In decades past, members of the Wallowa County Planning Commission, among others, spent hours strategizing on best ways to manage future growth in this rural corner of Oregon. Ordinances to govern setbacks and lot sizes, the drafting of precise definitions to separate industrial zones from residential zones, and much more were discussed at length and, in most cases, resolved via written decree.

All this was important work that had to be done, but maybe that anticipated future growth may never come.

Let’s face it: Wallowa County, by its location, is an end-of-the-road destination and likely will remain so into the future. One access highway, playdough for some, could be described as the most dangerous stretch of state highway in the U.S., and tourists as a whole aren’t keen on retracing their steps when traveling on secondary routes. I mean Wallowa Lake is beautiful, but driving twice over the 75-mile stretch between La Grande and the lake is a deterrent many tourists choose to avoid.

But even if future growth doesn’t occur, there are definite needs here, many of them economic, that can and should be addressed.

Tourism, mostly seasonal, puts many businesses in Wallowa County — excluding those like Arrowhead Chocolates, Wild Carrot Herbals, and Stein Distillery that have cracked the code for online marketing — into preordained weather-dictated patterns of luxury and poverty as the calendar swings from May to mid-October and back again from winter into spring. Some even close their doors during the cold season when, if nothing else, icy roads or the fears of such keep people away and motel rooms vacant.

But what can we do, right? Or, maybe better worded, what do we want to do?

We can’t dictate the weather, which is under the control of an entity beyond human comprehension, but there are legal avenues that can be tapped to remove money from the hands of willing tourists and into the hands of local businessmen.

And in society today, one excellent resource of capital outlay — one that won’t come here overnight, but will come — will be an explosion of bicyclists who are mounting bikes on cars in ever-increasing numbers, driving distances in search of new locales of beauty (Wallowa County?) and unloading their foot-powered vessels to hop aboard and benefit from healthy exercise that many yearn for. They also mean to breathe fresh air, and take in Nature’s grandeur at their own pace.

And, historically, these touring bicyclists are environmentally conscious and spend twice as much money as other tourists when on vacations.

One day, a bicycle trail will circle Wallowa Lake and the jury is still out if the proposed 63-mile rail-and-trail between Joseph and Elgin is feasible, and if so, if it will be built.

But the bountiful future of Wallowa County doesn’t stop there.

There remains the matter of privately owned Wallowa Lake Dam, described by some as the most important asset in the valley. Were that crumbling structure visible from the highway, it’s likely more urgency would be placed on its repair. In fact, it’s unconscionable that so much water, without compensation, is “dumped” over the dam because that dam is too unsafe to hold more than 72 percent of the water it was designed to hold.

Growers in the Umatilla Basin, insistent their interests only include excess water and not that needed in Wallowa County, appear willing to pay for dam repairs in return for a long-term guarantee of water from Wallowa Lake.

But who would broker such a deal? The dam owners are farmers, not contract negotiators.

Hm-m-m, Mike, Susan, and Paul, you willing to give it a shot?

Jabberwock II columnist Rocky Wilson is a reporter for the Chieftain.