News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
A3
Sawmill operation coming to Ritter
Landowners
band together
to solve juniper
problem
Blue Mountain Eagle
Color Me Free
Fun Run and Walk
planned Sept. 30
Blue Mountain Eagle
Heart of Grant County’s
fourth annual Color Me
Free Fun Run and Walk
to kick off Domestic Vi-
olence Awareness Month
in October is coming
up.
Registration begins at 9
a.m. with the event start-
ing at 10 a.m. Saturday,
Sept. 30, at the John Day
Industrial Park.
Participants
receive
a white T-shirt and can
walk, run, skip or dance
around the mile-long track
as many times as they
like, visiting color sta-
tions where paint throwers
add bright colors to the
shirts.
Registration is $20 per
person or $40 per family
and is open to all ages.
Free hot dogs and water
will be available.
Proceeds benefit Heart
of Grant County, which
provides services and
support for survivors of
domestic violence and
sexual assault, as well as
educational programs to
promote healthy relation-
ships and a life free from
violence.
For more information
about the Color Me Free
Fun Run and Walk, con-
tact Heart of Grant County
at 541-575-4335.
People in need of assis-
tance can seek immediate
help through the organi-
zation’s 24-hour hotline at
541-620-1342.
Contributed photo/Eric Sines
Caleb Morris, rancher and Ritter Land Management
Team board member, runs the first log through the new
mill in Ritter.
to economic and environmen-
tal problems, and a strong ad-
vocate of the emerging juniper
milling industry. Sustainable
Northwest helped the team tap
into the Western Juniper Indus-
try Fund, created by the state
Legislature to help jump-start
the juniper sawmill industry.
It provided funding for a fea-
sibility study to determine if
the idea of a sawmill in Ritter
would work.
“We knew we had a lot of
juniper, but we weren’t sure
we had enough to keep a mill
going,” said rancher and board
member Caleb Morris. “But the
study showed there’s at least a
20-year supply here, and more
if we expand beyond the Ritter
area.”
Ritter landowner and board
chairwoman Rhonda Kennedy
said that in addition to exam-
ining the quality and quantity
of the juniper supply, the study
also looked at the financial fea-
sibility of a small sawmill oper-
ation in Ritter.
“It showed us how this
Pizza fundraiser benefits hurricane victims
Old West teams
up with Figaro’s
ro’s. Orders and payment
must be placed or dropped off
at Old West’s John Day office
by 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2.
If dropping off at the Prairie
City branch, have orders and
payment in by 4 p.m. Friday,
Sept. 29.
Pizzas will be ready for
pick up from 1:30-5:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 6, at Old West’s
John Day office.
A TTENTION G RANT C OUNTY
V ETERANS :
Did you know there may be VA benefits available for you
as a result of your spouses’ military service?
See your Grant County Veteran Services
Officer today for more information,
located at Grant County Court House.
Katee Hoffman
Call 541-620-8057 for an appointment
06177
Blue Mountain Eagle
Old West Federal Cred-
it Union is teaming up with
Figaro’s Pizza of John Day
for a fundraiser benefiting the
victims of hurricanes Harvey
and Irma.
There will be one size
offered, extra large on orig-
inal crust, with six different
pizzas to choose from. Glu-
ten free is available for an
extra cost. Prices range from
$16-20. For every pizza pur-
chased, $5 is donated. Pizzas
must be paid for at the time of
the order.
Order forms can be picked
up Old West’s John Day and
Prairie City offices and Figa-
Monday - Thursday
7am- 6pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
Mendy Sharpe FNP
Apppointments
available
Raise a voice of Awareness.
Join the Blue
Mountain Eagle as we
connect with local
partners to campaign
for Domestic Violence
Prevention.
October is
Domestic Violence
Awareness Month
We will be donating half of all the proceeds to the
Heart of Grant County for Domestic Violence Awareness
Talk to Kim about pricing and supporting a great cause!
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
www.MyEagleNews.com
06136
Call Kim Today
541-575-0710
kim@bmeagle.com
06162
Eagle file photo
From left, Sena Raschio, Sara Burns, Gage Brandon
and Reitta Wyllie throw chalk and dance during the
Color Me Free Fun Run and Walk at the John Day
Industrial Park last year. The event is set for Sept. 30
this year.
The Ritter Land Manage-
ment Team, a nonprofit group
made up of nearly 30 local
landowners, recently took de-
livery of a portable sawmill
they hope will help rid the Rit-
ter landscape of unwanted juni-
per and provide much-needed
jobs.
Western juniper, although
native to Eastern Oregon, has
become invasive and overtaken
upwards of 9 million acres of
rangelands, using up water in
an already dry landscape, ac-
cording to a press release from
the land management team.
Mature trees can consume
nearly 30 gallons a day, and
crowd out native plants needed
by both wildlife and livestock.
An Oregon State University
study showed that cutting juni-
per quickly restores watersheds
and improves streamflows,
which in turn improves grazing
for cattle and habitat for species
such as the greater sage grouse
and mule deer.
When Ritter landowners
identified the spread of juniper
as one of the greatest threats to
the health and productivity of
their lands, the group began to
wonder if a sawmill might be
the answer.
“Everyone wants to get rid
of juniper, but removal is both
expensive and difficult,” said
Executive Director Patti Hud-
son. “Then once it’s cut and
on the ground, what do you do
with it?”
The group contacted Sus-
tainable Northwest, a nonprofit
working on balanced solutions
could be done and how doing
it could benefit the entire com-
munity,” she said.
Soon after the study was
completed, the team had to
make a decision. The Western
Juniper Fund still had money
to help purchase some of the
needed equipment for the Rit-
ter sawmill, but not enough to
do everything, and the program
was about to end. Oregon Com-
munity Foundation quickly
stepped up to help leverage the
state funds and meet the match
requirement.
“We had to act fast to take
advantage of these funds while
we still could,” said Hudson.
“We decided to take a phased
approach and purchase the mill
and a telehandler to get us start-
ed. It wouldn’t have happened
without the Oregon Commu-
nity Foundation’s commitment
to Eastern Oregon, a lot of hard
work at the state level and all
the help and support Sustain-
able Northwest has provided.”
The Ritter mill expects one
of its major customers to be
Sustainable Northwest Wood,
a for-profit Portland lumber-
yard owned by Sustainable
Northwest where juniper sales
are growing at 50 percent per
year.
“We’re looking forward to
collaborating with RLMT to
sell juniper from the Ritter area.
Our customers will enjoy sup-
porting the group’s rangeland
restoration projects through the
purchase of this lumber,” said
Ryan Temple, president of Sus-
tainable Northwest Wood.
“The market is there. We
have the juniper and the means
to mill it. We’re optimistic we
can make this work,” said Hud-
son.