Reiko Hillyer, Rick hits the road, introducing Barbara

Hello Fishtrap Friends,

May 24, less than four weeks before the Summer Solstice, and I’m still burning my wood stove. People are starting to grumble. What better excuse to come to an (indoor) discussion this Wednesday evening, May 26, at 7 pm, led by Reiko Hillyer, an Oregon Humanities Conversation Project scholar, on the topic "Marking Our Territory." Here’s the intriguing blurb from the Oregon Humanities catalog:

"The big house and the quarters; the front door and the back door; lunch counters, water fountains, the back of the bus. One of the most persistent ways people exert power over others is to control their access to space. Drawing upon the fields of architecture, environmental studies, urban design, and public policy, this discussion will pose the following questions: How do we mark our territory? How do the built environments we create reflect our values and aspirations? Whom do we include and whom de we exclude in the process?"

Touching on gentrification, the decline of public space, historic preservation, residential segregation, and suburban sprawl, Hillyer (who recently won a Teacher of the Year award as a history professor at Lewis & Clark College) will lead a conversation about how to read the history of our communities through the landscapes we build, and consider how we can be more aware of and more engaged in the creation of our surroundings. Please join us for what promises to be an engaging evening with Reiko Hillyer.

Well, the time has come.

This is the last email you’ll receive from me as the Executive Director of Fishtrap. This week marks the transition from me to Barbara Dills, who is stepping in as the Interim Executive Director here while the search continues for a long-term replacement for me.

Barbara’s got a great combination of qualities that suit her admirably to the task at hand. A skilled writer, a management professional with lots of experience working with non-profits, and a long-time Fishtrap participant and former Fishtrap Fellow, Barbara has already brought her great skills and attitude to bear here. Fishtrap is in good hands. Let’s all join in giving Barbara our thanks and support during her tenure.

Your emails to director@fishtrap.org will now be answered by Barbara, or you can email her directly at barbara@fishtrap.org. If you would like to correspond with me personally, you can reach me at rick@mossyoldtroll.com. I’ll be spending much of this summer in the Wallowa Mountains as a wilderness ranger with the US Forest Service, so I may not always be quick to respond. But I will respond.

Thanks to all of you for everything you have shared – your stories, your writing, your support, your engagement – with Fishtrap. Keep on!

Best wishes,

Rick Bombaci

HELLO FROM BARBARA:

Greetings Fishtrap Fans, Supporters, and Family, near and far,

First, let me say what an honor it is for me to have been asked to step into the Interim Executive Director role here, to provide a bridge until the next right person for the permanent position is identified and hired. I cannot begin to fill either Rick or Rich’s shoes (sizeable in both cases!), but hopefully I can at least protect their separate, amazing legacies here and keep the river flowing somewhat smoothly while the Governing Board’s search and selection process continues.

My discovery—and deep love—of Fishtrap goes back more than 20 years to a 1989 Jonathan Nicholas column in the Oregonian announcing that year’s Gathering. I headed east to Wallowa County for what turned out to be a wonderful weekend, and three years later found myself blessed with a fellowship for the entire week of Summer Fishtrap events. The work I did that week remains the basis for a memoir I am now working on—with John Daniel’s generous help—in this year’s yearlong workshop. And so the circle goes ‘round.

In between 1989 and now, I’ve attended Summer Fishtrap at least ten times and Winter Fishtrap once. The memories so plentiful and rich, I’ve lost count.

Since 1980, when I first moved to Oregon, I’ve gone from a tipi-maker in the hills outside Hood River to a corporate executive. Hopefully, the moss I gathered through all of that will serve Fishtrap’s needs—and yours—adequately over the next few months.

I look forward to seeing many of you at this year’s Summer Fishtrap, at local events here in Wallowa County, for tea or a meal on my jaunts to Portland to check in on my home there. Some of you I will meet first by phone or in email. I look forward to linking arms with all of you to ensure that Fishtrap continues to grow and thrive.

Until we meet...

My best,

Barbara Dills

FISHTRAP FRIENDS...

This Saturday, May 29, at 6:30 pm, Gwen Trice of the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center invites you to an impromptu gathering at Fishtrap’s Coffin House with Marv and Rindy Ross, where they will be presenting a possible collaborative musical theatre project about the historical logging culture of the 1920's and 1930's in Wallowa County.

Marv and Rindy have also generously offered to perform a few songs from their previous musicals for your enjoyment.