ORA Spotlight: Mitch Wolgamott

Highlighting the stories of ORA leaders.

Mitch has been part of ORA for 10 years and currently serves as a Board Member and Board Chair. His experience includes about 30 years in environmental work, most of which was done in Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality.  He served several years in management, ending as acting Administrator of the DEQ Eastern Region. Mitch’s experience working for the State of Oregon and extensive knowledge of regional environmental issues has been critical to ORA’s environmental and agricultural work. He lives on a ten acre wood lot near Summerville, OR with his McNab Border Collie, Mollie.

When did you first become interested in community organizing? 

I became interested in organizing during the last few years of employment with the state.  I realized that while all the statewide polls indicated broad support for protecting water and air quality, that did not translate into vocal local citizen support for local protection efforts in rural eastern Oregon. I knew that this did not indicate lack of interest/concern, but more likely that citizens didn't know how and when to get involved. And, unlike the westside, there didn't appear to be organizations that were helping local citizens organize and know when and where to focus efforts.

What is your “why”? Why is this work important to you?  

This work is important to me because I am very much aware that the government agencies (state, local and federal) that nominally have responsibility for environmental stewardship simply cannot successfully do the work without citizen support. Without that, politics will play an outsized role. I want all people to have a voice.

What changes would you like to see in your local community?

I would like to see our communities in rural eastern Oregon to be able to come together and have productive conversations about mutual interests and how we can work together to both have a healthy economy and protect our shared resources.  And I think that can be done, relatively easily, if we would stop screaming at each other and talk about shared interests.

What’s something bringing you joy at the moment?

Joy at the moment?  It has been a rough year or more for all of us, what with political divisions and COVID control issues. On top of that are all our usual personal family/ health issues.  When I start to get down, what brings me joy, is when my dog, Mollie, comes to me and demands that I get up and throw the damn ball.