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Wallowa County Technical Committee
January 8, 2013
OSU Extension Conference Room
Present:
Bruce Dunn, Forestry
Lance Burton, Range
Russ McMartin, Engineer
John Williams, Range
Mark Porter, Weeds
Cynthia Warnock, Conservation
Kyle Bratcher, Fish Biologist
Jenny Reinhardt, Guest, WR
Katie Nesbitt, Guest, Observer Newspaper
Aaron Maxwell, Freshwater Trust, guest
Bruce called the meeting to order at 8:37 a.m.
Minutes
Under the ODFW report the weir will be worked on up to December 31st. The December minutes were
approved as written with the change made.
Projects
Divide Fence
Mark reported that the construction bid is out for the Divide fence. A contractor can bid on all 3 sections or
just one or two of them. Overall there is about 5 miles of fence. The bid will be awarded the first part of
February. The fence is to be completed by August 1st.
Agency Reports
Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
 Lance reported that the pipelines will be done be next year.
 The Farm Bill was extended another year so CRP and CSP is back.
 EQIP and CSP signups are going on. Not sue how much funding they will get, but there are signups.
Wallowa Resources
 Peg Vanderzander was hired to help Mark with his programs.
 Craig Nichols will start this week monitoring elk and fences in the Zumwalt.
 ODFW will haze the elk on a as-needed basis.
 The Zumwalt landowner meeting is January 22nd. The Zumwalt fence committee will meet next week.
Wallowa County Road Department
 The crews are plowing snow.
 They are cutting brush along Caudle Lane.
 They are making preparations to start on the Trail Creek Bridge replacement up camp Creek.
Freshwater Trust
 Aaron has been working in the John Day area
 He is still trying to get acquainted with people and what roles the various agencies play.
 Involved in the discussions in Boardman about the purchase of water behind the Wallowa Lake dam.
Natural Resource Advisory Committee (NRAC)
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
The new forest supervisor’s last job was in research. He says the first project he is jumping into is the
Travel Management Plan. The road maps that have come out this last time are actually based on the
alternative that Wallowa County had of current conditions.
OSU Extension
 The Stockgrowers annual education and scholarship dinner is the afternoon and evening of January 23rd.
All of this is open to the public. The education portion will be on the various types of new cuts and how to
prepare them.
 The Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce annual citizen award banquet is the evening of January 27th.
Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD)
 Cynthia is working on year-end finances and quarterly reports
Lower Joseph Creek Watershed Assessment
Wallowa Whitman Collaborative mgt on the 23rd – Jenny will be giving this presentation at this time.
Process:
 The watershed to be assessed was selected through NRAC.
 A steering committee for the process was established and resource group leaders.
 Seven resource groups were picked, 6 of them were active with the 7th one being the economic.
 Impact of actions identified through the assessment.
 The analysis areas were identified.
Resource Committees
 Committees looked at what data was available and what was needed.
 For data needed, decisions were made on how it would be acquired, the protoal and who would do it.
 Looked at existing conditions and developed recommendations for actions to help correct issues.
Resource Committee Integration
 The Committees recommendations were evaluated by other committees and rated on the impact of
the recommendation on the resource that committee represented. +3 showed the action provided
multiple benefits for that committee resource, 0 was no impact to resource and -2 represented the
action would likely lead to negative results for that resource. (an example of the spreadsheet used
was shown.) Jenny showed this and worked through it as an example.
 Projects that did not have any negative ratings and a positive score from all resources are the ones
that will be proposed from the assessment.
 Then the full working collaborative group identified on-the-ground treatments and projects from the
recommendations.
 The final document reviewed by the NRAC Standing Committee and the County Commissioners.
Integration outputs for forestry
Assessment sheets and photos were done on various stands (crown density, basal area/ac etc.) and based on
this the forestry group agreed to treat 16076 acres. The remaining stands identified to be treated were set
aside for future use. The fuels and fire group overlaid areas that had fire starts over a 30 year period on a
map and a density map created from this data.
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They then looked at fuel density, 3+ structural layer and a 55% + crown density. There were 13615 acres of
these hazard stands. An overlay was then done with polygons that include the hazardous layers and the layers
that were agreed upon by the forestry group. There was 6150 acres in common from both committees.
The prescription recommendations were done under the Franklin and Johnson Management Guidelines. There
was a question about the Franklin/Johnson prescription on whether this is new and was it used when
developing the data? This prescription was talked about on the tour and when the data was gathered.
Jenny reviewed the prescriptions for the various stands. They were as followed
 Warm, dry Doug-fir/Ponderosa pine stands (5233 acres) considered a high priority .
 25% will be thinned in the 1st 4 years, 24% the next 4-8 years
 60 sq basal feet per acre
 Create gaps (2-3 acre openings) and skips (areas not treated)
 Retain snags over 12” unless safety risk
Ponderosa Pine/Douglas fir stands (drier site)
 Much the same prescription as above
Cool dry Douglas fire/grand fire/western larch
 80 foot basal area and vary spacing
 Irregular shaped otherwise same as above.
Range Recommendations
There were some fences, roads open, trail work and water sources that need development and weed control.
They proposed a reduction in timber stands to improve forage availability (5200 acres) that was within the
area of treatment proposed by the forestry committee.
Riparian Recommendations
There were 4 additional spring developments proposed and some road maintenance to address issues that
were effecting riparian areas and waterways.
Wildlife Recommendations
There were general recommendations made from wildlife such as mosaic habitats on landscape, manage snag
retention, reestablish aspen stands, protect springs, streams and riparian areas via fencing/natural barriers,
restore shrub and hardwood habitats next to waterways etc.
Cultural Recommendations
General also such as hand falling and thinning to avoid disturbance, protect historic and prehistoric sites etc.
Roads Recommendations
There were some recommendations on roads from the various resource committees, but because the Travel
Management Plan is still being worked on it is pointless to go forward with changing road status now because
the TMP will trump any decisions. Because of this the Steering Committee decided if a road project
recommendation did not change the status of the road to consider the recommendation and proceed with
NEPA on it. There is also a lack of common reference for the definitions of decommission, closed etc. for
roads. It was discussed whether the history of how we got to where we did on the roads be included in the
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presentation. It was decided to include it because roads are an issue in all counties and others may have to go
through some of the hurdles we did and this will let them know how we did it.
10:00 a.m. Kyle arrived
Forest Collaborative
It is hoped that by doing the Lower Joseph Creek recommendations under the collaborative group it will move
through the paper process faster. Funding will also be more available. Katie asked when a good time to do a
story on this would be. After the collaborative meeting would be good was the answer.
What is the next step? The assessment document needs to be completed with the socioeconomic portion
added. The NEPA for some of the projects need to be done also.
Agency Report Cont.
Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW)
 Kyle is working on plans for the hatcheries.
 They are working on a program to get anglers to catch the early fish and use them.
 There will be a Chinook fishing season on the Imnaha this year. There won’t be one on the Wallowa
because it has not been productive in the past. There will not be one on the Lostine either. There may be
one in the Troy area on the Grande Ronde River.
 There was a site visit for phase II of the stream/habitat restoration on the Wallowa River on the 6 Ranch.
There is one portion of this the fish use so they would like to leave this portion alone or add some
additional off channels for the fish here.
 As for wildlife, landowners east of Dobbin are having problems with the whitetail deer.
 Vic’s retirement party is February 16th.
With no further business the meeting adjourned at 10:41 am.
Respectfully Submitted by
Cynthia Warnock