Members of the Nez Perce Tribe Fisheries gather for a group photo June 28, 2024, during the 20th Woodlands and Watersheds Festival at the Wallowa County Fairgrounds.

ENTERPRISE — More than 600 people attended the 20th Woodlands and Watersheds Festival held Friday, June 28, at the Wallowa County Fairgrounds in Enterprise, organizers estimated.

Jim Zacharias, a Wallowa Resources board member for more than 23 years, said he estimates the attendance was about 10% over last year’s turnout. Wallowa Resources is among the event’s sponsors, along with the Maxville Interpretive Center, the Nez Perce Tribe and the Wallowa Valley Music Alliance.

“We’ve had more numbers every year, but I don’t know if they counted everybody,” he said.

The free festival is largely to entertain and inform area residents of all that goes on in Wallowa County. It’s not intended as a fundraiser for anything in particular.

The festival goal, Zacharias said, is “to make people aware of all the stuff that goes on, the first-aid booth, the Forest Service,” along with more than three dozen other booths. “It’s fun for kids to go to all the booths.”

The more than 40 booths gave people the chance to identify trees, to learn about what the Wallowa County Humane Society does and to get information about other county organizations.

“It’s mainly about awareness for people and to donate to those entities if they want and get involved,” he said.

Possibly the most popular booth was the kids’ fishing booth put on by Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries, where a couple of tanks were filled with rainbow trout that kids could catch.

Youth liked the fishing booth,” Zacharias said, “because  they get to catch a fish and take it home with them.” 

Kids also could take part in a scavenger hunt where they could stop by the numerous booths and answer a question posed at each, such as:

• Are there volcanoes active in Wallowa County? (Building Healthy Families).

• Name one way plants get pollinated in Wallowa County. (Wallowa Resources).

• How do plants repel insects? (Wild Carrot Herbals).

• Wallowa County is as big as which two states combined? (Wallowa History Center).

Kids who had collected at least 15 stamps from booths where they had answered the questions correctly could select from a collection of toys, Zacharias said.

Musicians also kept the crowd entertained, from Bad Penny Pleasuremakers to a drum group from the Nez Perce Tribe in Lapwai to Jezebel’s Mother and more.

Zacharias said the only drawback is the timing of the festival, which traditionally occurs on Fridays, and ensuring it doesn’t conflict with competing events or work.

“If we’d hold it on Saturday, we’d get more participation,” he said.

But that doesn’t keep people from coming back.

“We do get more and more repeats, people saying ‘We’ll be back again next year.'”