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THE WEEK
IN
PHOTOS
The Back Page,
Page , A10
137th Year, No. 11
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Letter surfaces of accusation by Joseph councilor
Merchant denies claim
made by Bingham,
wants her removed
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Debbie
Lind
Wallowa
Retired librarian
now into
photography
ENTERPRISE — Now retired, Debbie
Lind, of Wallowa, focuses on her photog-
raphy these days.
Until a year ago, she was librarian at
the Wallowa Public Library where she
worked for 13 years. She’s lived in the
county since 1991 and in Wallowa since
1994.
But now she’s more into
photographs.
“Of course, I photograph Wallowa
County in all its beauty,” she said. “But I
do fi sh, fl owers, animals — I don’t stick
with just one genre, and even do people
sometimes.”
Debbie and husband, Ken, have a
son and a daughter who were raised
in Wallowa, and now live outside the
county. They have four grandchildren by
their daughter.
She recently shared her thoughts
about living in Wallowa County.
JOSEPH — The dysfunction
in Joseph City Hall continues.
Another executive session
to deal with complaints against
city offi cials and/or employees
is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday,
June 28 at the Joseph Community
Events Center. The executive ses-
sion will be followed by an open
session to make any decisions
desired by the City Council.
The most recent complaint
aired was a letter shared with
the Chieftain on June 15 by
local businessman Gary Beth-
scheider. The Feb. 21 letter states
that Councilor Kathy Bingham
accused Bethscheider of making
an obscene gesture at her during
a February council meeting.
“This past week, I was
approached by Mayor (Belinda)
Buswell, who made me aware
that Kathy Bingham had accused
me of ‘fl ipping her off ’ at the last
City Council meeting,” Beth-
scheider’s letter states. “Kathy
made these false claims to (then)
city Administrator Larry Braden
days after the City Council meet-
ing. In turn, Larry asked Mayor
Buswell to inquire further with
me about this accusation.”
In his letter, Bethscheider
denied Bingham’s accusation and
repeated the denial in an inter-
view with the Chieftain last week.
In the letter, he said there were
three other people with the same
line of sight as Bingham who said
they didn’t see any such action.
In his letter, Bethscheider said
he believes such a “false accu-
sation” by Bingham is “abso-
lutely unacceptable” and that
Bingham should be removed
from the council. He said such
an accusation could damage his
reputation both as a person and
as a businessman.
Bethscheider said in a June
18 email he has yet to hear from
the city on his complaint against
Bingham other than that the city
is trying to investigate in in the
“proper manner.”
Bingham declined to comment
on the issue. When contacted by
phone on June 16, Bingham hung
up. She did not respond to other
emails and phone calls.
Buswell has not responded to
emails and phone messages.
Following a June 3 executive
session, Pro-Tem Administrator/
Recorder Brock Eckstein said he
See Letter, Page A7
A MEDLEY OF MUSTANGS
What’s your favorite thing about
Wallowa County?
I like the no-rush, where there’s no
tall buildings. The “tall buildings” I refer to
are our mountains, and they’re beautiful.
You can really have a comfort zone here
with mountains instead of tall buildings.
What fun plans do you have in
the county for this summer?
We’re going to see our children;
they’re coming here for the Fourth of
July. We haven’t seen them since the
pandemic. That’ll be fun. That’s our big
treat for the summer so far.
What are your thoughts on the
beginning of fi re season?
It’s scary. We live near Green Hill and
fi re is something we’re concerned about.
We live on what we call “Papa Bear’s For-
est,” that my husband maintains.
How has the COVID-19
pandemic aff ected you?
I’m a social person. I like to hug and
I like to meet people. For me, it’s been
hard, I feel trapped sometimes. I’m glad
to not have to wear masks. We got our
shots and we feel we’ve done our part to
stave off the pandemic.
What have you learned from
living in Wallowa County?
The people who become your
friends, like when you go into a store,
most likely you’re going to fi nd someone
in there who you know and is friendly.
You can catch up on the day and how
their life has been. It’s not a sterile com-
munity. Also, we’ve adapted. If you want
to buy a tomato, you’ve got to plan ahead
and go to the store before it closes.
What’s your advice for people
who are thinking about moving
here?
Try not to change the atmosphere of
our county too much and what brought
you here. Accept our atmosphere for why
you came here.
— Bill Bradshaw,
Wallowa County Chieftain
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Dawn Medley reins in “Girlfriend,” Medley’s wildest mare at Medley’s Mustangs, the ranch she runs in the Imnaha Canyon with her husband,
Eddy Medley, on Thursday, June 10, 2021. Girlfriend was only a couple of weeks out of the wild. The Medleys train wild horses and adopt them
out to new owners.
Horse ranch in Imnaha rescues the overpopulated mustangs
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
MNAHA CANYON — It’s
not the average horse that
you’ll fi nd at Dawn and
Eddy Medley’s ranch in the
Imnaha Canyon. In fact, it
wasn’t so long ago many
of the horses were running
wild as mustangs through-
out the West.
“I love doing this because they
(the mustangs) have no choice,”
says Dawn Medley, co-owner of
Medley’s Mustangs. “They lost
their families, and that’s what
these horses are all about — fam-
ily. I want to be able to connect
them to a ‘family’ and to love
them for as long as they live.”
Medley’s Mustangs is an
operation just downriver from
Imnaha that helps train and adopt
out mustangs gathered from the
overpopulated herds descended
from once-domesticated horses
brought to the New World by the
Spanish. They’ve since reverted
from their domesticated state to
become feral animals — and their
numbers are growing like crazy.
“The herds can double in four
to fi ve years if not managed prop-
erly,” Dawn says. “You could
have 1,000-1,200 horses where
they say you could only man-
age 150-250 horses. Horses eat
(available forage) straight down
to the ground, unlike cows, where
they’ll leave some of the grass.
(Horses) are pretty hard on the
ground.”
I
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
By nature skittish animals, horses often are uncomfortable having
their heads and faces touched. Dawn Medley demonstrates how
4-year-old CoCo has been gentled to the point she can pet her
Thursday, June 10, 2021, at Medley’s Mustangs ranch, which she
operates with husband, Eddy Medley, in the Imnaha Canyon.
Roaming largely on land
managed by the federal Bureau
of Land Management, regu-
lar attempts are made to cull the
herds and fi nd owners and train-
ers to take them under the BLM’s
Wild Horse and Burro Program.
The Medleys’ nearly 18-acre
operation is one of those where
they currently have a half-dozen
or so horses.
“We originally started in Sep-
tember of 2018,” Dawn says. “I
became a TIP (Trainer Incen-
tive Program) trainer and we got
our fi rst (mustang) in October,
so through the Bureau of Land
Management, I’m basically a
self-contractor. The BLM part-
ners up with the Mustang Her-
itage Foundation and they help
fund the program throughout the
United States.”
Overpopulation
and slaughter
It’s the rapid growth of the
herds that makes for an issue
involving both the government
and horse lovers.
“They can double in four to
fi ve years,” Dawn says.
For example, she says, at the
Beatys Butte Herd Management
Area near Lakeview the last
gather was in 2015. The BLM
gathered 100 horses, removed 50
and returned 25 mares using fer-
tility control. She adopted one in
2015.
In another herd, 1,500 were
gathered in 2015 and returned
only 100 — 60 studs and 40
mares to the range.
“Now, six years later, they’re
gathering them again,” she says,
though she’s unsure of the herd’s
current numbers.
“There are a lot of horse advo-
cates out there for the wild mus-
tangs, too, who say, ‘Hey, this is
an American heritage, a living
symbol of the historic and pio-
neer spirit of the West.’ But you
really have to look at it as over-
population,” she says. “It’s just
like with people. You have to
manage it somehow or it’s just
going to get out of control. I don’t
want to say I believe in slaughter,
but …”
Dawn said she’s aware of
three horse slaughterhouses in
Canada and fi ve in Mexico. The
last three in the U.S. closed in
2007 under pressure from ani-
mal-rights groups. But was that
the best solution?
“Even the loving horses that
you’ve raised from birth, people
will take quarter horses … and
unfortunately, there’s a bad rap
going on for the (BLM’s Adop-
tion Incentive Program) right
now,” Dawn says.
See Mustangs, Page A7