Wallowa County commissioners review draft agricultural‑lands study as part of 2026 comprehensive‑plan update

Wallowa County commissioners on Thursday reviewed a draft agricultural lands study prepared as part of the county’s 2026 periodic comprehensive‑plan update and asked staff to refine the analysis and expand outreach before proposing any map or zoning changes.

The county’s community development director, Lauren Prentice, opened the briefing by telling the board that “this is a state mandated, update of the comprehensive plan,” and that staff had focused the day’s presentation on an agricultural lands study that had not been updated in roughly 27 years.

The study, presented by Clay White of consultant Kimley‑Horn, applies state criteria to identify lands that meet the definition of “agricultural lands of long‑term commercial significance.” White said the initial filter — applying the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Service soil capability classifications and NRCS prime‑and‑unique‑farmland datasets — reduces the acreage that currently carries an agricultural designation. “Currently, there are about 717,000 acres that are zoned with that designation,” White said; “by applying…