A8
LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Lower warns of danger twine has on osprey
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — Charla
Lower is warning residents
of the danger bailing twine
can have on osprey.
Lower, the associate
director for the Wallowol-
ogy Natural History Center
in Joseph, said few people
are aware that twine “lay-
ing all around the county” is
lethal to the bird.
“(There’s) so many sto-
ries of osprey hanging them-
selves, and lots of pictures,”
she said.
Lower led a group April
23 — one day after Earth
Day — that went to various
locations, including farms,
around the county picking
up twine that had built up.
“I was fi nding so much
I made a day of it. A cou-
ple other people continued,
as well,” she said. “A lot of
that twine came from one
particular ranch. I still want
to go out and collect more.
We didn’t get to many of the
roads I wanted to get to.”
She said people aren’t
aware that twine is becom-
Wallowology/Contributed Photo
A photo at Wallowology shows an osprey hanging in bailing twine under its nest.
ing accessible to the osprey,
and even fewer are aware of
the eff ects it has.
“It blows out of the
back of people’s pickups,
and they don’t even realize
it,” she said.
Osprey are drawn to
taking twine for building
nests, something Lower
said hawks and eagles don’t
do.
“What I’m not sure
about is if they are attracted
to the bright colors,” she
said. “We’re trying to think
of solutions to try and pre-
vent this from happening.
Things we’re going to look
into are if it was natural
colors instead of bright col-
ors, would they not see it
as easily. Right now (twine
is often) bright blue and
bright pink.”
She said the birds will
get a talon stuck in the
twine that is at the bot-
tom of the nest and end up
unable to get loose from it.
“We have a picture here
at Wallowology of one
hanging below its nest. It’s
usually caught in the talon,
and they get hung upside
down and die,” she said.
Lower said while out
picking up twine April 23,
she came across a woman
walking and told her about
the danger. That woman
said she had not known
about the danger, and said
she would start picking up
twine and disposing of it
while on her walks.
“If they are aware of that
they might be willing to
throw (it) away. It’s another
form of plastic,” she said.
Lower knows many
farmers and ranchers col-
lect bailing twine and use it
on fences and gates because
of its durability. She said a
simple solution for farm-
ers and ranchers could be
for them to cover it up so
the osprey don’t see it and
endanger themselves.
“If they’re not going to
use it, just throw it away,”
she said.
Recycling the twine is
much more of a challenge,
she said, because the near-
est place to recycle it is
in Portland. She advised
against other possible dis-
posal methods.
“It wouldn’t be good to
burn it. I know people do
burn their plastic here, but
it’s not the best thing for the
environment or neighbors,”
she said. “It is better to
throw it in the dumpster.”
While only about one
or two osprey a year die in
Wallowa County because
of getting caught in twine,
she said that is a signifi cant
amount of the roughly eight
to 10 pairs of the bird in the
county.
“Maybe we can save the
lives of a couple osprey,”
she said. “It seems like
every year in the county we
have one or two die, and we
don’t have many.”
Wallowa County youths get ideas for future at career fair
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Wal-
lowa County took another
step toward helping its
young people prepare for
the working world Wednes-
day, April 27, at the annual
Career Fair it holds at the
Cloverleaf Hall.
“It’s a collaborative eff ort
between the county, the
Education Service District
and Wallowa Resources and
a lot of interested parties,”
said Lindsay Miller, youth
education manager for Wal-
lowa Resources.
She and Jori Journigan,
career connected learning
coordinator for the Wal-
lowa County Education Ser-
vice District, were two of the
main organizers of the event.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Maverick Gilbert of Enterprise, left, visits with Zak Bradshaw,
hiring and talent manager for Viridian Management, during
the Career Fair held Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the
Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise. Bradshaw was explaining to
Gilbert the career opportunities Viridian off ers.
“It was defi nitely a suc-
cess. More people than I
even hoped were able to
come and set up,” Journigan
said. “Their displays were
really fun. … I saw a lot of
good conversations happen-
ing between students and
employers and it met our
goal of exposing students to
diff erent career options and
local employers. That was
important.”
She said this was the fi rst
such career fair in recent
memory.
“It was part of a set of
career learning or develop-
ment initiatives we’re put-
ting in place,” she said. “We
have a job shadow program
and an internship program
to implement more ways to
get students to think about
their futures and get stu-
dents prepared for careers
after high school.”
More than 30 poten-
tial employers and repre-
sentatives of institutions of
higher learning had tables
set up in the hall manned by
more than 50 adults to dis-
cuss career opportunities
with an estimated 100-plus
high school students from
throughout the county.
Brooke Pace, commu-
nications and public rela-
tions director for Wallowa
Memorial Hospital, was
pleased with the response
she got from some of the
youths she visited with.
“It was great. People
don’t always know what’s
available at the hospital,”
Pace said. “They think you
have to be a doctor or a
nurse, but that isn’t so.”
The potential employers
were divided into 10 cate-
gories: agriculture, food and
natural resources; architec-
ture and construction, the
arts, A/V technology and
communications; business
management and admin-
istration; fi nance; health
science; hospitality and
tourism; human services;
information
technology;
and manufacturing.
Representatives
from
colleges and universities
also were there, including
Eastern Oregon University,
the University of Idaho,
Lewis-Clark State College,
Blue Mountain Community
College and Treasure Valley
Community College.
The
students
came
in groups from the var-
ious high schools in the
county, and were mostly
sophomores and juniors,
Journigan said, although
there were some seniors and
GED candidates.
“I was amazed at the
turnout today,” Journigan
said. “It was awesome.”
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