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Wallowa.com
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
A17
Wallowa County Chieftain, File
The East Moraine provides a commanding view of Wallowa Lake. The management plan for the public lands on the south end of Wallowa Lake’s East Moraine is one step closer to reality after
the county commissioners approved two documents Wednesday, May 19, 2021.
Commissioners OK documents for moraine plan
Baseline report,
governance
document
approved
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Prog-
ress continued toward devel-
oping a management plan
for the East Moraine above
Wallowa Lake as the Wal-
lowa County Board of Com-
missioners approved a base-
line documentation report
and a governance document
for the moraine Wednesday,
May 19.
The East Moraine is
largely a 1,791-acre parcel
acquired by Wallowa County
in January 2020 from the
Ronald 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.
The county is in the pro-
cess of developing a man-
agement plan for the
moraine, along with partners
in the eff ort.
Eric Greenwell, a con-
servation program manager
with the Wallowa Land Trust
— one of the chief partners
— explained the report at
last week’s meeting.
“The Baseline Docu-
mentation Report is a report
that’s compiled by Wal-
lowa Land Trust in consul-
tation with a lot of diff erent
professionals,” Greenwell
said. “What it’s intended to
do is document the base-
line condition of the East
Moraine at the time it was
purchased. So it includes a
lot of diff erent information
about land use, land-use law
and regulations, any struc-
tures that were existing on
the property. It takes a look
at the habitat. There’s a list
of plants and animals as an
appendix to that document
… and a lot of other diff erent
things. It’s designed to cre-
ate a comprehensive report
on the condition of the prop-
erty at the time of purchase
and at the time that a con-
servation easement would
be conveyed to Wallowa
Land Trust and the (Ore-
gon) Department of Forestry.
That is the intention of that
document.”
He said the profession-
als involved in compiling
the report included retired
wildlife biologists who’ve
worked for Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wild-
life, foresters, silvicultur-
ists,
knowledge-bearers
and cultural resource spe-
cialists with the Nez Perce
Tribe, county planners “and
a whole array of planners
and professions I’ve had the
opportunity to work with.”
The commissioners were
impressed with the scope of
the report.
“I might add there’s a tre-
mendous volume of work
here, and we really appreci-
ate it,” Commissioner Todd
Nash said. “You dug in and
did the hard work, so kudos
to you. Good job.”
Commissioner
Susan
Roberts agreed, noting the
long-time eff ort involved in
the documents.
“We’ve seen this multiple
times and we’ve provided
input back and forth with
Eric,” she said.
Holding up the inch-thick
report, she said, “It’s a big
read; I think it should be
required big reading.”
Governance document
As for the East Moraine
Governance Document, it’s
a more nuts-and-bolts part of
the plan.
“It’s a much shorter doc-
ument that identifi es how we
operate as a partnership,”
Nash said. “It’s been ban-
tered back and forth a num-
ber of times and it’s to a spot
where we think it’s ready for
us here today.”
Greenwell said the two
documents are only part of
the plan. The governance
document is an essential
part, he said.
“The actual management
plan is still being worked on
by the various profession-
als, but this would be the
very beginning of the man-
agement plan that puts into
the concrete process of how
management decisions are
made with the county as the
owners … and the profes-
sionals on a management
committee to help make
decisions about the prop-
erty to support the commis-
sioners and have a property
manager to help make sure
the property is managed,”
he said. “It’s a document
that’ll be incorporated into
the management plan to pro-
vide structure for decision
making.”
The commissioners had
some questions about the
details of the fi nal plan, par-
ticularly that it will ensure
the “land (is) used the way
it’s always been used,” Com-
missioner John Hillock said.
“That was our intention.”
One concern — that of
trail maintenance — was
addressed by Franz Goebel,
the county’s director of
planning. He said fi rst, the
county must adopt a master
plan. Then comes the permit-
ting process.
“The county, in 1988,
adopted a nonconforming
uses article which allows the
continuation of a use that’s
been in place since prior to
the adoption of that plan,” he
said. “That’s what allows the
county to continue the use
regardless of ownership and
also to repair or do anything
to make it comply with cur-
rent laws.”
Possible changes
Trails fall under that
category.
“Our stance on it is that
trails that are a preexist-
ing, nonconforming use
which, by right, can con-
tinue and be repaired and
there can be work done on
them to make them com-
ply with current law, such as
ADA (Americans with Dis-
abilities Act) requirements,
etc. These existed prior to
the land-use rule. But there
would need to be a minis-
terial review for the repairs
or the upgrades that would
be legally required to allow
access prior to doing the
actual work. That’s my rec-
ommendation for the coun-
ty’s stance on how the pro-
cess should work.”
Goebel also addressed the
possibility that a structure
might be erected.
“If we build a structure,
like a ranger station, then we
need to go through a pub-
lic permitting process,” he
said. “It depends on each
zone, actually, so it depends
on where the ranger sta-
tion would be. But as far as
any of the trails that have
already been in place for so
long, we don’t need to do
anything. If we’re widening
a trail for somebody who’s
more mobile challenged or
needs to drive somewhere
or an approach to meet ADA
requirements, then we’d get
a zone permit for that.”
Greenwell said the mas-
ter plan should address such
questions.
“Diff erent zones are
going to aff ect how you do
work in diff erent areas,” he
said. “So if there’s an exist-
ing trail that you wanted
to do work on, that might
require a ministerial review
you’d have to seek out with
the Planning Department. If
you do it in a diff erent zone
— say, you wanted to make
a new trail — that would
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be a diff erent process and it
would depend on what zone
you’re in to show you what
process to take.”
Mildred
O’Callaghan,
who created a wildlife over-
lay for the management plan,
expressed concerns about
increased residential density
and that the plan couldn’t be
changed to address it once
approved.
Roberts assured her that
there will be many oppor-
tunities to make changes to
the plan — including a pub-
lic input process — prior to
approval. She also said most
parts of the plan are to be
reviewed annually and the
entire plan reviewed every
10 years.
“Once the plan is com-
pleted and we have approved
it, it will go out for public
comment before we adopt it
— I just wanted to clear that
up,” Roberts said.
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