The various drought levels in Oregon are shown on the U.S. Drought Monitor website. As of April 5, 2022, when the last report was taken, nearly half of Wallowa County (49.13%) was in D3, or extreme drought.

ENTERPRISE — Another year of drought was declared by the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners during its meeting Wednesday, April 6.

“We don’t have a lot of information other than we’re in D4,” Nash said, referring to the most-extreme drought condition. The county was listed as D4 all summer until the fall.

“We’ve been in D3 since, over a good portion of our county,” he said, referring to a less-severe designation. “So there is reason enough there to declare drought. We have somewhere between 50% and 70% snowpack in the mountains.”

The commissioners issued a drought declaration in May 2021, a full month later than this year.

But the snowpack is only where the moisture comes from to the valley floor.

“Most of our soils, especially in the northern portion of the county, are extremely dry,” he said. “Reports vary on watering conditions for livestock from full capacity in the pond storage to not so much. It does vary from site to site throughout the county. The bearing it has, I think, we have some potential wet weather coming. May and June are really the critical times for Wallowa County and so we could be getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, but for where we are right now, 88% of Oregon is in a drought condition.”

At this, Nash recommended moving toward a drought declaration.

“I think it would be responsible for us to pursue declaring a drought. I don’t want to do this every year, but we’re still recovering from last year, too,” he said. “Those soil conditions and I think even into what is going to be our groundwater conditions are going to continue to recover for a while. With that, it would be my recommendation that we pursue declaring a drought.”

Commission Chairwoman Susan Roberts asked if the county needs more information from a Soil and Water Conservation District, but Nash said that isn’t necessary.

“We don’t at this point because the U.S. Drought Monitor shows us in D3,” Nash said. “I did take a bit of a survey around the county and got varying responses and I’ve tried to articulate most of those.”

U.S. Drought Monitor is a map that is updated each Thursday to show the location and intensity of drought across the country. As of the latest report, taken April 5 and released April 7, nearly half of Wallowa County (49.13%) was in D3, or extreme drought.

Roberts explained that the declaration is the first step toward obtaining state or federal assistance for those plagued by drought.

“What that does is we send in a form to the state through our emergency manager and then the state recognizes our declaration and approves that it and then forwards the request to the secretary of agriculture for a consideration of a drought declaration for Wallowa County,” she said. “Then, if people need assistance or if the county does, we’re eligible for it, but we have to make the declaration in order to get the assistance.”

Roberts asked for a motion, which Nash made, and the board approved.

Other business

In another matter, the commissioners also approved $1,500 each out of the county’s hotel/motel tax fund toward three different projects. Each had requested $2,000, but the commissioners agreed they needed to save some of the funds to better serve other requests they anticipate.

“I think that these are worthy of support,” Nash said. “But I’d like to support them at a three-quarter level of $1,500 apiece instead of $2,000.”

As Roberts explained, the funds come out of the taxes paid to the Transient Lodging Fund that is now at $26,000. A portion of that goes to cities in the county.

“We want to spread it out for other events,” Commissioner John Hillock said.

Since the three events are mostly involving people who are locals entertaining locals and not tourists visiting the county, the lesser amount seemed more appropriate. The commissioners approved:

• The Wallowa Valley Music Alliance’s request to fund the Courthouse Concert Series.

• The WVMA’s request to fund the Juniper Jam.

• The WVMA’s to fund Joseph Mountain Jubilee.

Easements

In other business, the commissioners approved four easement requests. Approved by the Road Department and the commissioners were:

• Tammy Mauro wants to install a driveway entrance on Lostine River Road.

• Nick and Deidra Ripsom want to install a driveway entrance on Dobbin Road.

• Pacific Power Co. wants to install a new power pole and provide power to a new house on North Bear Creek Road.

• James Nash wants to dig a power supply trench on Sunrise Road.