TWST Blog

Canyon City, Grant County, OR

The rains started again, and thunder and lightning soon followed. The latter brings the threat of wildfire in these parts, so we hope for no land strikes. We met at the Community Hall in Canyon City, which sits on the revitalized main street. This hall is a nexus for activity in this town.

It’s even the community’s movie theater. Tonight the alternative education school is holding its graduation ceremony on the main floor while we meet upstairs. And, tomorrow a group of eighty youth will be interviewed to participate in the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps.

Thirty-three folks showed up from groups serving Canyon City, John Day, Prairie City, Seneca, Dayville, Grant County, and Harney County. Many groups were delivering basic needs programs for food, shelter, domestic violence programs, health and dental care, and child abuse and neglect. There were also folks the from parks and recreation, museums, grange halls and historic preservation organizations. Several K-12 education systems were represented, and we had natural resource conservation groups, a land trust for ancestral Native lands, and a cattle ranchers association.

The recurring issues around dwindling populations and low school enrollment due to high unemployment and low-wage jobs came up again. This brought up a big issue for nonprofits when they seek foundation grants to support their work. They have a difficult time with local fundraising and sustaining their programs. We discussed how the Meyer Trust doesn’t have the same expectations for raising local money from smaller rural and isolated communities as we would from other groups. We do expect that any organization applying to us show they have the community’s support, and that its board of directors is fulfilling the responsibility of keeping an organization viable. I distributed some materials we brought about local fundraising.

I have one more item to share about out meeting. Several local ranchers from the Five River Grazing Association attended the meeting to speak to their concerns that the Meyer Trust may not be aware that our funding decisions are sometimes perceived as detrimental to local economic interests. Specifically, he was referring to a lawsuit an environmental group filed with the Environmental Protection Agency regarding the practice of allowing cattle to graze on public lands – something the ranches have been allowed to do for generations. The lawsuit asks the government to enforce the endangered species act and eliminate open space grazing to restore the health of the rivers and the return of critical fish species.

I found out later and shared with the Five Rivers group that the Meyer Trust did not fund this environmental group’s litigation against open space grazing, but we have funded them for education projects in the past. Ken, a rancher with Five Rivers waited patiently while our meeting proceeded. He listened to me talk about the importance of community during our meeting and when we spoke later he wanted us to know that he and the ranchers he represents are part of the community and they support the health of their communities. He pointed out they are ranchers, business owners, and conservationists and do not engage in practices that would deplete the land or waters and hurt their communities. Ken said, “If you want to talk about stewardship you should know that we are the stewards of this land.” I thanked Ken and the other ranchers for taking the time to explain their side of the issue and will make sure I bring this feedback back to MMT.

You might wonder why the photo of the Community Hall is in bright daylight after I told you I rode in on a rain cloud. Truth is, we had such a great meeting I forgot to take photos for you. So I am back the next morning and ran into folks from last night's meeting. This is Jim who runs the Training and Employment Consortium, Tammy the City Manager, Chris (one of the teachers at the alternative education school), and Sondra with the Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation. They were talking about the group of 80 youth who were waiting in the Community Hall to sign up with the Conservation Corp. They were doing business as usual while standing in the middle of the street.

I’ve got to go or I will be late for my next stop. Thank you Canyon City!

Commenting on this Blog entry is closed.