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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2020)
LOCAL Wallowa.com Wednesday, October 21, 2020 A3 Experts discuss forest management on moraine East Moraine walking tour looks at present, future By BILL BRADSHAW Wallowa County Chieftain WALLOWA LAKE — Nearly a dozen people gath- ered at the south end of Wal- lowa Lake on Wednesday, Oct. 14, to learn more about forest management in the area, particularly on the East Moraine. The East Moraine is largely a 1,791-acre parcel acquired by Wallowa County in January from the Ron- ald C. Yanke Family Trust. More recently, another 33 acres were donated to the county by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, bringing the total to 1,824 acres. The northern end is mostly grassland, while the southern end is forested. It’s the forested end that was the focus of those attend- ing the Oct. 14 walking tour and the forest experts host- ing it. Nils Christoffersen, executive director of Wal- lowa Resources, said there’s another privately owned 30-acre parcel that’s being considered for donation, which would connect the two at the southeast end of the lake. “It really doesn’t make sense to come out here and plan a thinning that’s tough to pull off logistically when Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain Larry Nalls, center, a consulting forester and Wallowa Resources Board member, discusses the viability of logging as part of a forest management plan Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, during a walking tour of the East Moraine. At left is Nils Christoff ersen, executive director of Wallowa Resources, and at right is John Punches, a forester with OSU Extension. we’re going to leave a big hole in the middle,” he said of the potential donation. “It’d be better to wait and see if that thing actually happens.” But that isn’t holding back plans for forest man- agement to be given serious consideration. John Punches, a forester with Oregon State Univer- sity Extension, discussed the health of the forest in the moraine, the types of trees there and the threats to their continued growth. “There’s going to have to be a plan for continued man- agement so we make sure (natural) regeneration comes in,” Punches said. “We look at a stand now and we need to act now or it’s going to really start to fall apart. … Right now, it’s primarily grand fi r dying, but before much longer you’re going to have (Douglas) fi r dying, and Doug fi r is the species that you can harvest out of here right now and pay the bill for doing the treatment of the site. You wait a whole lot longer and you won’t have that sort of Doug fi r.” The cost of forest man- agement will largely be left up to Wallowa County. County Commissioner Todd Nash was among the group present for the tour. He and Larry Nalls, a con- sulting forester and Wallowa Resources Board member, agreed thinning the stand is not about making a profi t. “This is obviously not going to be a moneymaker,” Nalls said. “This is going to be for other reasons. There is the ideology out there that people want to cut to make a fortune, but that’s not what’s going on here.” Those leading the dis- cussion agreed any thinning must be for reasons of for- est health and the potential of fi re risk. In addition to the natural resource the forest presents, there are numerous homes and businesses at the south end of the lake. Lisa Mahon, Wallowa County’s Firewise Commu- nity coordinator working on establishing a new Firewise Community at the south end of the lake, said homeowners there are concerned that the forest gets managed like they want it managed. “They realize the threat of sitting in a bowl,” she said. “That’s a topic every time we meet is how do we get … some sort of fuel break. That is a concern on their minds.” Punches said that while the forest’s health is cur- rently fairly good, he’s con- cerned that in coming years, falling dead trees will add to the ground fuels, making the area ripe for the kind of fi re that hasn’t happened there for about a century. “Echoing what John just said, this could be an abso- lute disaster in 30 years,” Nalls said, agreeing with Punches. All there agreed a man- agement plan needs to be developed. “We’re not doing this for the money,” Nalls said. “We’re just trying to make this a stand that is going to get us somewhere in the future. From a political standpoint, this may be a tough sell. We’re along a highway to a crown jewel and we’re by a bunch of houses.” He said the area is at a critical juncture with critical issues. “This is the interface between the private land and the national forest and so the risk of fi re, insect, disease but particularly fi re is highest right here,” Nalls said. “The condition of this property is such that it’s conducive to wildfi re and it’s also support- ing, with this grand fi r, the spread of that fi r engraver beetle.” Punches hopes the for- est management plan can include creating a buffer zone between the forest and private property. But thin- ning will bring changes. “It’s going to change the nature of the site somewhat because when we take out some of those trees, more light’s going to hit the ground and your ground’s going to go from being really stark and you’re going to see more of the shrub layer develop and the habitat change in here, there’s going to be more deer and elk in the area,” he said. “It’s going to mean more feeding ground and calv- ing ground, so those types of structural issues are going to occur. … There’s going to be a more signifi cant amount of natural regeneration. There’s very little right now; it’s just too dark.” To the Bright Edge of the World Wolf shot and killed in eastern Baker County was breeding male from Cornucopia pack by Eowyn Ivey Baker City Herald BAKER CITY — Ore- gon State Police are investi- gating the unlawful killing of the breeding male wolf from the Cornucopia pack in east- ern Baker County. The wolf died from a gun- shot wound on or about Sept. 24, according to OSP. This incident occurred northwest of New Bridge in the Skull Creek drainage of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Forest Ser- vice Road 7741 accesses the Skull Creek drainage and the wolf was found off the 125 spur road. That’s about 1 mile east of Eagle Forks camp- ground. Anyone with infor- mation can contact OSP Sgt. Isaac Cyr through the Turn in Poachers (TIP) hotline at 1-800-452-7888. Biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild- life (ODFW) trapped the wolf and fi tted it with a GPS track- ing collar in December 2018. According to ODFW, the breeding male and female of the Cornucopia pack bred for the fi rst time in 2019. The breeding female is a radio-col- lared wolf that dispersed from the Pine Creek pack, also in eastern Baker County, and the breeding male that was killed in September had dispersed 107 E. Main St. Enterprise OR 541-426-3351 bookloftoregon.com • manager@bookloft.org WC Humane Society HALLOWEEN OPEN HOUSE from 11am - 4pm PUNCH, REFRESHMENTS &TREATS FOR KIDS Drawings for door prizes (Come in costume kids!) Pets a for ado vailable ption 119 E Main St, Enterprise OR 97828 Oregon State Police/Contributed Photo A collared gray wolf was found shot and killed in eastern Baker County in late September. from the Walla Walla pack in Union, Umatilla and Wallowa counties. The pair produced three pups that survived to the end of 2019, according to ODFW. Data from the wolves’ col- lars showed the pack used a 162-square-mile area in the Pine Creek and Keating wild- life management units, with 92% of the location points on public land. Sunday's - Noon to 5 p.m. Need help stacking & burning brush. Paid Advertisement www.saveamericanow.com Wake up! I have often driven to work in the early morning and have seen this lady working at keeping Joseph beautiful but never knew who she was. Well today I stopped to visit with her. Meet Cheryl Gilliard. Cheryl has been volunteering her time since 2017, Monday through Thursday mornings picking up leaves and other things to help maintain our beauty. She has been in Wallowa County for 20 years and loves helping however she can. Thank you for Making a Difference Cheryl Gilliard! $ 2,000 Live Your Dream Award A woman with primary financial responsibility attending an undergraduate degree program or a vocational skills training program with financial need. Applications available only on-line at www.soroptimist.org (Our Programs/Live Your Dreams/Application Instructions). Fill out the writable PDF - must be submitted ON-LINE - deadline, November 15th For More Information: Gail Johnson, 541-602-2051, gjohnson@eoni.com, or Leigh Dawson, 541-398-1549, ldawson23@gmail.com FERGI WORK DAYS Main Clinic 603 Medical Parkway, Enterprise,OR 541-426-4502 507 S River Street, Enterprise Walk-In Urgent Care & Long-Term Healing Relationships • www.windingwaters.org Joseph Clinic udly Pro onsore d b y p S 401 N Main St, Joseph ADVERTISE TODAY in Wallowa County’s only newspaper! Call Jennifer Cooney today at 541-805-9630 to place your ad People a g n i k a M ce n e r e f f i D s ub & Son Ed erg S y. t C a ommunity. 54 S 1- e 42 rv 6-03 ic 20 e. En , Enterprise • w.edstaub.com ww 201 E. Hwy 82
