NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
A3
Jim Kelly named new
chairperson for Oregon
Board of Forestry
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eagle file photo
Elizabeth Kulick from Salem felted her own slippers during a workshop at the Prairie City Fiber Fest in 2020.
Prairie City Fiber Fest overcomes COVID-19
July event looks to
grow from last year
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Organizers of the Prairie
City Fiber Fest look forward
to this year’s festival after see-
ing continued growth despite
the pandemic.
COVID-19’s impact on
events remains ever-present
since the first shutdowns last
March, but the Prairie City
Fiber Fest’s success last year
has organizers hoping to grow
this year.
Taci Philbrook, a director
in charge of vendors, adver-
tising and the scholarship pro-
gram, said they were the only
fiber festival — showcas-
ing producers and vendors of
fibers such as wool — avail-
able in Oregon last year, and
they worked to make sure the
event was safe for participants.
“We fenced off the entire
park, and people were at both
entrances keeping track of the
number of people and pro-
vided masks and hand sani-
tizer,” said Ginger Shive, the
festival director. “This year
the (Grant County Chamber
of Commerce) is going to pro-
vide us with masks, and we
have the sanitizer ready, and
we’re going to set up like we
did last year.”
Philbrook said the amount
of space available for the event
also made it easier to accom-
modate for distancing, which
Eagle file photo
Organizers of the Prairie City
Fiber Fest in 2020 worked hard
to assure the safety of the
community and participants
of the event.
is unique to this festival.
“Our fiber fest covers more
real estate — because we use
the Teen Center, the commu-
nity center and the park —
than any other festival in Ore-
gon,” Philbrook said. “Most
of them are just in one build-
ing, but our event covers a lot
of the city.”
Shive said, if they were
able to pull off the event last
year, they’re confident they
can make it happen again this
year.
Even with unexpected
changes that might come from
COVID-19 mandates, Shive
said organizers are prepared to
make the changes necessary
to keep the event going. Last
year’s event saw changes up
to the week prior to the event,
but Philbrook said the team
adjusted. They are prepared to
make last-minute adjustments
again if it happens this year.
“When the state says you
can have X number of peo-
ple per square feet, we know
how many square feet are in
each location so we’ll make
changes along with the reg-
ulation,” Shive said. “Peo-
ple seem to understand that,
and they are just so kind and
thoughtful. They don’t get
uptight, and they roll with the
punches.”
Philbrook said it’s import-
ant to note that many visitors
at the event are travelers that
are aware of the restrictions
and guidelines.
The festival currently has
23 vendors signed with one
lady bringing fiber from val-
ais blacknose sheep crossed
with Leicester longwool, a
rare fiber to find, according to
Shive.
“I said to my husband
when I saw that application,
‘I know where I’m spending
some money,’” Shive said.
“To get your hands on a fleece
that is rarely available in the
U.S. and have it land in Prairie
City is like two thumbs up.”
Philbrook said a big part of
planning for this year has been
communicating with vendors
through calls or their newslet-
ter to make sure everyone is
on the same page.
A new $1,000 scholarship
is also being awarded, thanks
to the growth seen from last
year’s festival. The schol-
arship is available to a stu-
Wellness kits delivered to local students
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County delivered
wellness last month.
Over 400 local students
in April received kits that
included yoga mats, exer-
cise cards and sunglasses
from Families First and
several other community
organizations.
Katrina Randleas, a family
support specialist with Fam-
ilies First, said Community
Counseling Solutions hosts
the Grant County Teen Health
Fair every spring. However,
Randeas told the Eagle, due
to COVID-19, the organiza-
tion could not host a tradi-
tional, in-person teen fair.
Instead, she said, CCS and
the community organizations
sent wellness kits to the stu-
dents in waves, the first going
out in December before win-
ter break and then another
before spring break.
Randleas said along with
Grant Union High School,
schools in Prairie City, Long
Creek and Dayville received
the kits.
Randleas said that Lisa
Weigum, a substance abuse
coordinator with CCS,
stepped up and “put forth the
effort” to get the kits out to
the students.
She said Weigum worked
“tirelessly” to put the kits
together and ensure they got
out to the students. Randleas
said the teens were grateful
for the kits and had fun with
a scavenger hunt where they
tried their luck at winning a
FitBit.
Randleas said, with gath-
erings in the community can-
celed due to the pandemic,
the students know the com-
munity values them.
“Your community cares
about you,”she said. “We
want to make sure you take
care of yourself. Your mental
and physical health matters.”
Participating
groups
included Oregon State Uni-
versity
Open
Campus,
John Day/Canyon City
Parks and Recreation Dis-
trict, Grant County 4-H
Snap-ED, Advantage Den-
tal, Grant County Health
Department, Blue Moun-
tain Hospital, Heart of Grant
County and Grant/Harney
Court Appointed Special
Advocates.
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can be used for books, tuition
and living expenses.
“The applicants are to be
judged on the basis of their
FFA involvement, scholastic
achievement, essays and a let-
ter of recommendation from
an FFA advisor,” Philbrook
said. The application process
will be open Jan. 1, 2022, to
April 15, 2022.
The two-day festival is
scheduled for July 24-25 with
workshops starting on July 23.
Workshops will cover a vari-
ety of classes: felted vessels,
needle-felted gnomes, hand-
felted slippers, pine needle
basketry, punch needle rug
hooking and more.
Volunteers are also needed
to monitor traffic at the ven-
ues, provide masks, hand out
materials, answer questions
and set up and take down
tables and chairs.
Jim Kelly of Monument
continues his work on the
Oregon Board of Forestry
as the new chairperson.
Oregon Department of
Forestry announced on
April 16 that they wel-
comed new board mem-
bers and Kelly as the chair-
person for the board. Kelly
joined the board in 2018.
Kelly told the Eagle in an
interview on April 28 that
it’s pretty intimidating to
be the new chair because of
the numerous challenges in
the Oregon forests on both
the east and west sides, but
he is ready to make sure the
board fulfills its obligation
to the people of Oregon.
“We’ve always had a lot
of challenges, but with cli-
mate change and the prev-
alence and risk of fires,
there’s a whole lot on our
plate,” Kelly said.
There are three main
responsibilities that ODF
operates: fire suppression,
managing the state forests
and overseeing the rules
that affect private landown-
ers and timber companies
related to harvest and for-
est management, according
to Kelly.
A goal for Kelly as the
chairperson is to make
sure the board provides
the state forester with both
the direction and support
the department needs to be
successful.
Kelly said the Board of
Forestry has been one of
the most contentious of any
state boards for a while due
to past members represent-
ing the industry, landown-
ers or conservation groups.
Moving forward, he wants
to build a board that is trust-
ing of each other and is high
functioning.
“That’s my first goal to
get a group of people work-
ing well together,” Kelly
said. “None
of us are
there with
a job of
represent-
ing a con-
s t i t u e n c y.
Jim Kelly
Our job by
statute is
to represent the people of
Oregon.”
He said the board is cur-
rently overseeing the com-
pletion of a long process to
institute a conservation plan
on the state forests. He said
a habitat conservation plan
is an agreement with the
federal government that can
last 50 or more years. He
said the agreement is a way
to give landowners certainty
going forward, which is big
in the world of forestry.
He said they are also
going to update the forestry
program for Oregon.
“It’s all policy work that
we do here, and the big
change in the last 10 years
has been climate change
and the prevalence of
fires,” Kelly said. “The pri-
orities have shifted some-
what, so we’re going to try
and update with all of that
in mind.”
Kelly and his wife have
lived in Grant County for
almost 22 years, and he
wanted to assure residents
in the county and Eastern
Oregon that they are not
forgotten.
“Often times people
in Eastern Oregon think
they are forgotten, and I
want to assure them that
they’re not,” Kelly said.
“Rest assured that I am
super aware of the need
for thinning projects and
prescribed fires to make
our drier forests health-
ier and protect our com-
munity and hopefully pro-
vide jobs. Grant County
residents should know that
they’ve got people on the
board paying attention to
the important issues here.”
REPORTER
The Blue
Blue Mountain
Mountain
Eagle,
a family-owned
newspaper
in a
The
Eagle,
a family-owned
weekly weekly
newspaper
in a stunningly
stunningly
beautiful
Oregon
community,
seeks
an
energetic,
dedi-
beautiful Oregon community, seeks an energetic, dedicated reporter.
cated reporter.
The
in John
Day, Day,
where
seeing seeing
deer in deer
front in
yards
is normal
The Eagle
Eagle is is located
located
in John
where
front
yards
and
traffic
is
unheard
of,
just
three
hours
from
Bend
and
Pendleton.
is normal and traffic is unheard of, just three hours from Bend and
Surrounded
by scenic forests
and dissected
by mountain
the
Pendleton.
Surrounded
by scenic
forests and
dissected streams,
by mountain
location
offers
year-round
recreational
opportunities,
including
fishing,
streams, the location offers year-round recreational opportunities,
hunting, fishing,
backpacking,
camping,
snowmobiling
and horseback
riding. and
including
hunting,
backpacking,
camping,
snowmobiling
horseback riding.
Despite the picturesque environment, the community is at the center of an
Despite
picturesque
environment,
the community
is at the cen-
evolving the
natural
resource restoration
economy,
which gains statewide
and
ter of an evolving natural
resource
restoration
economy,
which gains
even national attention.
statewide and even national attention.
Despite the
the small-town
small-town charm,
residents
are are
engaged
and and
politically
Despite
charm, the
the
residents
engaged
politi-
active
in local in
and
national
debates, debates,
and hard-hitting
stories are never
hard
cally active
local
and national
and hard-hitting
stories
are to
never
hard to topics
find. include
Ongoing
topics
include
state and
federal
find.
Ongoing
state
and federal
policies,
forest
health, policies,
logging,
forest lands
health,
logging,
water supply,
public
grazing,
water public
supply, lands
wildlife grazing,
habitat improvements
and wildlife
wildfire
habitat
improvements
wildfire
resilience, life
in and
addition
to coverage
resilience,
in addition to and
coverage
of small-town
local government.
of
small-town
life a and
local of government.
offers
a wealth
The
position offers
wealth
breaking news The
and position
enterprise
opportunities.
of breaking news and enterprise opportunities.
Serving the
the community
community for
150
years,
the the
Eagle
is the
oldest
Serving
for more
more than
than
150
years,
Eagle
is the
old-
weekly
newspaper
in
Oregon
and
is
part
of
EO
Media
Group,
an
award-
est weekly newspaper in Oregon and is part of EO Media Group,
winning
and innovative
organization
an active family
owners.
an
award-winning
and news
innovative
news with
organization
with of an
active
This
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offers
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in
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family of owners. This position offers excellent advancement that
op-
prefers to hire
within. that
EO Media
Group
owns
14 newspapers
and
portunities
in a from
company
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to hire
from
within. EO Media
journals
that provide
accurate, fair
and
timely reporting
about accurate,
the people fair
and
Group owns
13 newspapers
and
journals
that provide
the about
communities
we serve
in the Pacific
Northwest,
and issues
timely impacting
reporting
the people
and issues
impacting
the com-
reflecting
and spirit reflecting
of a free press.
munities we
serve in the
the responsibility
Pacific Northwest,
the responsibil-
ity and spirit of a free press.
We seek a journalist who is passionate about local news and excited about
We seek a journalist who is passionate about local news and excited
the opportunity to publish in print, online and through social media.
about the opportunity to publish in print, online and through social
Candidates must be able to develop story ideas, take photographs, develop
media. Candidates must be able to develop story ideas, take photo-
sources,
prepare
website
and social
media and
updates
work updates
in a
graphs,
develop
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social and
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cooperative
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Journalistic
integrity
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and work in a cooperative team environment. Journalistic integrity
is Journalism
a must. education or experience is required for this full-time position
Journalism
education
or experience
is required
for
offering insurances,
a 401(k)/401(k)
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and this
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hours
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371-2935
go to  https://eomediagroup.applicantpro.com/jobs/,
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sume, letter of interest and three or more clips.
195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day, Oregon
S241539-1