Business AgLife
B
Thursday, January 21, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Big trees under the ax
Union County
Chamber
updates its image
The Observer
EO Media Group, File
The Strawberry Mountains in the Malheur National Forest in Grant County. The forest is one of the six national forests
across Eastern Oregon and Southeast Washington where the Trump administration is overturning a decades-old ban
on logging large trees.
Forest Service ends 21-inch logging ban in Eastern Oregon
By GEORGE PLAVEN
What they said
Capital Press
PORTLAND — The
Trump administration is
removing a decades-old
ban on logging large trees
in six national forests
across Eastern Oregon and
Southeast Washington.
U.S. Department of
Agriculture Undersecre-
tary James Hubbard signed
off on the decision on
Friday, Jan. 15, amending
the rule that prohibits cut-
ting down any trees larger
than 21 inches in diameter.
The 21-inch harvest
rule is part of a broader
suite of management stan-
dards, known as the East-
side Screens, adopted
in 1995 to protect wild-
life habitat and water
quality on roughly 10 mil-
lion acres of federal land
in the Umatilla, Wal-
lowa-Whitman, Malheur,
Ochoco, Deschutes and
Fremont-Winema national
forests.
Rather than a blanket
restriction on logging
large trees, the U.S. Forest
Service will replace the
21-inch rule with a more
flexible guideline that gen-
erally calls for protecting
old-growth forests, but
allows land managers to
make exceptions if they
meet the agency’s long-
term restoration goals.
Under the decision,
“old trees” are defined
“This will help us to better
manage forests for wildfires
and other disturbances, and
to protect old trees that are
hard to replace once lost.”
“This amendment would result
in controversial, destructive,
and widespread logging of
large and old trees across the
region.”
— Glenn Casamassa, Pacific Northwest
Regional Forester
— From a letter signed by Oregon Wild and 32
other organizations
UNION COUNTY
— The Union County
Chamber of Commerce
pulled the curtain back
on its revamped image
with a press release ear-
lier this week, featuring a
new logo and an updated
website.
“We wanted to develop
a style truly capturing
the essence of La Grande
and Union County —
something timeless and
modern, but something
meaningful and charac-
terizing a rich historic
past,” Suzannah Moore-
Hemann, the chamber’s
executive director, said in
a press release
The new logo, which
resembles a postmark,
represents Union County’s
“worthiness” as a desti-
nation while representing
the chamber’s role in sup-
porting local businesses,
the release stated.
Over the past two
years, Moore-Hemann and
office coordinator Sandra
Patterson have overseen
the chamber’s transfor-
mation into a “modern-
ized, sleek, professional
image and as a living
organization,” according
to the press release. The
new style and branding
project was a concerted
effort between the Union
County Tourism Pro-
motion Advisory Com-
mittee, the chamber’s
board of directors and
staff, chamber members
throughout Union County
and two companies —
Portland-based Worthy
Marketing and Distill Cre-
ative Studio out of Palo
Alto, California.
The update and revamp
to the style and represen-
tation is only a small piece
of the larger picture.
“We’re updating how
we do business,” Moore-
Hemann continued. “How
we can best serve the busi-
ness environment, our
member businesses; how
See, Chamber/Page 3B
Grande Ronde Hospital
and Clinics board has
new chair, members
The Observer
as at least 150 years, and
“large trees” are defined
as 30 inches in diameter
for grand fir and white fir,
and 21 inches for any other
species.
“This will help us to
better manage forests for
wildfires and other dis-
turbances, and to pro-
tect old trees that are
hard to replace once lost,”
said Pacific Northwest
Regional Forester Glenn
Casamassa.
Emily Platt, project
coordinator for the Forest
Service, said while it may
seem counterintuitive, log-
ging certain types of large
trees can actually improve
forest health and boost the
number of old, large trees
on the landscape.
Past management activi-
ties and increased fire sup-
pression have combined
to leave the forests more
densely stocked than ever,
Platt explained, which
in turn has made them
increasingly vulnerable
to damage from insects,
disease and catastrophic
wildfires.
Since 2001, old-growth
trees have decreased in the
six forests by about 8%,
according to a Forest Ser-
vice analysis.
Platt said the issue is
exacerbated by larger,
younger and more
shade-tolerant species,
such as grand fir and white
fir, that are competing for
water and nutrients with
older, fire-resilient species,
such ponderosa pine and
western larch.
If land managers can
remove problematic spe-
cies where appropriate,
Platt said it would help
protect more desirable old-
growth trees in the future.
“It just gives the man-
ager more options when
they’re considering what
the right thing to do is out
there,” she said.
Shane Jeffries, forest
supervisor on the Ochoco
National Forest, said
the agency has already
approved 24 project-level
exceptions to the 21-inch
rule since the Eastside
Screens were adopted.
By establishing a guide-
line, he said it removes the
need for that site-specific
process in the future.
“This is how we think
we’ll be able to main-
tain larger and older trees
over time, by doing this
important work,” Jeffries
said.
Jeffries and Platt said
the Forest Service plans to
set up a regional adaptive
management work group,
with community members
that will help oversee how
See, Trees/Page 3B
LA GRANDE — Teri
Champlin of La Grande
is the new chair of the
Grande Ronde Hospital
and Clinics Board of
Trustees.
The board
confirmed
Champlin as
the chair at
its December
2020 meeting,
Champlin the hospital
announced
recently in a press release.
She joined the board in
January 2014 and served
as vice-chair for two years
and as secretary for two
years before assuming the
chair position in January.
During her tenure
on the board, Champlin
also served on numerous
hospital committees,
including committees for
contract and compensa-
tion committee, finance
and governance. In addi-
tion, she served as the
board representative on
the Grande Ronde Hos-
pital and Clinics Founda-
tion Board of Directors
since 2017.
Champlin is an
alumnus of Eastern
Oregon University, where
she earned a bachelor of
science degree in busi-
ness before beginning
her career at the engi-
neering firm of Anderson
Perry & Associates Inc.
She also worked as the
director of business devel-
opment for two start-up
telephone companies in
Eastern Oregon. Champlin
has been in the mortgage
industry for more than 20
years and is the branch
manager at Fairway Mort-
gage in La Grande.
Champlin is a life-long
resident of Union County
See, GRH/Page 3B
Wallowa County’s only lumberyard under new owners
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
IF YOU GO
JOSEPH — After oper-
ating 1917 Lumber for 44
of its nearly 104 years in
business, Jim and Terri
Russell sold Wallowa
County’s only lumberyard
to Kevin and Nancy Jo
Coddington as of Jan. 1.
In a recent interview,
Jim Russell explained why
he decided to sell after so
long.
“Because I’m old and
he wanted it,” he said,
pointing to Jim Cod-
dington. “I’m 72 years
old. I’ve been here for
44 years, and I think it’s
probably time.”
Coddington said finding
the lumberyard for sale
helped him and his family
achieve a life’s goal.
“I told people a couple
of years ago, we’d been
vacationing out here for
several years and we
loved it so much, if we
could find a way to make
a living, we’d move out
here,” he said.
The Coddingtons had
been living and working
in Eugene until about
three months ago. Both
of them had grown up
1917 Lumber is at 301 N. Main St. in Joseph. The business is
open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday
8 a.m. to noon. For more information, call 541-432-1917 or visit
its website.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
“Don’t put your finger in there,” Jim Russell warns Kevin Coddington at 1917 Lumber in
Joseph. Russell, who has owned the county’s only lumber yard since 1976, recently sold
the business to Coddington.
in small towns and and
had not found what they
wanted for their family in
the city. The Coddingtons
have four children, ages
2-12.
“We wanted to get out
of Eugene and raise our
kids in a small town,”
Coddington said. “After a
lot of prayer and discern-
ment, we ended up out
here. Like I said, I’ve told
people if I could make a
living here, I’d do it and
someone said we ought to
look at the lumberyard;
it’s for sale, the guy’s been
doing it for a lot of years
and he might want to sell.
So I gave Jim a phone call
and after a bit of work and
figuring on both parts, we
made it work.”
Coddington said his
wife’s relatives, Brad
and Missy Farmer, were
a major component in
making it happen.
“Really, the force
behind it was my wife’s
aunt and uncle — they
had bought a house here
and might retire here next
year — and he wanted to
get involved in a business
locally,” Coddington said.
“He’s got sawdust in his
blood and been working in
lumberyards for 43 years.
… His idea of retirement
was to buy a lumberyard.”
The Farmers are part-
nering with the Codding-
tons financially in the
Joseph venture and once
they move here, they’ll
help operate it, Cod-
dington said.
But for now, he’s still
learning the business.
“Jim was very accom-
modating and helped me
through the process,”
Coddington said. “Now
he’s holding my hand for
another three months. I’m
going to the Jim Russell
College of Lumber for the
next three months.”
“We’ll see what kind of
a teacher I am,” Russell
said. “He’s a pretty good
student so far.”
“I’m doing my best,”
Coddington said.
He spoke highly both
of the lumberyard and the
community in which it
operates.
“I’ve had a very warm
reception. Everyone’s
been very welcoming,”
he said. “Before the deal
was done with Jim, I had
a hard time explaining
exactly why I was here. Of
course, everyone’s curious
when you’re new in town.
I left a wonderful job and
sold a wonderful house
and people were won-
dering what you’re doing.”
He plans to keep things
much as they’ve been,
with the same staff and
same business practices.
See, Lumber/Page 3B