Solutions

What people are trying

A dam being rebuilt so sockeye can reach the lake. A ridge bought so it stays open. Apartments rewired one at a time. Free Monday dinners in Joseph. Loan funds built for Native borrowers. None of it is a promise, and some of it is argued over. Here is what has been tried, what is being tried now, and the questions about 2046 you can answer yourself.

For people who run organizations and sit on boards. For candidates and voters. For anyone with an idea who wants to know what has already been done.

Start here ↓

The valley from Mount Howard — Finetooth · 2010-09-17 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Image & source ↗

Start here

Three to read first.

Home in 2046

Home, twenty years from now

Twenty years back and twenty years forward, seven storylines, three ideas to test, and nine questions.

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Wallowa Lake and the mountains, seen from the county park at the north end.

Chapter 01 · Land & water

Fish, farms, and the ridge above the lake

The dam, the coho and the ridge: deals that took a signature from everyone with a claim.

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Enterprise’s Main Street. A storefront is one place a loan ends up; the programs on this page also finance equipment, lots, boats and working capital.

A guide · Money to start something

Where does the money come from to start something here?

The programs that lend, match or guarantee money for a person starting something here.

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More to read.

01Possibilities, not promisesThree ideas to test, each with the skills it would take.02Who gets to shape the future?Votes, boards, growth boundaries and the border question.03Compare the approaches to housingWhat each approach is for, and the evidence each still needs.04New wiring, one empty apartment at a timeHow a county-owned building is being fixed with people still living in it.05What recovery tookA $500 grant, a form at City Hall, a contractor, and a colder month.06How the East Moraine was keptThe film of the purchase that put 1,791 acres in county hands.07Nez Perce youth learning to guide the riversA Joseph nonprofit’s raft trips and guide school, and the film it presents.

Original recordings · Connected to this page

Watch this part of the story.

All recordings

5:55

Land & water

Wallowa Lake's East Moraine: Securing a Community Legacy

From Wallowa Land Trust · 2019

25:36

Indigenous life

hitoláayca (Going Upriver)

From NRS · 2026

2:14

Land & water

Lostine Canyon Forest Health

From Wallowa Resources · 2020

2:08

Community & culture

Woodlands & Watersheds Festival 2024

From Wallowa Resources · 2025

Places in this part of the story

The records behind it.

Places & map

Organization · Joseph

Pandion Institute

A Joseph nonprofit, formed in 2023, that takes Nez Perce descendants and other Native youth onto the rivers and lands of the Columbia Plateau to learn, guide and lead.

Sourced record

Organization · Enterprise