getting too wet or too dry.” The mainstays of his crop are German butterballs – much like russets – and huckleberry golds that have a purple skin but are yel- low inside. Other varieties include large yellow Kenne- becs, Yukon nuggets, purple majesties and Valery long yellows that have a red skin. The potatoes grow near Joseph. Just west of Lostine he has a fi eld protected by a deer fence where he grows about a tenth of an acre of quinoa, just under 5 acres of carrots and about 2.5 acres of various colored beets, all Bill Bradshaw Organic farmer Patrick Thiel shows the yellow inside of a red-skinned Valery potato Wednesday, Oct. 2, at his farm near Joseph. organic. In Oregon, organic crops are certifi ed by Oregon Tilth, a Corvallis-based non- profi t organization dedicated to supporting and advocat- ing organic food and farm- ing, that certifi es organic farms. Thiel has a personal con- nection with the group. Back when his father, Eugene Thiel, fi rst grew organic in the early 1970s, organic cer- tifi cation was just beginning. The elder Thiel worked with state offi cials to establish organic standards. Eugene Thiel continued to pursue organic farming until his death in 2013. The Thiels grew seed potatoes in the Wallowa Val- ley for more than 30 years here and found it was not that hard to transition to organics. After following in his father’s footsteps, he doesn’t yet know if his farm will continue on to another gen- eration. Of his four daugh- ters, ranging in age from 14 to 24, “That remains to be seen over the next few years. My youngest daugh- ter, perhaps.” “Farming is a great priv- ilege; I was trained in that,” Thiel said. “It’s a miracle every year we put a crop in.” Health: Meeting to help shape healthcare Continued from Page A1 meeting will occur at The Place in Joseph, from noon until 2 p.m. Like most of the LCAC meetings, lunch, served up by the Chuck- wagon Sisters, will be included. You needn’t be a health care professional or even a provider to partici- pate and develop new proj- ects. Plus, there’s a free lunch. Established in 2012, the local LCAC’s parent orga- nization, EOCCO, serves about 50,000 members across a 50,000 square mile service area — roughly the size of New York state. It serves Oregon Health Plan members in Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Lake, Mal- heur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa and Wheeler counties. “Wallowa County has a lively and active Local Com- munity Advisory Council, which has developed really creative, and often fun, solutions to improve health and well-being” said Meg Bowen, Chair of the Wal- lowa County Local Com- munity Advisory Coun- cil. “Our LCAC has been in place for several years, and Wallowa County Com- missioner Susan Roberts is our sponsor. She has been very important to, and sup- portive of, our work. Some of the issues we address include loneliness and social isolation; slips, trips and falls due to inclement weather; access to specialty care outside of the commu- nity; access to perinatal sup- port through access to lac- tation consulting and breast pumps; and as of this year, access to child care ser- vices for those who cannot afford them. There are so many success stories we can share. This is a great oppor- tunity for more people to fi nd what they need to suc- ceed in making a better life here.” summer, owner Greg Jar- man said that the area should remain a no hunting zone. “The whole idea of hunting here is a little crazy,” he said. “ODFW should have left it as it was.” Jarman said that he had not encountered any hunters, or heard any shots. “But there doesn’t seem to be as many deer here as there used to be,” he noted. Wallowa County Com- missioners can designate the area a no hunting zone. “We have received some com- plaints from residents,” said Commissioner John Hillock. “We hope that hunters are responsible, and don’t hunt where they shouldn’t. But if people want us to do some- thing, we’ll talk about it.” Wallowa Lake State Park superintendent Mac Free- born said that he had not heard of the rule change. But because hunting is not per- mitted in Oregon State Parks, the change would have little effect on the area he manages. By way of explanation for the regulation change, Shane Talley of the Oregon Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife said that because the vast majority of the land around the lake is private property, the ODFW removed the quarter-mile-wide no-hunt- ing buffer in the interest of simplifi cation. Now, private landown- ers can decide whether to let individuals hunt on their property — or not. As Talley warned, the area is not free range for hunting and hunters are responsible for hunting only on the land on which they have permission to hunt. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” he said. It’s up to hunters to know where they are.” Introducing Pediatric Occupational Therapist Adaline Boden, MS, OTR/L • Does your child struggle to complete daily self- care tasks such as feeding, dressing, or bathing? • Is your child not meeting developmental mile- stones (sitting up, crawling, walking, appropriate play, handwriting, etc.) or struggling to keep up with peers or classmates? • Does your child have a hard time staying organized at school, following directions, gets frustrated easily, or is having a hard time making friends? Ask your Primary Care Provider for a referral today! We treat you like family 601 Medical Parkway, Enterprise, OR 97828 • 541-426-3111 • www.wchcd.org Wallowa Memorial Hospital is an equal opportunity employer and provider. 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