JULY IS, 1978 PAGE 3
KAH-NEE-TA DAY USE AREA TAKING SHAPE
With Only Minor Inconvenience
By Cynthia Stowell
Constructing a new access
to Kah-Nee-Ta Village during
the peak of the tourist season is
no easy task, but the Tribes are
doing just that with a minimum
of traffic problems.
The project, which had been
scheduled for completion this
spring, suffered delays when the
contractor’s bids were too high.
The Tribes eventually decided to
administer the project themselv
es.
Contracting officer Les Yaw
estimated that by taking on the
project, the Tribes will realize a
substantial savings. Total pro
jected cost of the day use area
improvements is 3328,000, Yaw
said, an amount being supplied
by a combination of Title X and
Bureau of Outdoor Recreation
funds. Completion is expected
by early September.
Architectural plans drawn
by Reddick, Brun and Moreland
of Portland, show a dramatic
facelift for the north side of the
Warm Springs River, opposite
the Village. The main features
will be a landscaped parking lot
for 174 cars, controlled access to
the Village, and increased rec
reation facilities.
Also included in the project
is the rebuilding of the footbrige
which washed out during a
storm last November.
When the day use area is
completed, visitors to the Vill
age will no longer proceed
directly across the car bridge
but be routed through an inform
antion-toll house and into the
measurements for the irrigation system at Kah-nee-Ta’s day use area, now under construction. Souers
and Clerk of the Works Bill Bennatt are engineering the project for the Tribes and eyeing a tentative
completion date of early September. The project includes parking, controlled access to the Village and
increased recreational area for day visitors.
CDS Photo.
appropriate parking area. Only
overnight guests will park on the
Village side while day visitors
will use the new parking lot for a
fee, refundable with a purchase
at the Village,
The booth will be manned at
all times to control access and
prevent the traffic abuses that
currently exist. The Village has
experienced problems with visit
ors using day facilities without
spending a penny, trespassing
on non-resort property and dis
turbing overnight guests.
Not in the original plans but
found to be a necessity is an
overflow lot across the road
which will make more than 400
additional parking spaces avail
able. A busy day at the Village
brings at least that many cars
into the existing facilities.
Subcontractors are current
ly installing the irrigation sys
tem for the several landscaped
areas within the main lot and
along the river. The landscap
ing, which may not be done until
next spring, will involve the
planting of 1598 shrubs and trees
as well as the seeding of lawns.
Sagebrush has been remov
ed in preparation for the seeding
of the picnic area situated a-
mong the junipers at the river’s
edge. A jogging trail and a play
structure will be other features
of the day use area that should
take some pressure off the
Village.
Footbridge construction will
be underway once the ordered
parts arrive, said Yaw, and that
part of the project should be
completed by late August. An
other aspect of the first •phase of
the project is stabilization of the
river banks for flood control.
Long range plans for the day
use area include rest rooms, a
second footbridge, additional
play structures and a generally
expanded recreational plaza.
Engineers for the project
are Dick Souers of the B.I.A.
Roads Department, who has
overseen the grading and lay-out
of the parking lot, and Clerk of
the Works, Bill Bennatt, whose
specialty is the concrete work,
structures and signs. Another
local resource being utilized is
Tribal Engineer Satish Puri,
who is designing a water filtra
tion system for the new area.
The Tribes took on the
project when the lowest bids
were $80,000 higher than the
amount budgeted. Construction
of the new mobile home park
was also handled in this uncon
ventional fashion.
BRUSH CLEARING HELPS TREES GROW
In their fourth week of tedi
ous labor, 18 boys and one girl
are pruning away ‘plot after plot
of snow brush, rose buses and
red stem in clear cut areas on
the north end of the reservation.
The brush treatment crew,
as it is called this year, leaves
Warm Springs for the clear cut
area about 40 miles north mak
ing for a very chilly hour-long
ride by flatbed truck.
The crew is employed by the
tribes’ summer work program
to clear away the brush in the
clear cuts that endanger the re
cently planted seedings. The
snow brush, especially, becomes
so thick that the little trees are
choked from sunlight and water.
The crew only tackles the brush
that is about four feet high.
Anything larger is handled by
spraying from helicopters
through the U.S. forestry depart
ment.
“I wish there was a natural
death for this brush,” said co
crew boss Doyle Whipple as he
struggled with a stringer of
snow brush. He explained that if
not all the stringers of the brush
are cut, the brush will grow
right back in a matter of no
time. But, if all the branches are
cut, it takes three or four years
for it to grow back to four feet.
That four years is time enough
for a tree to get a good start.
Sam Col wash, the other co
crew boss, also explained that
the forestry department assigns
20 to 30-acre plots and then
marks off five acres of that plot
to show how effective brush
treatment actually is.
The kids receive $2.85 per
hour. En route to their work
sight, they have spotted deer,
bear and elk. They even caught
an elk calf that had been wound
ed, and then later decided that if
he found water he could heal
himself.
STROKE! - Like a mother bird coaxing her brook out of the neat, swimming instructor Terry
Macy demonstrated the proper arm movement to a bevy of beginning swimmers, at the Kah-Nee-Ta
Village pool Monday. Macy is now into her third session of swim lessons, part of the Community
t Cep|ej^ Summer Recreation Program.
CDS Photo
Nature not only supplies us
with trees, bushes 'and flowers;
but we are also plagued by bees,
deer flies, and heat. Five girls
were hired to clear brush but as
of July 11, only one girl, Rene
Sohappy, had stuck to the grind
stone and primers.”
BRUSH TREATMENT - Dondi Hoptowit is employed by the
tribes’ summer work program as a brush treatment crew member.
Days begin early, at 7:00 a.m., and work is tedious and often a pain In
tiie back. Dondi appears to enjoy his work, smiling as he cuts away
the four-foot high snow brush that chokes the life of many seedlings.