Community Conversations: Natural Resources
2025-05-20 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | Josephy Center, Joseph
The Josephy Center's talk series, which addressed health care and main street businesses in earlier sessions, will address Natural Resources on Tuesday, May 20. All of the sessions, sponsored by Oregon Humanities, are held from noon -- 1:00 pm on Tuesdays, and all focus on relationships with individuals and with the community.

Joe Dawson, Jim Zacharias, and Kelly Birkmaier will be the presenters on the 20th. Each will have a few minutes to talk about the people who work for and with them, the customers they serve, and the roles of farms, ranches, and timber in the broader community.

Joe Dawson graduated from Joseph High School and Gonzaga,(where he played rugby!) and came home to run the family farm--and to serve on the Wallowa Lake Irrigation District Board. Jim Zacharais is a fourth generation logger, the owner-operator of JayZee Lumber, a custom mill (and bridge building outfit). Jim is also a hunting guide and supporter of many community projects. Kelly Birkmaier is not a Wallowa County Native, but she married one! Kelly grew up on a small California ranch, did her undergraduate in Livestock Management and graduate work at Oregon State in Rangeland Ecology and Management. She worked for seven years as a Forest Service rangeland specialist in Wallowa County, met and married Tom Birkmaier, a fourth generation rancher. She now works as a Certified Range Consultant in addition to her Birkmaier ranch work, and, with Tom, is raising two sons.

We'll learn more about these folks and their work on Tuesday, who they touch and how they touch them. This is a discussion series, and you are encouraged to bring your own stories and questions. Here is a teaser: In a conversation with Kelly, we talked about how and why land and land usage differs here from the same in Montana. Maybe you've bought lumber from JayZee, or changed pipes for Dawsons when you were young.

Bring those stories! Tuesday Talks are free and open to the public. We'll have the coffee pot on, some light snacks too.
