Seeing Stars in Wallowa County

Stories from the Field header graphic featuring member Eli Heidricks

by Eli Heindricks, Regional Main Street Coordinator, Northeast Oregon Economic Development District

It’s amazing how different two RARE placements can be. Last year, I served my first year in the RARE program with Marion County’s Economic Development program. I was based in Salem (one of the three most populated cities in the State), working on rural broadband for agricultural communities and wildfire-impacted regions of the North Santiam Canyon. Though I lived and worked in the city’s center, the focus of my work was on the communities just beyond the reach of I-5. It’s amazing how small and remote a community can feel that’s just over 10 minutes from Oregon’s capital city.

At least, that’s what my archetype for rural was last year. Flashforward to my second year in the RARE program and I’ve discovered an entirely new (though not necessarily different) meaning of “rural.” Drive five hours East of Portland along the Oregon Trail to find a place that feels distinct from the population centers West of the Cascades. When I first took that drive through Sage-brushed desert, a stretch of the Blue Mountains cheerfully referred to as Deadman Pass, and rolling fields of grain interspersed with the occasional herd of cattle to arrive in my new placement community, I knew I was in for a drastically different experience than my first year. For starters, the welcoming committee in Salem didn’t include a black bear, munching on juniper berries alongside a winding canyon road.

During my second year, I’ve been working with the Northeast Oregon Economic Development District, or NEOEDD (an acronym I still struggle to say successfully), on developing a regional Main Street program in Wallowa County. I live and work in Enterprise, OR, a small city that sits near the base of the Wallowa Mountains and at the end of that meandering drive I described. Though Enterprise is roughly the same size as my hometown in Indiana and larger than many of the communities I worked with in Marion County, it feels more remote here. Maybe it’s the fact that Wallowa County is technically “Frontier” country, meaning there are 6 or fewer people per square mile. Maybe it’s the fact that cows outnumber people 6:1. Maybe it’s the fact that the nearest Starbucks is over an hour away. In any case, I have never had the opportunity to live and work in a community as rural as Wallowa County. There’s a strong sense of community here, whether you’re meetings folks at a community cider pressing or swinging by Terminal Gravity Brewing Company for a pint. Everyone here is friendly and seemingly excited about their community. This is exactly the reason why I wanted to come here.

Wallowa County is exactly the sort of place to pilot a new approach to rural development. Regional Main Street is a new approach being developed by Oregon Main Street that seeks to help small communities that otherwise wouldn’t have the capacity to continuously operate their own traditional Main Street organization. The amount of work and funding required to run a Main Street program can be a difficult lift for rural communities. Oftentimes, rural Main Street organizations are volunteer led, at least until those volunteers experience burnout. Unfortunately, many of those organizations subsequently fall to the wayside until another Main Street champion in the community emerges sometime later, potentially years later.

A regional approach to Main Street seeks to help fix these sorts of issues. By having communities band together under the umbrella of a regional organization, rural communities have access to the resources and support provided by Oregon Main Street without needing to bare the weight of the organization entirely on their shoulders. When meeting with community members, I tend to explain it as having the regional organization deal with the nuts and bolts, or “administrative headache”, of Main Street work while leaving the placemaking and project work to the communities themselves. In the structure we’ve created here in Wallowa County, that would mean enabling a city to develop and manage a grant-funded project while leaving the grant’s reporting and invoicing to the regional program’s staff (NEOEDD and myself).

Wallowa County is the perfect place to pilot this sort of program. With one well maintained road that leads into the County, the small communities here feel separate from the rest of Oregon based on its geography. Rural here feels different than I’ve experienced before. There’s a rugged individualism here that feels earned and should be respected, whether you’re talking with a 4th generation rancher or one of the many resident writers or artists. At the same time there’s a strong sense of community that binds people together. A regional Main Street program can help these communities showcase their unique character and history. At the same time, this program can simultaneously increase the livability and economic vitality of a region many call home.

I came to Wallowa County because I wanted to experience what its like to live and work in a uniquely remote part of Oregon. As I’ve gotten situated in my new placement, there have definitely been challenging moments. However, the communities and people I have gotten to work with and the awe-inspiring beauty of this seemingly hidden region make every day worth it. It’s a small thing, but it’s been a long time since I’ve lived in a place where I can see stars within city-limits. Here in Wallowa County, the view is spectacular.

About the author, Eli Heindricks: Originally from a small town in central Indiana, Eli Heindricks is a graduate of Purdue University with degrees in Economics and Political Science. During Eli’s first year in the RARE program, he served as a Rural Broadband Specialist with Marion County Economic Development. While working on broadband, Eli’s project focused on bringing high speed, reliable internet to agricultural communities and wildfire-impacted communities in the North Santiam Canyon. When not working, you can often find Eli camping, cooking, or reading at coffee shops.

Interested in gaining community and economic development experience of your own? Are you looking for a life changing experience in rural Oregon? Learn more about serving with the RARE AmeriCorps Program. Applications for Year 30 (2023-24) due April 30, 2023 by 11:59pm PDT.

Making a Difference in Local Energy in Deschutes County

Stories from the Field header graphic featuring Grace Andrews

by Grace Andrews, Energy Program Coordinator, The Environmental Center

When I came back for my second year of RARE, I knew I had a new supervisor for the next few months. I had one major goal for those months: to plan, organize, and host a public forum on local energy planning. It would educate the public on both the work I had done in the past year and what I was planning to do, as well as featuring speakers from the local community who would talk about exciting energy projects and opportunities in their fields. There would also be the opportunity for attendees to discuss their views on local energy opportunities and priorities, and to listen and learn from each other as well as the speakers. It was a fitting project to start off the year. The only issue was that I had never done anything remotely like this before. Luckily I had help from my wonderful supervisor, who, while she didn’t know much about my projects from last year, is an experienced event planner.

There was a lot to do, starting with the venue. I toured multiple venues that were nice but didn’t match what I imagined for theevent – unavailable for the event date, or too dark, or too fancy, or too expensive. But finally, we found a large classroom-style space at our local OSU extension that was perfect. The other challenge was speakers. In September, I already had a short list of people I wanted to speak at my event, and I reached out to them about the date I’d chosen. When they didn’t reply, I followed up. Far too close to the event date, I ended up contacting a much longer list of potential speakers and learning that this is what I should have done from the beginning. Armed with a small number of speakers I could count on to attend the event, I turned to the issue of getting people in the room to listen to those speakers.

With some confirmed speakers, a venue, and a date, we could begin promoting the event more fully. The vague flyers I had made with a “save the date” message for the event and the link to an unfinished event page on our website were replaced with a better-looking, more informative version. I sent out targeted email invitations to people who had attended other meetings I had held last year. I posted the event on all the local event calendars, and we sent out the info in our newsletter. When it was time to put in the catering order for lunch, we still had no idea how many people would actually be there.

People talking around a white board
Community members engaging and learning about local energy at The Environmental Center meeting

I found that the most valuable tool at my disposal was to show up at other events and talk to the people there. After all, those were the kind of people to attend events. Maybe they’d also feel like learning about the local energy landscape for a day? And to my surprise, they did. At least two people that were volunteering at the Environmental Center booth for another event showed up at my event the next weekend. Personal connections I made at earlier events were proven important as well. At the energy forum, I recognized most of the faces. Still, there were also people I’d never met before, and it was so rewarding to meet community members that showed up out of pure interest for participating in a conversation about energy.

Although it was a small group, about 15 people plus five or six speakers, the event was more than successful. The small group allowed for deeper conversations, and more detailed discussions, including while the speakers were presenting. I had expected to be ahead of schedule because I gave each presenter a pretty large chunk of time, but instead we were behind schedule almost immediately because the attendees were asking so many questions. There may not have been a big crowd, but the people who had chosen to sacrifice a sunny November Saturday to talk about clean energy in their community were curious, excited, and engaged.

After the event was over, I didn’t want to lose momentum, so I continued with my plan to put together a working group to continue work on a future local energy plan. We already had plenty of sign ups for the group from the energy forum attendees, but I also invited everyone I knew locally in the energy world from the past year I have been working with the Environmental Center. We had our first meeting last week, and it was so rewarding to see everyone there, ready to get to work and make a difference for local energy. After over a year of working on energy planning projects mostly alone, and planning an event by myself for the first time, I’m so excited to build up a team that will help bring these projects to the next level.

Headshot of Grace AndrewsAbout the author, Grace AndrewsGrace graduated from Colby College in spring 2021 with a B.A. in Environmental Science and is now in her second year of service as a RARE AmeriCorps member. She is passionate about fostering connection with the environment and getting communities involved in environmental efforts. In her second year as Energy Program Coordinator for The Environmental Center, Grace is focusing on the goal of beginning the development of a community energy plan for Deschutes County. A variety of projects will help to accomplish this goal, including completing a baseline energy assessment for the county, coordinating a team of volunteers to help shape a local energy plan, and deepening community engagement through events and outreach. She was born and raised in a small town in Maine but enjoys exploring everything Oregon has to offer, especially if it involves skiing and hiking!

Interested in gaining environmental and sustainability planning experience of your own? Are you looking for a life changing experience in rural Oregon? Learn more about serving with the RARE AmeriCorps Program. Applications for Year 30 (2023-24) due April 30, 2023 by 11:59pm PDT.