Where did it all start?
Jeré Payton, Will Ross and Thomas Ormsby were the mainstays when publishing began back in 1978 with Okanogan Natural News (ONN). Jeré was alarmed by the effects of orchard spraying upon the health of members of the Okanogan County. She was also aware of the lack of reporting in the local newspapers of these mysterious maladies appearing in our communities. With her passion for writing and her concern for her family’s health as well as that of her communities, she decided her responsibilities were clear—the birth of an alternative news media needed to arise out of the budding back-to-the-land movement that had found a home in Okanogan County in the early 1970s. Okanogan Natural News ONN was a full run-of-the-press publication, usually eight pages. It was read and contributed to by the alternative community which was responsible for bringing into Okanogan County an influx of young people who were looking for a rural existence that provided them community needs of an organic living lifestyle of growing their own food, simplifying material needs, raising their children close to Earth rhythms, and being aware of issues that compromised their lifestyle, such as promoting diversified rather than monoculture crops, alerting citizens of the dangers posed by pesticides/herbicides used in agriculture where many people found jobs in orchards, homeschooling their children, etc. After eight years of publishing ONN, the people involved from its beginnings changed a bit with Will Ross being more involved in getting an heirloom seed company up and running, Good Seed Company. Thomas and Jeré continued working together, cutting and pasting the meticulous layout of each issue while Jeré raised her three children on a wheat farm and Thomas lived a monk’s life on a hilltop, becoming known as “Hilltop Tom.” New Horizons In 1983, Jeré met Rick Gillespie. He was working with a couple in Oroville, WA who published a calendar for the U.S. and Canadian Okanagan areas doing little illustrations that caught Jeré’s eye. A relationship quickly developed between them that proved to be complementary to continuing publishing and uniting their two families together. Before long, they were able to locate their home in the small highland community of Chesaw, WA in the old bank building erected in early 1920s. Rick had begun working for a gentleman close to the Canadian border who produced directories for companies using a computer database system. It wasn’t long before he realized that using a computer would improve their ability to produce ONN copy to layout rather than a typewriter. Publishing Changes Jeré and Rick had made friends with Rob Cline who worked in photography at the Omak Chronicle which led to their ability to modernize their publishing skills after they were able to purchase a Kaypro portable computer. John Andrist, publisher of the Chronicle, had been helping them get ONN printed where he had the Chronicle printed in Chelan, WA. Their publishing coverage expanded to covering water, forest, land issues, as well as peace, justice, health, and nuclear waste issues. After a meeting with Canadian and U.S. citizens in Oroville, WA in early 1984, they decided that ONN as a newspaper had served them well as a local media, but to get their stories out to many more communities in the Intermountain Northwest, a magazine format allowed for a broader distribution in different establishments. That decision prompted a name for a future magazine format that reflected the region they hope to cover—thus, the name Columbiana became the magazine’s banner. In the Fall of 1984, after attending a North American Bioregional Congress in the Vancouver, BC area, Jeré and Rick decided to form a nonprofit organization and called it Columbia River Bioregional Education Project (CRBEP aka Columbiana) as they discovered they lived in the Columbia River Bioregion. Mining Threats In early 1985, they became aware of activity over Buckhorn Mountain to the east of their home when they noticed a plane dragging a missile-shaped monitor back and forth across the mountain and large trucks were stomping the ground equipped with pads that sent seismic pulses through the mountain. Something big was going to affect the serene ambience of their home. In late 1985, it became apparent that a company called Battle Mountain Gold was planning an open-pit mine on top of Buckhorn Mtn. to extract microscopic gold from crushed rock using a cyanide leaching process. Jeré and Rick gathered concerned friends one night at their home in Chesaw to discuss what needed to happen to make known their concern about the integrity of the mountain environment and the potential effects upon the source of clean drinking water in the area. That night, Okanogan Highlands Alliance (OHA) was formed to draw attention to how mountain top mining can destroy the continuity of an ecosystem and bring false hope of benefits to the lives of people in the area. Since Columbiana had a much broader focus on our bioregion, Jeré and Rick stepped aside to allow many of our community’s younger members to organize a frontal attack upon the mining industry’s plans. Poisoning of Local Waterways Following in their ongoing concern about the poisoning of local waterways, in 1986, Columbiana became aware of property owners along Lake Osoyoos who were dumping 2,4-D (a systemic herbicide to broad-leaf vegetation) into the lake around their docks and beaches to kill the Eurasian milfoil plant that fouled their boat propellers and made swimming troublesome. Jeré and Rick contacted the Journal for Pesticide Reform in Oregon, and several women came up to a meeting they scheduled to alert the public of the dangers posed by this practice. The property owners came to the meeting and voiced their displeasure. The women and Jeré presented evidence that 2,4-D was thought to cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (a blood cancer) and sarcoma (soft tissue cancer) as well being poisonous to fish and other aquatic fauna and flora. After the meeting, they met with Jack Burchard, an Okanogan attorney at the time, to talk about the prospects of getting a federal court ruling against the use of this herbicide in water and on forest lands. The Spokane District Court agreed to approve an injunction preventing the use of 2,4-D on public forest lands and waterways in the Pacific Northwest. Becoming a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Columbiana applied for a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS in the Spring of 1993 so as to apply for grants for publishing and other environmental education activities. It was granted in late October 1993, effective starting in May of 1993. Buckhorn Mountain Advocacy After receiving Columbiana’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, Columbiana applied for a grant from the WA Department of Ecology to present the effects of mining upon the mountain and surrounding areas to area residents. They hired a hydrogeologist and designed several public meetings to educate people about the issue. They encountered opposition from folks whose family members could have jobs working at the mine. It became difficult to convince people that our beloved highlands home environment was going to be altered by the industrial mining on Buckhorn Mountain. Some thirty-five years later, OHA has been successful in forcing Battle Mountain Gold who proposed in 2000 a mountain-top removal to sell out to another Canadian Mining Company, Kinross Gold, who said they’d develop an underground mine. In 2017, Kinross discontinued their mining, but faced fines levied against them for water contamination. OHA has done an admirable job of pressuring Dept of Ecology and Kinross to clean up water contamination, reclaiming the mining footprint, and pay the fines. It is still unresolved in early 2024. Publishing Switched from Newpaper to Magazine In 1986, production switched from Okanogan Natural News to the first issue of Columbiana appearing in Spring of 1987. Richard “Bearpaw” Bernard helped develop their masthead and contributed many banner designs for the different sections of Columbiana. Bill London and Jim Prall covered the southeastern border of the bioregion in Moscow, ID while Steve Frazer covered the Columbia River Basin in Moses Lake, WA, and Jim McGrath covered the northeastern border in Missoula, MT. Many writers from around the Columbiana Bioregion have contributed to the pages of Columbiana as you can find under the “Publications” tile on the homepage. Addressing Knapweed Infestation In 1988, another environmental issue came to the fore: many people in Okanogan County were struggling with diffuse and spotted knapweed overtaking fields – a noxious weed not native to the area. CRBEP was involved with their friends in the Chesaw area trying to tackle the infestation by hand-pulling and burning, cultivating and irrigating and even introducing insects that will feed on the seed heads of knapweed. They produced a pamphlet on Hand-Pulling Knapweed which was written by Ron England to help neighbors understand what they were up against in eradicating these infestations. Assisting Forest Protection Following in their work on protecting local forest ecosystems, in 1996, they produced for the Columbia River Bioregion Campaign in Walla Walla, WA a four-page newsprint publication called “It’s Time to Stand Up for Columbia’s Forests.” Removal Process of Enloe Dam In the mid-1990s, Columbiana learned that the Okanogan PUD was considering the reelectrification of Enloe Dam on the Similkameen River. The dam sat in the river, not producing power, since 1958 blocking any passage up or down the river by aquatic life. Area Indigenous groups favored removal of the dam and return the river to a free-flowing International river. The PUD was unable to see its way economically to retrofit the dam to generate power at this time, but wanted to leave the dam in the river as they considered it an asset that could produce power some time in the future. Their belief in its value persisted until 2018 when their staff convinced the three commissioners to abandon electrification plans. Columbiana Magazine Becomes Columbiana On Line In 2000, while Jeré was busy finishing a degree at WSU and Rick was teaching at Wenatchee Valley College in Omak, Columbiana Magazine ceased publication. During this time, they instead produced a newsletter in 2000 on the changing economy in Okanogan County and other local news, started a website to share stories more widely, and produced three broad sheets (eight pages of a full-sized newspaper) on Jeanette Armstrong & Indigeneity 2001, Wildfire Management 2002, and Peace issues 2003. Similkameen Sundays In 2014 and 2016, Columbiana held two Similkameen Sunday event celebrating the cultural, spiritual and history of the Indigenous Peoples along the Similkameen River and why the river and salmon are such important cultural and spiritual figures. Outreach Grant from Patagonia In 2016, Columbiana was awarded a grant from Patagonia to do outreach to ratepayers of Okanogan PUD to make them aware of why re-energizing Enloe Dam was not a wise use of ratepayers’ funds. The PUD had signed a contract with Azwell Dam on the Columbia River giving them more access to less costly power that they needed, making power from Enloe’s production too expensive. Columbiana wanted to produce a video about why Enloe needed to be removed from the river with part of their grant from Patagonia, and so, in 2019, Rick started writing a script and collecting video clips and hired Leslee Goodman of Alchemy on Demand as the film editor. The film, “Restoring the Similkameen: Origins of a Mighty River,” was to be in two parts which finally were joined together. It is viewable on Columbiana’s YouTube channel. NGOs Coalition Work to Remove Enloe Dam From 2004 to the present, Columbiana has worked with Hydro Reform Coalition and other NGOs (Trout Unlimited, American Rivers, American Whitewater, Sierra Club, Conservation NW, Center for Law and Policy, Audubon Society), as well as Lower and Upper Similkameen Indian Bands, Colville Confederated Tribes, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, National Marine Fisheries, Bureau of Land Management, and Department of Ecology to encourage the Okanogan PUD to remove Enloe Dam from the Similkameen River that no longer produced power, but blocks access to up and down movement of aquatic fauna and flora in the river. Indigenous Resolutions to Remove Enloe Dam In 2015, the Lower Similkameen Indian Band passed resolutions to support the removal of Enloe. The Colville Confederated Tribes (in 2017) and the Upper Similkameen Indian Band (in 2021) followed suit and passed resolutions to support the removal of the dam. Okanogan PUD Abandons Electrifying Enloe Dam Finally, after many years of trying to justify re-electrifying Enloe Dam, the staff of Okanogan PUD convinced the three commissioners that investing in producing power from the dam did not make economic sense when the PUD was facing other infrastructure needs to serve their customers. In November of 2018, the commissioners decided to abandon Enloe’s re-electrification, but still refused to consider removal of the dam from the river as, to the PUD, Enloe Dam was an asset they might use in the future. In 2008, Okanogan PUD had initiated the relicensing of the dam through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to produce electricity at Enloe Dam. After many attempts to re-electrify the dam, they lost their license from FERC in August of 2019. Dam Feasibility Study Approved An Enloe Dam Provisional Removal Plan was put forth from the NGOs to the WA Legislators in 2016 to help gain support and some funding to study removal. Support and funding were finally approved in 2020. It wasn’t until 2020 that Trout Unlimited and other NGOs and agencies were able to convince the PUD to allow a two-year feasibility study of dam removal to determine how and who would pay for the removal of sediment of concern from behind the dam and remove the dam itself from the river. Finally, in 2022, the PUD passed Resolution No. 1775 supporting a process to evaluate potential Enloe Dam removal. Support as a Fiscal Sponsor After completing the film “Restoring the Similkameen,” Leslee Goodman, who had edited the film was working on a film about grizzly bears, needed to find a fiscal sponsor to help her receive donations and grants from foundations in 2020. As Columbiana was a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, they offered to help Leslee. Their fiscal relationship led to two other fiscal sponsorships with Leslee’s editor, Rain Bear Stands Last of Alter Native Media, who was soliciting funds for his film, “Family,” about the killing of wolves he was doing for the Sierra Club. The second project was Erin Mitchell’s facilitator training of Indigenous women for House of the Moon. House of the Moon is a group of Canadian and U.S. Indigenous women leaders who trained women to return to their communities to help women and girls strengthen their resolve to not be victims of the rampage of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People that plagued their communities. The results of these involvements produced Leslee’s film which became the “Doctrine of Recovery,” an award-winning documentary about the Indigenous recovery from the 15th century Catholic Church papal decree, the Doctrine of Discovery, that has led to the colonial domination of Indigenous nations since. Similkameen Sunday Returns In the fall of 2023, Columbiana revived Similkameen Sundays and organized an event to provide an update on Enloe Dam removal and invite Lower Similkameen Indian Band and Colville Confederated Tribal members to help the public understand how Indigenous People see it as their responsibility to make sure the Earth’s resources are protected and what settler residents in the area can do to align with this ethos. Columbiana is now working on a new website and newsletter to share our accumulated work and update our activities. We are at a critical juncture in visioning how Columbiana’s energies and resources can most support the flourishing of all living beings in Columbia River Bioregion. |