LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
A15
County presses for action on Morgan Nesbit
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE
—
Aggressive
action
to
improve forest health, for-
est habitat, the local econ-
omy and to reduce the
chance of catastrophic wild-
fi re was recommended in a
letter approved by the Wal-
lowa County Board of Com-
missioners at its Wednesday,
March 17, meeting.
The letter, addressed to
Mark Bingman, of the U.S.
Forest Service Wallowa
Mountains Offi ce in Joseph,
targets the Morgan Nesbit
Forest Resiliency Project
about 20 miles southeast of
Joseph. The project is com-
prised of about 87,000 acres,
located on both the Wallowa
Valley Ranger District and
the Hells Canyon National
Recreation Area.
“I think it’s important that
the county has established its
coordination status with the
Forest Service on this proj-
ect and that we stay in touch
with them at every point
during the process,” said
Katy Nesbitt, the county’s
director of natural resources
and economic development
who prepared the letter.
She told the commission-
ers there was one unusual
change in protocol with
the process, in that anony-
mous comments were being
accepted.
“I think the letter we have
is, in my opinion, fi ne, but
my question to you is have
we contacted anyone to fi nd
out why this new protocol
of anonymous comments?”
Commissioner Susan Rob-
erts asked.
Commissioner
Todd
Nash also was curious.
“I was surprised to see
that in an email recently,” he
said.
Nesbitt expressed her
willingness to look into it.
“You can direct me what
you want me to do,” she said.
“I think we need to ask
someone … as to why this
change in protocol is there
that’s not been there before,”
Roberts said. “I think we
need to know in order to at
least answer the opinions in
there.”
The
commissioners
approved sending the letter,
and at the same time directed
Nesbitt to check into the
change in protocol.
In the letter, the commis-
sioners expressed their con-
cern that the Morgan Nes-
bit is a high-priority area
U.S. Forest Service/Contributed Photo
The Morgan Nesbit Forest Resilience Project is located about
20 miles southeast of Joseph. The Wallowa County Board of
Commissioners gave its approval Wednesday, March 17, 2021,
to a prescoping comment letter on plans to improve the forest
health of the region.
for reducing fuel loads and
agreed with a 2019 state
report recommending “treat-
ment on 40% of a landscape
can signifi cantly alter fi re
behavior.”
The commissioners also
expressed concern for the
forest ecosystem health. Fir
and pine stands are becom-
ing more at risk due to pan-
demic insect outbreaks as
temperatures warm. The
conditions aff ect fi sh, wild-
life and soil health.
“We believe mechanical
treatments and prescribed
fi re can help reset natu-
ral processes and increase
groundwater and stream lev-
els,” the letter stated.
The commissioners want
“natural fi re” returned to
the Morgan Nesbit “before
essential habitat is consumed
by escaped wildfi re.”
The letter noted that
the Morgan Nesbit “has a
higher lightning-strike den-
sity than any other area on
the north end of the Wal-
lowa-Whitman
National
Forest,” making such con-
cerns paramount.
The
commissioners
off ered the help of the coun-
ty’s Natural Resource Advi-
sory Committee and urged
the Forest Service partner
with the Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry, local youth
crews and contractors to
supplement data gathering,
inventory, monitoring, tim-
ber marking and monitoring.
The letter also recom-
mended managing with
fi re-tolerant species of trees.
“Ponderosa pine and
Western larch are currently
threatened by grand fi r and
Douglas fi r that normally
would be controlled if more
natural fi re were present,” it
stated.
It urged removing grand
fi r and Douglas fi r by pre-
scribed fi re and mechani-
cal means and aggressively
removing white and grand
fi r seed sources.
A 20-year time frame
for implementation of the
management project was
recommended.
The letter also mentioned
the high quality of fi sh hab-
itat in the area, “along with
other ESA (Endangered
Species Act)-listed and rare
and endemic species” that
evolved with the “dynam-
ics of natural fi re, but is now
threatened by the highly
altered fi re regime.”
It also mentioned the eco-
nomic and recreation values
to the area, as it’s important
for accessing food sources
for people and wildlife and is
popular for camping and off -
road vehicle adventures. The
proximity to communities in
the Wallowa Valley makes
it an important area for fi re-
wood gathering, a necessary
source of heat for many here.
“Finally,” the letter
stated, “we want to see the
project designed in such a
way that our local contrac-
tors and mill can have some
benefi t from the harvested
logs, providing jobs, pur-
chases at local retail stores
and the benefi t of those dol-
lars circulating throughout
the community.”
The letter also noted the
availability of the county’s
timber resources.
“The 2016 Wallowa
County Forest Manage-
ment Plan identifi es 209,950
acres on the Wallowa Val-
ley and Eagle Cap Ranger
Districts and 39,000 acres
on the Hells Canyon Natu-
ral Recreation Area as avail-
able, capable and suitable
for timber production,” it
stated. “From these acres,
timber harvests should occur
on 12,448 acres with an esti-
mated 40 million board feet
being removed annually.”
Commissioners hear update on fi ber connections
SPACE RESERVATION
DEADLINES
County hopes
to connect
all facilities in
Enterprise
for weekly advertising is 5pm Friday for the
following week. Ad copy is due on Monday at 10am.
Ads must be approved by Tuesday at 12pm.
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Wal-
lowa County is hoping
to take a positive step in
upgrading its communica-
tions network this year, as it
connects all county services
in Enterprise via fi berop-
tic cable, the county com-
missioners were told at
their Wednesday, March 17,
meeting.
Stacey Fregulia, infor-
mation technology spe-
cialist for the county, gave
a status report on bids and
work to connect the Wal-
lowa County Courthouse
with the county’s Justice
Center, the road department
and the Cloverleaf Hall.
“As the commissioners
are aware, I’ve been work-
ing on replacing a lot of the
infrastructure between here
and the Justice Center,” she
said. “The only piece that’s
missing is the fi ber connec-
tion between the two, and
actually not just the Jus-
tice Center, but the Clo-
verleaf Hall and the road
department.”
She told the commission-
ers there is an opportunity
to increase the capacity of
the internet services used by
the county from 20-by-20
to 50-by-50. She explained
that means upload by down-
load and the numbers repre-
sent megabytes.
“Currently, the court-
house operates comfort-
ably (with internet) on that
— we don’t have an issue,”
Fregulia said, but the 20-by-
20 is not suffi cient for the
road department.
Also, when power out-
ages occur — as they often
do — the road department
has trouble.
“They lose their phone;
they lose their internet
and lose all options down
there,” she said.
She anticipates connect-
ing the road department will
eliminate many of those
problems.
“The plan is to link all
of our sites in Enterprise
together by fi ber, which will
make it redundant, so if one
of those fi bers happens to
get cut at any point it will
be able to pass through the
other,” she said.
It is not yet known when
the project, which has been
underway since July, will be
completed. Commissioner
John Hillock asked if it
could be done by this sum-
mer, but Fegulia said that
depends on how soon Ziply
completes its work install-
ing the fi beroptic cables.
“They have a lot more
now than they did last year,”
she said.
Fregulia said the county
can get internet at the four
facilities connected for
$1,300 a month without
installation costs through
Ziply Fiber, which cur-
rently handles the court-
house phone system. If the
county ceases using ser-
vice from Eastern Oregon
Net Inc., Fregulia can pro-
gram the courthouse phones
online.
She had been discussing
the upgrades with EONI,
but that company gave esti-
mates of approximately
$50,000 to run fi ber under-
ground between the court-
house and Justice Center,
another $8,000 to the Clo-
verleaf and they could not
do the road department for
less than $50,000. That
doesn’t include a $400-per-
month service charge.
No decision on the proj-
ect was made by the com-
missioners at the March 17
meeting.
Wallowa supports the replacement of pipeline
City OKs letter
to obtain grant
for work
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — A let-
ter of support to repair and
replace a pipeline to an irri-
gation ditch was approved
by the Wallowa City Coun-
cil at its meeting Tuesday,
March 16.
The request of the let-
ter was made by Elwayne
Henderson who wants to
obtain a grant to have the
work done on a new pipe-
line for the Chamberlin and
Westside irrigation ditches,
Mayor Gary Hulse said.
“It does aff ect the city,”
Hulse said. “We’ve had
complaints of water in base-
ments. There also is fl ooding
in the spring.”
Hulse said the ditch near
Green Hill had been there
since the 1960s and origi-
nally was a steel pipe, which
now has developed leaks.
Hulse wasn’t sure who
the grant request was to be
made to, but said it was a
group that has done similar
work in Joseph and Enter-
prise. The council voted to
endorse the grant request
with a letter.
In another matter at the
meeting, the council agreed
to transfer $2,660 from the
Senior Center Contingency
Fund to the Equipment Fund
for a new kitchen range.
The current electric range is
developing problems, Hulse
said, and it was decided to
replace it with a propane
range that has a 36-inch grill
and two convection ovens.
The mayor said the
range will cost more than
$10,000, of which 50%
must be paid down prior to
ordering it. The Senior Cen-
ter Equipment Fund has
enough to reach the 50%
with that which the city is
contributing.
“This just gets us to the
start,” the mayor said.
Hulse said it was an
unexpected expense.
“We didn’t realize that
when we ran our budget last
year that we were going to
have to replace a stove,” he
said.
In other matters, the
council:
• Discussed ongoing ani-
mal control problems that
violated city ordinances.
Hulse said the discussion
was primarily so the council
can start acting on the com-
plaints as they come in.
• Agreed to trans-
fer $20,609 from the Fire
Department Contingency
Fund to the Equipment
Fund for a new hydraulic
extraction tool.
• Heard a report from the
Public Works Department
that a planned project to
clean and scope city sewer
lines will begin this week.
• Voted to appoint Jack
Deal to the city Budget
Committee.
Contact Jennifer Cooney to place an ad this week
jcooney@wallowa.com • 541-805-9630
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