A8
LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Commissioners OK funding for public land projects
Work to be
funded with SRS
Act money
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
Wallowa County Board of
Commissioners approved
$588,675 worth of projects
on public lands Wednesday,
Aug. 3, with Title II money
received through the federal
Secure Rural Schools Act.
The act provides critical
funding for schools, roads
and other municipal services
to more than 700 counties
across the U.S. and Puerto
Rico, funding that comes
mostly from public lands.
Commission
Chair-
woman Susan Roberts
explained the three parts
of the act. She said that
Title I is money that comes
directly into the county,
75% of which goes to the
road department and 25%
goes to schools. Title II is
money that goes to proj-
ects on public lands. Title III
can be used for such things
as the sheriff’s office and
work they do on the national
forests.
“Years ago when this first
came about, Title III was
so hard to deal with, it was
just onerous and so Wallowa
County chose at that time
not to do Title III, so all of
our money is split between
Title I and II,” Roberts said.
Each year, the county
will have to decide on how
to divide money up. That
would be affected by a hear-
ing later that morning on the
Road Service District vot-
ers will be asked to create in
November.
“If folks pass that, we
will be able to separate that
money … this way, the
money goes to the Educa-
tion Service District and
the Road District, not the
county,” Roberts said. “They
won’t do their formula any-
more and our PILT (pay-
ment in lieu of taxes) money
should increase for the next
couple of years and then
we’ll see after that, because
none of it is set in stone.”
Katy Nesbitt, the county’s
director of natural resources
and economic development,
discussed the process with
meaning we’ve allocated out
the commissioners.
“The county has tradi- money to the projects that
tionally run these projects … have been ranked so there’s
and we vet them … and then a zero-dollar amount,” she
give recommenda-
said. “We had dis-
cussed
keeping
tions to the commis-
sioners,” she said.
some back for next
“This year, the For-
time and decided not
est Service came out
to do that.”
with the announce-
Nesbitt
men-
tioned the vetting
ment at a differ-
ent time of year and
process that happens
Hillock
gave us too short a
prior to it going to
time period to get all
the commissioners.
the projects queued
“When
some-
thing goes through
up for the tech com-
mittee, but the stand-
the RAC — the RAC
ing committee was
being the Regional
able to look at all
Advisory Commit-
tee which Commis-
the projects on the
sioner (Todd) Nash
Wallowa-Whitman
Nash
is a part of,” Roberts
(National
Forest)
interjected.
“That
except for two.”
Umatilla
forest
Nesbitt said proj-
ects aren’t ranked
weed piece we have
because they came
always done, so that
in after the standing
is something to indi-
cate to our mem-
committee met. One
bers that we would
project is for weed
like to see that move
control in the Uma-
tilla National Forest,
Roberts
forward if it comes
Nesbitt said.
through the RAC.”
“What we have done
Nesbitt said there should
is zeroed out the (approx- be a surplus on requests
imately) $588,000 for the made for the Umatilla
Wallowa-Whitman
side, National Forest.
“On the Umatilla side,
there’s about $85,000 to
spend and we only have
an application for about
$19,000,” Nesbitt said.
Roberts was encouraged
by that news.
Referring to the weed
control project in the Wen-
aha Wilderness and Grand
Ronde River area, Roberts
said she hopes that although
it was not ranked because it
was submitted late, “I would
encourage our board mem-
bers on the RAC to see if
they can husband through
out of some of the remain-
ing money that was left for
the Umatilla.”
Of the projects submitted,
nine received a No. 1 prior-
ity ranking. The projects and
their Title II requests are:
• Miller/Tyee Fence 2:
$47,700.
• Buck Creek Allot-
ment-Sled fence: $48,972.
• Wallowa County Can-
yonlands noxious weed
management: $51,092.
• Lower Jo riparian moni-
toring: $27,560.
• Youth Trails Conserva-
tion Corps: $30,000.
• Eagle Cap/Hells Can-
yon volunteer trail mainte-
nance: $29,700.
• Dougherty Campground
well locate survey: $15,900.
• Tepee Elk Allotment,
Elk Pasture, Peavine Ripar-
ian Exclosure: $55,544.
• Horse Creek/Cache
Creek roads: $61,525.
Receiving a No. 2 rank-
ing with their requests are:
• Hells Canyon mainte-
nance and weed treatment:
$27,805.
• Aspen Exclosure main-
tenance: $20,145.
• Swamp Creek-Bennet
Pasture fence: $44,461.
Receiving a No. 3 rank-
ing with its request is:
• The cleaning of 22 cat-
tle guards: $13,992.
The three items not
ranked because they were
submitted after the Forest
Service’s newer deadline
and their requests were:
• Road drainage: $84,279.
• Wallowa Resources youth
crew: $30,000.
• Wenaha Wilderness/
Grande Ronde River nox-
ious weed control: $28,514.
More complete descrip-
tions of each project is avail-
able at the courthouse.
Oregon Department of Forestry withdraws fire-risk map
County objected
to method used
to create it
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Action
to automatically appeal the
listing of any property in
Wallowa County as having
a “high” or “extreme” risk
of fire danger by the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry
seems to have been heard in
Salem.
On Aug. 3, the Board of
Commissioners decided that
any properties designated as
having high or extreme fire
risk would be automatically
appealed in hopes the ODF
would reconsider.
“There’s a lot of concern
over the fire maps that have
been put out and the way
they were developed,” Com-
missioner Todd Nash said.
“There’s concern that peo-
ple have been put in ‘high’
or ‘extreme’ categories and
wrongfully so and, in many
cases, susceptible to fires.”
Nash said Aug. 8 that it
appears the actions of Wal-
lowa County and some legis-
lators prompted the state for-
ester to re-do the fire risk map
posted online on June 30.
Cal Mukumoto, Oregon
state forester and director of
the ODF, issued a statement
the day after the commission-
ers’ action. In the statement,
Mukumoto said, “In response
to input received since post-
ing, we have decided to
remove the current iteration
of the wildfire risk map from
the Oregon Explorer and
withdraw the notices sent.
We will immediately begin
working with Oregon State
University on some refine-
ments to improve the accu-
racy of risk classification
assignments based on what
we’ve heard from property
owners thus far.”
Mukumoto also said the
appeals process, which gave
landowners until Sept. 21
to appeal their designation,
would “become moot.” Any
appeals that have been filed
will be reviewed, the forester
said.
Nash said Aug. 8 that he
is unaware of any Wallowa
County landowners who have
appealed the designation.
He said Aug. 3 that the
random way in which the
ODF came up with the risk
designation could have many
unintended consequences.
He said it opens landown-
ers to fines from the state fire
marshal, puts insurance com-
panies on a heightened alert
and those companies — in
some cases — raise rates or
cancel policies.
Nash was particularly crit-
ical of the methodology by
which the fire maps were cre-
ated to support Senate Bill
762. He said ODF contracted
with OSU to create the maps,
which used satellite imagery
to map areas rather than send-
ing out people to see the land
firsthand.
“The map, itself, where
people have houses in mid-
dle of irrigated pasture and
because it’s all one tax lot, it’s
all lumped together,” he said.
During last week’s meet-
ing, Nash suggested land-
owners visit the ODF website
where they can type in their
address to see how their prop-
erty is rated.
He said a more on-the-
ground approach should have
been used and the current
maps should be withdrawn
and reconfigured.
The commissioner said
he does not know if OSU
will actually send out indi-
viduals to view the sites of
potential high or extreme risk
designations.
“We’ll find out, won’t
we?” he said.
Nash remains concerned
for the risk of fire in the
county, but has faith in land-
owners to mitigate that risk,
such as with the Firewise
Communities that have been
created here.
“Our state doesn’t think
we have common sense …
they’re going to map it out
from a satellite and declare
what category you’re in,” he
said. “This is typical of the
current dynamic of the leg-
islative makeup. The impact
it has is 100% on rural
communities.”
Commission
Chair-
woman Susan Roberts
asked Nash for a motion on
the matter and he moved
that the county automat-
ically appeal any “high”
or “extreme” designa-
tions by the state, a motion
approved unanimously.
G RAIN
WALLOWA COUNTY
G ROWERS
IMPORTANT NOTICE
To: Wallowa County Grain Grower True Value Customers
I would like to inform all of our customers, that due to a labor shortage
with-in the True Value Store, we have decided to close the store for
business on Sundays until further notice.
This is a necessary step to help keep our current employees from
burning out. Short staff and more days worked for each of them has
been the trend for a long period. This will go into effect on Sunday
August 21st 2022. We apologize for this inconvenience and hope
that the labor pool will get better in the future.
Thank you for your understanding.
Stacy Beckman
Stacy J Beckman
General Manager
SAVE THE DATE
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