Shana Withee and Melissa Woodbury attended the regular meeting of the Harney County Court on Feb. 20 to discuss the Oregon State University (OSU) 4-H extension program.

“In Oregon, we are really lucky. We have an extremely effective and broad 4-H program,” Withee said, adding that more than 77,000 youth are involved in 4-H statewide.

Withee reported that almost 42 percent of eligible youth (children in 4th through 12th grades) participate in Harney County’s 4-H program, which is very high compared with the rest of the state.

“4-H hits the spark of our youth,” Withee said, explaining that, “Your spark is what makes you get up in the morning and say, ‘Yeah! I’m ready to go and do something today.’”

Withee said her “spark” is working with the kids, and she likes to help them find their own “spark,” whether it’s training dogs, being in a club-based program, or serving in a leadership role.

“You have always been very open when a group wants to start a new 4-H club and it’s a little bit different than what you’ve ever done before,” Harney County Commissioner Patty Dorroh said.

Woodbury noted that Fun Fridays provide extra activities for youth such as art, leather crafts, entomology (the study of insects), and herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians).

“We’re trying to meet the needs of the kids and what they’re interested in,” Withee said.

“When they get done with those Fun Fridays, they walk away with a project that they can enter at fair, so it’s keeping all of our exhibits up and going,” Woodbury added.

A total of 214 members were enrolled in Harney County 4-H’s traditional program during the 2017-2018 program year. The local program also had 58 trained volunteers and 25 clubs.

“For a small community, we are very active in our 4-H program,” Withee said.

An outreach event was held at the Harney County Community Center, highlighting various 4-H clubs, camps, conferences, and retreats.

“We increased, just that night, our percentage of enrollment by 24 percent and included about 12 new leaders,” Woodbury said. “So that was a huge jump for us.”

In her role as an OSU professor, Withee provided 162 presentations and workshops to 2,523 participants throughout the community last year.

She is also the state coordinator for the 4-H Japanese exchange program, which placed 32 Japanese delegates in 17 Oregon counties last year.

“If you ever want to host a Japanese adult or youth, just talk to me. It’s a great program,” Withee said. “It’s been a great opportunity to share our culture with others. We find out that we may live a half a world apart, but we’re really pretty similar.”

Mitzi Defenbaugh asked whether the exchange goes both ways, and Withee replied that four youth from Harney County will go to Japan this year.

In her role as a county leader, Withee supervised and trained staff, was involved in office improvements (such as painting and cleaning), electronically scanned and filed documents, held regular staff meetings, and planned for new events.

Woodbury, who splits her time between 4-H and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) education, discussed her outreach to the community.

She’s provided SNAP education to kindergarteners, 1st graders, and 4th graders in Burns and Drewsey. Woodbury teaches the Serving Up MyPlate curriculum, which uses a variety of hands-on activities to teach the importance of eating healthy and staying active.

Healthy recipes, a physical activity calendar, and shopping tips can be found online at https://www.foodhero.org.

Withee announced that a 4-H fundraiser will be held Friday, March 1, from 4:30-8 p.m. at the Burns Elks Lodge. In addition to a chicken-fried steak dinner, the event will feature a silent auction, raffle, cake walk, face painting, Bingo, dime toss, and other games.

Proceeds will be used to provide camp scholarships for local youth.

“We are proud of the work that we do here in the county, and we are pleased that the county court supports us,” Withee said.

She added that the OSU Extension can provide a lot of resources.

“If you are in need of information on something, please give us a call,” she said.

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The court signed a petition requesting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture exempt the Malheur and Wallowa-Whitman national forests from the Travel Management Rule and related actions.

“In 2005, the Forest Service passed the Travel Management Rule mandating that all forests in the United States undergo a rule-making process on travel management,” Harney County Commissioner Mark Owens explained, adding that there’s been a lot of opposition from Eastern Oregon counties.

“It takes an open forest designation, which means that you can have cross-country travel, and pretty much eliminates it. It takes it to a closed designation,” Owens said regarding the rule. “Eastern Oregon counties that are affected in the Malheur and Wallowa-Whitman [forests] — Harney County, Wallowa County, Malheur County, Grant County, Baker County, and Union County — [feel] that we would like to have an exclusion from this rule,” he said, asserting that travel management should be handled on a site-specific, project-by-project level, not forest wide. “You can’t have a working forest if you don’t have access, and going through the 2005 Travel Management Rule could erode those opportunities to provide a working forest.”

A petition was drafted, and commissioners from each of the aforementioned counties verbally committed to sign it. Owens added that the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, Farm Bureau, Forest Access For All, and state representatives and senators said they’ll sign letters of support.

The signed petition will be taken to Washington, D.C. and presented during a meeting on March 6.

•••

In other business:

• Dorroh reported that the Harney County Wolf Advisory Committee voted not to recommend applying for the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Wolf Depredation Compensation and Financial Assistance Grant Program.

Program funds are used to compensate people who suffer loss or injury to livestock or working dogs due to wolf attack. However, during the Jan. 16 county court meeting, Committee Chair Ken Bentz asserted that the funding is inadequate and program participation “comes [with] a great, big bunch of strings attached.”

Dorroh also noted that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan was postponed to allow more input from constituents. The draft plan will be posted soon;

• the Groundwater Study Advisory Committee meeting was rescheduled for March 21 at 10 a.m. at the Harney County Community Center;

• Owens encouraged the public to attend Harney County Restoration Collaborative meetings to provide input regarding common-ground principles;

• the court signed a Memorandum of Agreement among the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Harney County, and Grant County relating to permitting and inspection of on-site wastewater treatment systems.

The arrangement will speed up inspections for Grant County (which has been using DEQ out of Pendleton), provide the hours that Harney County inspector Jesse Barnes needs for her certification, and generate revenue for Harney County.

Harney County plans to take over Grant County’s inspections on March 1;

• Harney County Roads Supervisor Eric Drushella provided a report stating that it would be in the public interest to vacate a portion of Hines Logging Road (County Road 47) to address a property owner’s encroachment onto the county right of way.

Drushella explained that a typical county road right of way is 80-100 feet, but this right of way is 150 feet. After vacating 25 feet, 125 feet of right of way will remain.

A public hearing regarding the matter will be held March 20 at 10 a.m. at the courthouse;

• upon recommendation by Drushella, the court approved Castor Ideota’s application for an approach from Rye Grass Lane;

• the court discussed Public Notices of Water Use Requests;

• the court received the Malheur National Forest Schedule of Proposed Actions for winter 2019;

• the Crane/Princeton rural outreach meeting will be held March 13 from 6-7:30 p.m. at Crane Union High School;

• budget meetings are scheduled for April 10 from 1-4 p.m., April 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and May 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If necessary, an additional budget meeting will be held May 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.;

• the court rescheduled its March, April, and May meetings. The meetings will be held March 13 and 27, April 10 and 23, and May 8 and 22.

The next meeting of the Harney County Court will be held Wednesday, March 13, at 10 a.m. in Harney County Judge Pete Runnels’ office at the courthouse.