2022 Year in Review

Wagner Ranch sale tops local news story list

The previous 12 months commenced with some uncertainty and some expectations about what stories might dominate the headlines in 2022. It turns out that uncertainty and expectation were leavened with a few surprises before the year concluded.

Of the top two stories of 2021 as voted on by the Methow Valley News readership, only one — the year’s wildfires, which was No. 1 — made it back into the top stories list in 2022, and that just barely. The No. 2 story of 2021, the continuation of COVID protocols, didn’t make it into the top finishers this year, although it barely missed.

There were some repeated topics, which in most cases amounted to a continuation or culmination of an ongoing story. The No. 1 and No. 2 stories of 2022 are examples (we included the major grand openings under one category). Among the unpredictable were the outcomes of November’s elections, and the sale of Sun Mountain Lodge.

Because of ties in the voting, we actually have 11 stories on the top headlines list. Thanks to everyone who participated in the voting — we appreciate feedback.

Following are the top vote-getters of 2022.

1 – Wagner Ranch transfer

The fate of the historic Wagner Ranch north of Winthrop hung in the balance for a couple of years after one sale fell through. But thanks to the efforts of the Methow Conservancy, the property is now owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

In June, the Conservancy acknowledged transfer of title to the 328-acre ranch to the Confederated Tribes in a ceremony that highlighted the ages-old occupation of the land by indigenous people.

The land at Wagner Ranch, which has been renamed x̌ʷnámx̌ʷnam, or Hummingbird, was purchased by the Methow Conservancy in fall of 2020.

The Confederated Tribes originally approached the Conservancy more than six years ago seeking land acquisition expertise, with the hope of securing Hummingbird. Before a purchase could be made, the property was bought by the Western Rivers Conservancy, a nonprofit land trust.

When it went back on the market last June after the Western Rivers Conservancy could not complete the purchase, the Methow Conservancy jumped at the opportunity to buy it and return it to the original people. The Conservancy mounted a $3.6-million fundraising campaign to close the deal, and raised the money in about three months.

Located just north of Winthrop and to the east of the Chewuch River, the land boasts open fields, river access and multiple buildings, offering a promising future for conservation and cultural gatherings. It will be conserved under the guidance of Methow descendants through Confederate Tribes ownership.

2 – The grand openings

After years of proposing, debating, planning, fundraising, revising, delaying and finally building, three impressive public structures had their grand openings this year: chronologically, the new Winthrop library, the Okanogan County Fire District 6 fire hall in Winthrop, and the Twisp Civic Building and Emergency Operations Center.

• Winthrop library

The new Winthrop library had the shortest time lapse between idea and realization, thanks to an effective fundraising campaign by the nonprofit Friends of the Winthrop Library (FOWL) and a $ 2 million capital projects grant from the state. The library welcomed the public in June after a six-year effort that included extensive community involvement.

More than 1,000 people donated to the local campaign that helped raise the $6.5 million needed to build the library, which was augmented by the $2 state million grant.

FOWL’s fundraising efforts emphasized that the new space would be not just a library but also a multi-faceted community resource where all were welcome.

The 7,300-square-foot building, which is more than six times the size of the previous library, includes dedicated sections for kids, teens and adults; six windows with bench seating; and a living-room area with a fireplace and view of Mount Gardner.

The building also features separate rooms for community gatherings, lectures and activities, and a “maker space” for things like art projects, 3D printers and sewing machines. The main community gathering space can be accessed separately when the library is closed, and includes a catering kitchen. It can accommodate up to 72 people, or be divided by a soundproof barrier into two separate meeting spaces, each with access to covered outdoor areas.

The larger library accommodates a bigger collection — more books, magazines, audio and movies. There are public computers and printers. The entire facility has free public Wi-Fi. The library also features artwork created by local artists.

• Fire District 6 fire hall

Completion of the new Okanogan County Fire District 6 fire hall in Winthrop, celebrated with an open house in August, culminated years of effort that included debate over the location, a rejected levy increase to pay for the building, and construction delays. With voter approval of a property tax levy increase in 2020, the station project finally began a definitive move forward.

The district also received a $1.8 million grant from the Bruno and Evelyne Betti Foundation for vocational training for firefighters, which was contingent upon passage of the levy request. About $650,000 of the grant could be used for the station construction, with the rest of the grant supporting a regional firefighting training center at the Winthrop station.

The ability to increase training opportunities for firefighters is one of the key elements of the nearly 12,000-square-foot facility. A conference room can accommodate large groups attending trainings, and will also be available for community meetings.

The new station has two dormitory rooms that can accommodate up to eight firefighters who are manning the station, or who need to rest after responding to calls. The dorms can also house people attending training sessions.

The district will install two additional modular buildings on the 5-acre property, with funding from the Betti Foundation, for classrooms and drills. A workout area will also provide a place to wind down after a call, and to maintain fitness.

While all these features of the new building are a vast improvement over the district’s previous Winthrop station, the most significant improvement is a cavernous space with eight bays for fire vehicles. The district will no longer have to store, wash or do maintenance on vehicles outside, which it had to do at the small station on Englar Street in Winthrop.

The new Winthrop station is the fire district’s headquarters and includes an office for the district chief, who was at the Twisp station. District 6 also has fire stations in Mazama and Carlton, to provide fire services from Gold Creek to Lost River, covering 300 square miles in the Methow Valley.

• Twisp Civic Building

Delayed by rebids, financing shortages and construction challenges, the Twisp Civic Building finally had its day in late October, a decade after it was first conceived. The grand opening event was several months later than the originally planned July celebration.

The modern building replaces the aging, problem-plagued Town Hall that had stood on the same spot for years when, in 2011, the town began planning for a replacement.

The intensity of effort took an exponential leap a couple of years later after the Carlton Complex Fire, when the communications lapses that hampered firefighting and community responses to conditions including loss of power and cell phone service prompted a decision to also make the new Civic Building a hub for emergency communications for the valley.

For years thereafter, the town worked with county, state and federal officials on both planning and funding, much of which came from state capital improvement grants supported by 12th District legislators.

The town fortuitously received a state capital budget allotment of $1.5 million in 2021 — thanks to some last-minute legislative session action — to augment the earlier funding it accumulated for the building, which totaled about $3 million from a combination of other capital budget appropriations, a state Department of Commerce community development block grant and town reserve funds.

The road to completion had a few potholes to be navigated before construction started in 2021. Early cost estimates fell well short of even the lowest bids from contractors, which required postponements for new bids, building redesigns and the elimination of some features in the original plan. The COVID pandemic, which created contractor and supply chain problems for Twisp (and everyone else), also hampered progress.

The final push came with the town’s acceptance of an $850,000 low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program to restore some features both inside and outside the new civic building, that had been eliminated in cost-cutting efforts. The loan, to be paid off over 30 years, was something town officials had not wanted to do but was necessary to provide enough funds.

3 – Twisp Restoration Project

It was a fateful year for the Twisp Restoration Project (TRP), which was slashed by more than two-thirds in January 2022 after large sections of the proposed project area burned in the 2021 Cedar Creek Fire.

Then in November, the TRP became the subject of a lawsuit by the North Cascades Conservation Council (NCCC), which alleges that the U.S. Forest Service failed to give the public adequate opportunity to comment on the project, especially after the TRP changed so radically when the project area was reduced.

The TRP has been controversial since it was proposed in 2020. The Methow Valley Ranger District received almost 1,000 comments on the project. After the initial feedback, the project was amended to tighten criteria for removal of old-growth trees and to eliminate actions in a roadless area.

Some people hailed the TRP for its promise to restore forest health and reduce wildfire risk. But others, particularly in the Twisp River drainage, were concerned by the 20- to 30-year timeline and the prospect of years of logging traffic. Many questioned plans for cutting irreplaceable old-growth trees and worried about impacts on wildlife habitat.

The TRP is intended to improve forest and aquatic health through thinning, prescribed burning, stream-habitat enhancement, fish passage, and transportation system changes, according to the environmental analysis released in April by the ranger district. The district says the treatments are necessary to restore healthy forest stands that will be resilient to disturbances such as wildfire and climate change.

The first timber sale for the TRP is anticipated in the spring of 2023, unless NCCC succeeds in obtaining an injunction on logging until their lawsuits is resolved.

4 – November elections

The November elections will have a profound effect on the valley, with Twisp Police Chief Paul Budrow moving on to become Okanogan County Sheriff, after a more than a decade of service to the town of Twisp. After two candidates were eliminated in the primary, Budrow defeated one-term incumbent Sheriff Tony Hawley thanks to strong support from Methow voters.

Budrow was the overwhelming choice of voters in the Methow, a significant factor in his 4.5-percentage-point win over Hawley. In the rest of Okanogan County, Hawley actually outpolled Budrow by a 2% margin.

Support for Budrow was especially strong in Methow precincts in and around Twisp, where he outranked Hawley by a margin of 16% (Twisp Rural) to as much as 44% (Finley Canyon and McClure). Still, support for Budrow among Methow voters wasn’t uniform, according to Okanogan County’s aggregated precinct results. Mazama voters preferred Hawley by 10 percentage points, and Winthrop voters also gave Hawley a generous margin.

With the highest overall turnout in the county — more than 80% in some precincts — Methow Valley voters also influenced the outcome of other key races.

Okanogan County Commissioner Jim DeTro, who represented District 3, the northern part of the county, retired after three four-year terms. Oroville Mayor Jon Neal will fill that spot, having defeated former petroleum-company manager Lloyd Caton, thanks in part to robust support from Methow voters. All three are Republicans.

Caton won the support of 50.5% of voters in the rest of the county, while Neal got just 47.5%. But the Methow (with the exception of Finley Canyon) chose Neal, generally by significant margins. Mazama and Winthrop voted for Neal over Caton by about 80% to 20%, and all precincts in the valley other than Finley Canyon also went for Neal.

The race for county coroner brought some surprises. Although Coroner Dave Rodriguez initially planned to move on after serving two terms, he mounted a successful last-minute write-in campaign in the August primary after questions arose about challenger Rojean (Jeannie) Hughes. Rodriguez, who said he wanted “to provide voters with an alternative,” was re-elected by a 30% margin.

Methow voters were outliers in their preference for Okanogan County Public Utility District commissioner, going for Joseph Enzensperger over incumbent Jerry Asmussen by 56% to 44%. But about half of Methow precincts joined the rest of the county in backing Asmussen, who was re-elected countywide with a hefty 60% to Enzensperger’s 39%.

Voters showed substantial support for Aero Methow Rescue Service, approving its levy 81% to 19%.

5 – Grizzly reintroduction

Planning for grizzly bear restoration in the North Cascades was revived in November, when federal agencies announced they would begin a new environmental study to evaluate options for bringing brown bears back to their historical habitat.

The announcement restarted a planning process that began nine years ago, but came to an abrupt halt when the Trump administration terminated consideration of grizzly restoration in 2020.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, the lead agencies for grizzly restoration, propose capturing grizzlies from other populations and releasing a few bears at a time in the North Cascades Ecosystem, a vast wilderness area of 13,600 square miles stretching from north central Washington to British Columbia.

The agencies’ proposed action is almost identical to an alternative included in the previous Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on grizzly restoration that was shelved in 2020.

However, the new proposal includes an additional element — designating grizzlies in the North Cascades Ecosystem as an “experimental population” under the Endangered Species Act.

That special designation would give wildlife agencies, ranchers and landowners greater flexibility in dealing with human-grizzly bear conflicts, including permitting lethal or non-lethal removal of nuisance bears.

The decision to revive grizzly restoration planning was applauded by conservation groups, including the Methow Valley Citizens Council (MVCC).

“Many rural residents living in the North Cascades recognize that they are in grizzly bear habitat. They recognize that as a native species, grizzlies were here before them, and we should make room for them to return,” said Jasmine Minbashian, MVCC executive director.

The renewed planning process drew objections from Dan Newhouse, the Republican Congressman whose 4th District includes some of the North Cascades Ecosystem. Newhouse has fought grizzly bear reintroduction for years on the grounds that “introducing an apex predator to the area would threaten the families, wildlife, and livestock of north central Washington.”

Grizzly bears are federally protected as a threatened species in the lower 48 states, and are listed as an endangered species by Washington state.

The Washington portion of the North Cascades Ecosystem, totaling 9,800 square miles, includes the Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest (which includes the Methow Valley Ranger District), North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

The goal of the recovery effort would be to reach a stable population of 200 grizzly bears in the North Cascades Ecosystem within 60 to 100 years. The timeline for the recovery planning calls for public scoping in fall 2022, a draft plan/EIS release and public comment in summer of 2023, a final plan/EIS release in spring 2024, followed by the record of decision.

6 – Riverwalk project

The dream of a pedestrian pathway along the banks of the Chewuch and Methow rivers in Winthrop has been through a start-and-stop planning process for years, and looked like it had again stalled in 2022.

Then an informal citizen group began a highly personal campaign to rally the support of property owners, residents and town leaders. Group members engaged in person-to-person conversations with property owners and businesspeople to determine if longstanding stalemates could be overcome.

For years, the town has devoted time and resources to a plan to extend a pedestrian walkway following the banks of the Chewuch and Methow rivers, from the Sa Teekh Wa bridge downstream to the Spring Creek Bridge, including an underpass beneath the north end of the Chewuch River Bridge at the four-way stop. Much of the trail would be on the back side of commercial buildings that front on Riverside Avenue.

The main roadblock to completing the trail has been dealing with concerns raised by the owners of Riverside Avenue property whose parcels would be crossed by the path. Those concerns range from whether the backs of their buildings would have to meet the town’s Westernization requirements, to loss of parking to ongoing maintenance to questioning the need for such a path.

Despite its ongoing efforts the town has been unable to get easement agreements from all the affected property owners.

The citizen group got the town’s backing and reiteration of commitment to the project, and its members continue to work on broadening support.

Phase I of the project, which includes the underpass, required numerous local, state and federal regulatory permits, is funded by a state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) grant plus federal transportation monies. Phase II would be from the kiosk behind the Farmer’s Exchange Building to Spring Creek Bridge. Phase III would extend upriver on the Chewuch River from the back of the Emporium to Sa Teekh Wah bridge.

7 – Climate action

One year after Resilient Methow released the ambitious Methow Climate Action Plan, the organization pointed to several initiatives already underway that could lessen the impacts of climate change at the local level.

Resilient Methow highlighted early successes including a switch to energy-saving appliances for heating and cooling, development of a water bank to preserve water for local agriculture, more charging stations for electric vehicles, and additional trees to be planted in Twisp.

Resilient Methow released the climate plan in November 2021. The plan includes seven goals based on community input: preserving water, ensuring healthy natural systems, preparing for wildfires and adversity, an efficient and affordable built environment, a thriving place-based economy, vibrant agriculture, and a carbon-neutral valley.

As the climate changes, the Methow Valley can expect less water and hotter weather, which will have impacts on farming, forests and wildlife, and accompanying economic pressures, according to climate scientists.

Other initiatives taking shape include a system that will help the Methow Valley understand water use and plan for long-term water availability, and a small study to quantify water use from household wells.

Promising steps include the Methow Beaver Project’s work to modernize beaver management, in light of the crucial role beavers play in preserving healthy watersheds. Then there’s Fire Adapted Methow Valley’s programs to help communities around the valley reduce wildfire risk. And the Methow Housing Trust is building affordable homes in Winthrop and Twisp designed to have a low-carbon footprint.

There’s more financing available to help people switch to more efficient appliances, replace old woodstoves with nonpolluting models, and for weatherization and insulation.

8 – Sun Mountain Lodge sale

Several local lodging establishments changed hands this year, but no transaction was so dramatic as the sale of the valley’s iconic Sun Mountain Lodge — which had been under ownership of the Haub family for 35 years.

The lodge, Patterson Lake Cabins and adjacent property were purchased by Seattle-based GEM Real Estate Partners. GEM founding partners Erich Guenther and Collin Madden said they were excited about owning the property and maintaining its historic appeal. GEM owns office buildings, apartment buildings and hotels in and around Seattle.

Jack Barron opened Sun Mountain Lodge in 1968, which he conceived as a rustic mountain-top resort that would blend in with its surroundings.

The Haub family bought the lodge in 1987. They embarked on an expansion and renovation that maintained Barron’s original vision. The renovations incorporated natural materials and hefty Douglas fir beams to complement the massive local boulders and timbers Barron had used. In 2002, the Haubs remodeled the lodge again, commissioning local artisans to create furnishings and accessories.

9 – Gray wolves protection

Gray wolves, including those living in and around the Methow Valley, regained protection as a federally endangered species in February when a federal judge reversed a Trump administration rule that removed protections for the wolves in the lower 48 states.

A U.S. District Court judge ordered the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to resume recovery efforts for gray wolves and restored their designation as a species threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The judge said the Fish & Wildlife Service had not adequately considered threats to the survival of the gray wolf species in western states and other parts of the country when the agency decided to remove protections in the fall of 2020.

The federal ruling does not apply to wolves categorized as the Northern Rocky Mountains distinct population segment, which were removed from federal protection under legislation passed by Congress in 2011. That includes gray wolves in the eastern one-third of Washington and Oregon, a small part of north-central Utah, and all of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

However, wolves in the eastern part of Washington and throughout the state are listed and protected under state law as an endangered species in Washington. Wolves in the western two-thirds of the state, which includes the Methow Valley, were protected under the federal law as an endangered species before the protections were eliminated near the end of the Trump administration.

Following the U.S. District Court decision, federal protections were reinstated for wolves in the western two-thirds of Washington, placing management of wolves in the Methow Valley under federal jurisdiction.

Under the state’s Wolf Management and Conservation Plan, state protections can be lifted when wolves are considered to be recovered, which is determined by population, distribution and reproduction.

As of 2022, 23 of 29 known wolf packs in Washington were located in the eastern third of the state where wolves have not been federally listed under the Endangered Species Act since 2011.

The Methow Valley had three known wolf packs in 2022 that occupy territory in and around the valley, and is home to the longest existing wolf pack in the state – the Lookout Pack – which was discovered in 2008 and was the first known resident pack in Washington since wolves were essentially eliminated throughout the state by the early 1900s.

10 (tie) – Opioids

Okanogan County has seen an alarming spike in overdoses from opioids in the past two years as the extremely potent — and often lethal — synthetic opioid fentanyl has become ubiquitous.

Although there are more overdoses then ever in the county, the number of fatal overdoses has dropped since Narcan (Naloxone) became widely available. Narcan is a nasal spray that quickly and safely reverses the effects of opioids.

First responders carry Narcan. Health care providers dispense it for free to people with substance-abuse disorder, their friends and family, and anyone who wants to have it on hand.

Narcan may solve the immediate problem of a potentially fatal overdose, but it doesn’t address the underlying issues that drive opioid dependency and addiction in the first place. Prolonged use of opioids causes chronic health conditions that can be deadly, according to Okanogan County Coroner Dave Rodriguez.

It’s easy to become dependent on opioids, but difficult to stop using them because the symptoms of withdrawal are so miserable, according to James Wallace, Okanogan County’s health officer and a family physician at Family Health Centers. Some people become addicted to opioids after a prescription for pain after surgery or an injury. Others start with a pill they get from a friend or at a party, Wallace said.

While the reasons for an increase in opioid use and overdoses are complex, health care providers say that lack of adequate treatment for mental and behavioral health issues is a contributing factor, particularly over the past five to 10 years.

Although the demand for treatment for opioid-use disorder exceeds the supply — with providers still trying to catch up after the backlog created by the pandemic — there are now more ways to get help in Okanogan County.

Family Health Centers has an Opioid Treatment Network and Okanogan Behavioral Healthcare develops individualized treatment plans. Advance NW’s Recovery Navigator Program has a team of field-based outreach specialists with lived experience of addiction. These recovery coaches work directly with people with substance-abuse disorder, helping them navigate housing, employment and mental and physical health needs.

Okanogan County’s therapeutic court program can lead to reductions in sentences or dismissal of charges, and can help reunite families who have been separated because of substance-use disorder.

10 (tie) – Summer without fire

It’s a sobering sign of the times when a summer in the Methow without wildfires qualifies as a top news story. But after devastating wildfires struck the valley and surrounding mountains in more than half of the summers in the past decade, when the Methow isn’t menaced by fire and evacuation orders, people notice.

Washington state had major wildfires during the summer of 2022, but some of the most serious burned in traditionally moister western Washington.

Closer to home, a complex of lightning-caused fires in the Pasayten Wilderness near the Canadian border in August and September closed trails and wilderness areas. Those blazes affected the Harts Pass vicinity, but the fires were far from developed areas in the valley. In some cases, fire crews and smokejumpers were able to attack the blazes, but some fires were in inaccessible terrain and allowed to burn naturally.

Although 2022 was Washington’s driest year on record as of early October, in terms of fire starts and acres burned, it was the lightest wildfire season in a decade, according to the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In the entire state, just 180,000 acres burned in 2022. Compare that with 2021, when the Cedar Creek and Cub Creek 2 fires alone burned a combined 126,000 acres in and around the Methow Valley.

DNR attributed the low acreage to equipment and personnel pre-deployed around the state, which helped fire crews respond right away to keep fires from spreading. DNR also had more high-tech equipment and additional fire staff.

Public education was also a factor — it helped people make their homes and properties more resilient to fire and increased awareness to keep new ignitions low, given that most fires are human caused, DNR said.

Beyond that, quick response by firefighters extinguished a handful of blazes in the Methow Valley in the spring, summer and fall before they spread.

Smoke from fires in the Cascades, Idaho and Montana, and British Columbia produced some days of unhealthy, smoky air in the valley, but that paled in comparison to the atrocious air quality that plagued the Methow in 2021, which earned the valley the unwelcome distinction of “worst air in the world” during one bad stretch.

Top news stories of 2021

• summer fires
• COVID impacts
• emergence of biochar
• water banking proposal
• county moratoria
• weather extremes
• Twisp Restoration Project
• Okanogan County Fire District 6 fire hall progress
• proposed reintroduction of grizzly bears in North
Cascades
• purchase of the Wagner Ranch by the Methow Conservancy
• county comprehensive plan
• Friends of the Pool efforts
• Twisp Civic Building progress

Other contenders

Nearly making the list were the easing of COVID restrictions, and the work by Friends of the Pool to replace the Wagner Memorial Pool in Twisp. Also on the ballot were: Robert Grim replaces Chris Culp as Okanogan County Superior Court judge; changes in the County Prosecutor’s office; Okanogan County’s lifting of a building permit ban; continued controversy over the Mission project; the county’s imposition of stricter cannabis farm regulations; the Methow Housing Trust’s projects and capital campaign; the Give Methow campaign’s record-setting effort; the expansion of Room One; imposition of a moratorium on overnight rental conversions in Twisp; update of the Twisp parks and recreation plan; the proliferation of proposed housing projects in Twisp; and proposed changes to the Twisp sign code.

Don Nelson, Marcy Stamper, Olivia Palmer and Ann McCreary contributed to this article.