A8
LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Return of Woodlands and Watersheds a success
By ANN BLOOM
For the Wallowa County
Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — A
crowd of more than 450 peo-
ple, many of them families,
turned out recently for Wal-
lowa Resources 2022 Wood-
lands and Watersheds Festi-
val at the Wallowa County
Fairgrounds.
Wallowa Resources and
the Maxville Heritage Inter-
pretive Center partnered
together to celebrate the
county’s cultural and natural
resources.
Smokey Bear could be
seen greeting children as
some proudly displayed
their catch from the fi shing
pond, sponsored by the Nez
Perce Tribe Fisheries. Many
of the booths featured fam-
ily-friendly activities. The
Woodlands and Watersheds
Festival had been canceled
the last two years due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think the festival sur-
passed our expectations this
year,” festival coordinator
Jeff Costello said. “The last
in-person festival we held
was in 2019, so we weren’t
quite sure what to expect, this
being our fi rst year back in
full swing at the fairgrounds.
But we had 30 exhibitors
from across Wallowa County
and Northeast Oregon. The
general spirit of the day was
one of celebration and old
friends reconnecting. So,
Contributed Photo
The Woodlands and Watersheds Festival returned with in-person activities after the previous
two had been canceled due to the COVID-19 virus.
yeah, I think it was a success-
ful event.”
With warm temperatures
and sunny skies, the event
kicked off with a drumming
and song performance by the
Lighting Creek drum group,
of the Nez Perce Tribe, out
of Lapwai, Idaho. They
were accompanied by speak-
ers Mikailah Thompson and
Aaron Miles, both Nez Perce
tribal members. There were
free hot dogs and a lunch
available from the Maxville
Heritage Center.
Kevin Silagi, the new
director of the Nez Perce
Wallowa Homeland, said it
was great to see so many of
the organizations and agen-
cies that make a positive
impact in our communities
and ecosystems.
The Head Start table
off ered a planting oppor-
tunity with its hens and
chicks succulents.
“Most of the children were
interested in seeing how the
hens and chicks grow,” said
Kris Fraser, head teacher for
Head Start.
She explained to the chil-
dren how they spread by
growing “chicks” from the
“hen.”
“I told one little girl she
could break off the chicks to
share with her friends. She
thought that was cool,” she
said. “One of my past Head
Start parents who had given
me my original plant hap-
pened by and was excited to
see so many from the original
plant.”
The Nez Perce Wallowa
Homeland Project focused
on native demonstrations.
According to Silagi, the
demonstrations
included
games with knuckle bone
dice, a discussion of rounds
and tamalwit and using
stones to grind a staple fi rst
food, qaw (biscuitroot) to
make fl our.
The seasonal round refers
to people moving through the
course of the year to follow
food as it becomes available.
Silagi explained that in the
spring the food include gath-
ering roots in the valleys and
collecting berries in the for-
ests during summer months.
Gathering, fi shing and hunt-
ing practices all center around
managing those resources for
the benefi t of future gener-
ations with the understand-
ing that if you take care of
the land, the land will provide
everything you need, he said.
“This spiritual relationship
to the land is called tamal-
wit, it the natural law that
teaches people how to live,
and the way of holding peo-
ple accountable for the land,”
Silagi said.
At the Building Healthy
Families booth, children
were busy making bird feed-
ers and discussing native
bird species.
“Watershed was a won-
derful way to bring back large
family summer events. We
just enjoyed an amazing day
building community in the
sunshine!” said Maria Weer,
director of Building Healthy
Families.
This was the 18th year
for the watershed festival,
the 14th year of the Maxville
Gathering and the seventh
year of the two organizations
co-hosting the event as the
Woodlands and Watersheds
Festival. Costello said that
with the partnership between
the two organizations Wood-
lands and Watersheds Festi-
val was a better name fi t for
the event.
“(It) better refl ected,
not only the entirety of the
diverse landscapes that sur-
round our local communi-
ties, and to which we are inti-
mately tied, but also the rich
history, heritage and mis-
sion of both organizations,”
Costello said.
“We are so grateful to
Maxville Heritage Inter-
pretive Center and Wal-
lowa Resources for put-
ting together this wonderful
event,” Silagi said.
Costello said the Wood-
lands and Watersheds Festi-
val is an opportunity for resi-
dents and visitors to celebrate
the natural, historic and cul-
tural resources of the area all
while providing a way for
families to engage in learn-
ing, listening and having fun.
Drone regulation proving to be time-consuming process
Public has voiced
concern as rules are
being drawn up
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ENTERPRISE — For
the past 100 years, state
parks in Oregon have been
an attraction to view var-
ious plant life, bodies of
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water and animal species.
However, a newer addi-
tion to state parks is some-
thing
that
Oregonians
couldn’t have foreseen even
a few decades ago: drones
piercing the skies.
There are no regulations
on drone fl ight, takeoff or
landing within state parks.
The parks can only make
airborne regulations during
certain mating seasons.
“When raptors are nest-
ing and doing their breeding,
they don’t allow drones into
the park whatsoever,” said
Ashley O’Toole, a drone
fl ier and the owner of Sky
High Imaging, LLC, a com-
pany that provides drone
imaging services located in
La Grande.
Just because people are
free to fl y drones through
parks, doesn’t mean that they
are free from controversy.
So when a work group
convened by the Ore-
gon Parks and Recreation
Department put together a
proposal for drone regula-
tions in state parks at the end
of 2021 and asked for public
input, it didn’t take long to
receive backlash.
The proposal stated that
drones would be allowed
to take off anywhere unless
otherwise specifi ed. The
vagueness of the law prod-
ded people to ask Chris
Havel, associate director at
the Oregon Parks and Rec-
reation Department, if their
worst fears were possible.
“Either we’re going to
have a cloud of drones over
every park, or a wildlife des-
ert in every park,” he said.
While the backlash was
coming from drone support-
ers and protesters, Havel
noted that most of the wor-
ries came from natural
resource supporters, who
were underrepresented on
the work group.
“Eighty percent of the
concern was from peo-
ple who thought they were
going to hurt birds, hurt
other wildlife and chase off
deer,” Havel said.
While the Havel sees
drone usage as a conten-
tious topic for the parks,
O’Toole believes that the
public has been easing its
concern recently. Even
though people were nervous
when drones were new, he
believes that technological
innovations like GPS, col-
lision warning systems and
the prevalence of drones
have taken the pressure off
the issue.
“I think the general opin-
ion of drones has gone from
not liking them to maybe
just apathetic, not having
an opinion at all really,” he
said.
After
the
criticism,
the Parks and Recreation
Department decided to pause
the rulemaking, look to form
a new work group with more
representation from environ-
mentalists and create a map
and criteria for places where
drones can take off and land
in state parks.
Havel said this rulemak-
ing process has been diffi cult
for a few main reasons, one
being the diff erence in the
landscapes of parks through-
out the state creating issues
for statewide regulations.
“The environment isn’t
the same across the state, the
way people use parks is not
the same across the state, so
why would the rules be the
same across the state?” he
said.
Also, the balancing act of
managing the people’s inter-
ests as well as the safety of
the parks is a struggle with
most park regulations.
“You don’t want to just
slam the door on something
that is a legitimate form of
outdoor recreation,” Havel
said, “but you don’t want
to harm the park or confl ict
with people.”
Even though there is cur-
rently a lot of freedom for
drone owners in state parks,
O’Toole welcomes rules of
this kind so drone pilots can
be more educated on rules.
“If anything it sounds
like this is just going to pro-
vide the clarity that every-
one’s been looking for,”
O’Toole said.
The work group is still
formulating a map and crite-
ria for the parks. Once it is
done, the group will give its
proposal to the agency direc-
tor who will decide if the
rulemaking process should
restart. It is a process not
likely to happen in 2022.
“If they produce some-
thing that is really practical,
useful, protects parks, and
accommodates recreation,”
Havel said, “I would expect
rulemaking could restart in
spring next year.”
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