LOCAL A2
LOCAL A5
OUTDOORS B1
State gold panning
champions named
Harney County elk
poachers sentenced
Biking and angling
in the Blues
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • OUTDOORS & REC
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2022 • $1.50
Plan to
protect city
watershed
from fire
proceeds
QUICK HITS
—————
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to Herald
subscriber Dennis Thacker of
Baker City.
BRIEFING
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Connor Chastain gets
$1,300 scholarship
Connor Chastain, a 2022
graduate of Baker High School,
has received a $1,300 schol-
arship from Folds of Honor,
which awards scholarships to
the children of former service
members. Connor’s dad, Wayne
Chastain, twice served in Iraq
as a member of the National
Guard. Connor plans to attend
Baker Technical Institute and
earn his certifi cation in welding.
Open house set for Aug. 17
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Clayton Franke/Baker City Herald
Biologist to talk about
beavers, grazing, water
supplies Aug. 3
Ron and Ann Rowan have been named the Fair
Family of the Year for 2022. The Baker County
Fair is set for Aug. 7-13.
Fondness
Carol Evans, a retired biolo-
gist from the Bureau of Land
Management, will talk about
livestock grazing management,
and how it can attract beavers
to streams, during a free pre-
sentation Aug. 3 at the Baker
County Library, 2400 Resort St.
The presentation, sponsored by
the Powder Basin Watershed
Council, will start at 6 p.m.
Evans’ presentation, “How to
Move Mountains and Make it
Rain!,” discusses projects in Ne-
vada in which grazing changes
spurred the growth of stream
side plants, which led beavers
to colonize the areas and, by
building dams and storing wa-
ter, increased water supply.
Ron and
Ann Rowan
chosen
as Baker
County Fair
Family of
the Year
88/45
Sunny
Sunday
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Sunny
Monday
93/51
Sunny
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
FAIR
See Watershed / A3
WEATHER
—————
Today
for the
Work could begin about a year from now
on the biggest project in more than half a
century designed to protect Baker City’s
water supply by reducing the risk of wildfire
in the city’s densely forested watershed.
“This is a very important project for the
people of Baker City,” said Kendall Cikanek,
ranger for the Wallowa-Whitman National
Forest’s Whitman District.
The Wallowa-Whitman manages most
of the city’s 10,000-acre watershed on the
east slopes of the Elkhorn Mountains west
of town.
The watershed, although public land,
is generally closed to public entry to pro-
tect water quality. The city allows big game
hunting, with a permit, when the fire dan-
ger isn’t high, and one road, to Marble
Creek Pass, runs through the watershed
and is open to the public.
On Thursday, July 21 the Wallowa-Whit-
man released what’s known as a “scoping
letter” for the Baker City Watershed Fuels
Management Project.
The scoping letter, along with multiple
maps, is available online at s.usda.gov/pro-
ject/?project=58480.
The Wallowa-Whitman has also sched-
uled a public open house for Aug. 17 at the
Events Center, 2600 East St. in Baker City.
BY CLAYTON FRANKE
cfranke@bakercityherald.com
I
n 1978, Ron Rowan had a choice.
As a student at the University
of Idaho, he went to the Idaho
extension service looking for a
summer internship. There was no
shortage of options — he was told
he could spend the summer in any
of Idaho’s 44 counties. He just had to
choose one.
But he couldn’t. His sights were
elsewhere.
“I want to go to Baker City, Oregon,”
he said at the time.
He was successful in convincing the extension
agent in Baker, Gus Markgraf, to let him spend
the summer across the state border, even though
out-of-state hires were atypical.
Ron spent that summer helping out with the
Baker County Fair. He liked it so much he came
back the following summer to work on a farm.
“I just liked the area, and that first year I met
all the people that were involved with the fair,
and I just loved the fair here,” Ron said. “There’s
just so many great people.”
Over four decades later, things have come full
circle: Ron, who has served as chairman of the
Baker County Fair Board for 20 years, and his
wife, Ann, were named
the Baker County Fair
Family of the Year for
2022.
And Markgraf is
now the Rowans’
neighbor at their 40-
acre property on the
east side of Baker Val-
ley.
After the couple
met and married in
Boise, they moved to
Baker City in 1997.
Ron, whose father was
a veterinarian, grew
up in Weiser, Idaho,
while Ann grew up in
Boise. Her parents had
a small cattle pasture,
but she admits she
“had no idea what the
country was like” be-
fore the couple moved
— Ann Rowan
to Baker.
But her love for
the fair grew when the couple’s children got in-
volved.
Katie, now 33, and Brent, 31, both participated
in the 4-H program every year they were eligi-
ble until they graduated from high school. It was
around the time Katie and Brent started the pro-
gram that Ron joined the fair board.
“They were super enthusiastic,” Ann, a school-
teacher of 41 years, 24 of those in Baker City,
said of her children.
“There are
a lot of
people who
haven’t been
recognized
yet that do
a lot for the
fair. It takes
a village
to put it on
and make it
successful.”
See Rowans / A6
County will
take psilocybin
ban to voters
BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Baker County Commissioners on
Wednesday, July 20 unanimously approved
the first reading of an ordinance that will
ask county voters this November whether
they want to ban psilocybin manufacturing
and service centers in unincorporated parts
of the county.
Psilocybin is the substance in “magic
mushrooms” that produces hallucinogenic
effects.
Research has shown that psilocybin can
treat psychological trauma, addiction and
other ailments.
In November 2020, Oregon voters ap-
proved Measure 109, which legalizes the
use of psilocybin, in designated “service
centers” only, for people 21 and over. The
measure, which failed in Baker County by a
margin of 64% to 36%, also allows the pro-
duction and processing of psilocybin-con-
taining mushrooms.
The measure does not allow the retail
sale of the product.
The new law allows cities and counties
to put on the ballot ordinances that either
ban psilocybin businesses or set a two-year
moratorium on them.
See Psilocybin / A3
Couple angry about sexual content during teen training
County officials apologize
for July 7 presentation
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A Baker City couple is consider-
ing filing a civil lawsuit against Baker
County after their 16-year-old daugh-
ter, who has a learning disability, heard
what she described as explicit sexual ed-
ucation topics during what was listed as
TODAY
Issue 31
12 pages
a personal hygiene training as part of a
work program for teenagers.
The instructor for the July 7 class
was an employee of the Baker County
Health Department.
That employee no longer works for
the department, but her resignation
was submitted well before the class and
is “totally unrelated” to the incident
that angered parents Doreneia and
Bryan Karolski, said Mark Bennett, a
Baker County commissioner.
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“We’re truly sorry that it happened,”
Bennett said on Wednesday, July 20.
“We believe strongly that reproductive
education is the province of the parent.
I want the community to know this is a
one-off event. The health department
cares about the community and re-
spects parental rights.”
Bennett, whose duties as a commis-
sioner include overseeing the health de-
partment, said he is willing to talk with any
student who attended the presentation, or
Jayson Jacoby ..................A4
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their parents, to hear their concerns.
Bennett said he and Meghan
Chancey, administrator for the health
department, met on Wednesday after-
noon with Bryan Karolski.
Karolski said he appreciates that
county officials accepted responsibility
for the episode, but he’s concerned that
no one will be held accountable, since
the employee who made the presenta-
tion is no longer a county employee.
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See Training / A3
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