August   2 0 1 8

Northern Flicker
Colaptes auratus

Thank you Jim Zacharias!

Jim Zacharias, owner of JayZee Lumber, has brought our Discovery Center everything from the ordinary to the unusual. He has hauled in wood for signage stands, exhibit pieces, bookshelves, parking lot stops and so much more. He has donated a petrified log and tree cookies of every shape and size. But it doesn’t stop at all things wood—Jim has enhanced our exhibits with taxidermy deer, bighorn sheep and a bear. “It’s like Christmas every time Jim shows up!” says Joan Gilbert, Director of Art & Exhibits, “But better because our Santa drives a forklift!”
 
Jim has been bringing Wallowology interesting things since our first season and says the idea of kids learning about nature keeps him on the lookout for more. “So many kids grow up not learning about the outdoors.” Jim says “I’m impressed with the kid programs and field trips that Wallowology provides.” Wallowology is not the only organization that benefits from Jim’s generosity. He has provided interesting and educational items for the new Joseph City Playground, the annual Watershed Festival and the Wallowa Resources Wren program, among others.

Jim grew up in Wallowa County and started logging his sophomore year as a summer job. He started his own company and logged until the mid-90s when the local mills started shutting down. Jim did some other work in Alaska, Colorado and Utah but came back to Wallowa County with a dream to build a log house. He had a small portable sawmill and his sons had some logging equipment. He crafted his house, and then some other houses, and his little sawmill morphed over the last 20 years into JayZee Lumber, which has just recently moved to a new location.

He has always been active in the community and sits on the board of Wallowa Resources, Natural Resources Advisory Committee, and Wallowa-Union Railroad Board. He has worked with the Divide Camp, and provided youth hunts for Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. He has served on the Joseph School Board and Joseph City Council. It is not a surprise that in his spare time Jim enjoys all things out of doors: being a hunting guide, hiking, riding horses, building rustic furniture, playing with his grandkids and relaxing by his pond.

Thanks for the cool stuff Jim, we appreciate all that you do for us!

Ralph's Links

Reflection of the Month

When there was air, when you could
breathe any day if you liked, and if you
wanted to you could run. I used to
climb those hills back of town and
follow a gully so my eyes were at ground
level and could look out through grass as the
stems
bent in their tensile way, and see snow
mountains follow along, the way distance goes.

Now I carry those days in a tiny box
wherever I go, I open the lid like this
and let the light glimpse and then glance away.
There is a sigh like my breath when I do this.
Some days I do this again and again.           

--William Stafford, from The Darkness Around Us Is Deep