Oct 7, 1999 ?
Vol.24No.21 )
or. coll. 0 (Coyote News)
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He He Fire Burns 6,172 Acres of Timber and Grassland
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Simnash District Meeting
Simnasho Longhouse
Monday, October 18, 1999
Dinner 6:00 p.m., Meeting 7:00 p.m.
Agenda: 2000 Budget
Agency District Meeting
Agency Longhouse
Tuesday, October 19, 1999
Dinner 6:00 p.m., Meeting 7:00 p.m.
Agenda: 2000 Budget
Tribal Council hopes
(This is the final article in a 4 part
series examining Tribal Council
Priorities)
In a time of growing challenges
on the Reservation, Tribal Council
looked for ways to strengthen their
ability to meet the challenges faced
by the Tribe. A desire to provide a
sound foundation forproblem solving
and good government led to a set of
priorities.
In previous articles, Tribal
Council priorities 1 through 6 have
been examined. In this, the final
article, we will examine priorities 7
through 9.
Priority number 7 is Resource
Management. Protecting and using
the natural resources is closely tied
to the health and prosperity of the
Tribes. It is vital that we have accurate
information for policy development
and to ensure that we understand the
consequences of our resources use
and management actions.
The desired results of the priority
are:
1. ) Implement a timber sale
planning and approval process
that can produce approved sales
within 6 months while preserving
vital forest conditions.
2. ) Implement a fisheries recovery
program to produce harvestable
populations of salmon available for
Tribal member harvest
3. ) Implement resource
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prioritizing challenges
management policies and practices
that maintain a sustainable use level
of resources while optimizing the
economic return from the
development and use of those
resources over the long term.
4. ) Provide better information
about resource utilization and
resource protection and enhancement
in the IRMP process.
5. ) Plan, approve and place
under contract to WSFPI sufficient
number of sales to equal 150 mmbf
(approximately 3 years worth of
sales) in advance.
Priority number 8 is Community
Development - Housing. There is a
genera consensus that housing needs
are not being met for individual
members or their families. Greater
emphasis and effort needs to be
placed with rental units, development
of private housing and infrastructure
that encourages housing
development.
The desired results are:
1. ) Plan, design and build 75 new
housing units per year.
2. ) Determine why Tribal services
are not meeting the needs of existing
rental tenants or the shelter needs of
the homeless. Implement the
necessary changes to resolve the
problems identified .
3. ) Develop a Housing
Development Plan to determine how
many units are to be built annually,
Tymoo
Kah-Ne-Ta Route S
Smith pleads guilty in beating
of Warm Springs man
Wamblee Smith, arrested in
February in the beating of a 22
year-old Warm Springs man, was
sentenced in Federal District Court
in Portland, Oregon, Monday,
September 27.
The victim, William Suppah, an
enrolled member of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs, is in a
nursing home and hasn't recovered
from the incident that took place near
1713 Foster St. in the West Hills
subdivison.
Smith, 20 years old at the time,
will mean better rate of
how many will be rental and how
many home ownership units, where
they will be built, the infrastructure
needed and how they will be
financed.
4. ) Plan, design and install reliable
utility delivery systems (water,
sewer, power, etc.) and other
infrastructure and services
(sub-divisions, streets, police & fire
protection, etc.) with the capacity to
meet the projected growth for the
next 1 0 years for the communities of
Warm Springs, Simnasho, Schoolie
Flat, Seekseequa and Sidwalter.
5, ) Secure funding and complete
construction of authorized
infrastructure development projects
outlined below:
a. Sanitary Landfill (Solid Waste
Disposal Site)
b. Waste Water Treatment Facility
(phase 1)
c. Elder Care "Assisted Living"
Facility
d. Transportation Projects
e. Domestic Water Tanks
The final priority is Essential
Government Services. The Tribal
organization provides a number of
essentia services that are critical to
the health and well-being of
individuals and the community as a
whole. These services range from
aw enforcement to education. It
appears that these services are
sometimes at cross purposes and that
P.O. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Change Service Requested
Fire threatened homes, livestock and
wildlife in the area. Crews are still
mopping up spot burining within the
fireline
What started out as a 400 acre
prescribed grass burn to clean up
the meadow area and enhance more
traditional cultural foods. The
prescribed burn conducted by the
Warm Springs Fire Management
Office September 29, instead
resulted into 6172 acres 13 timber
and 23 grass of blacken acreage.
The range burn surrounded by roads
was in prescription with no forecast
for winds.
Sparks carried by unexpected winds
of up to 15 MPH were the cause for
the blaze. By September 30, the
HeHe fire had burned approximately
5000 acres of grass and timber just
14 miles north of Warm Springs,
closing Highway 26 and Route 9.
Based on successful fire suppression
efforts, Fire and Safety officials
anticipated opening Highway 26 at
8;00amFriday, October 1 .Travelers
were asked to please consider other
'results to minimize impact--
Highway 26 had to be closed from
2:00 am to 8:00 am Saturday
morning, Oct. 2, due to an overnight
air inversion and the amount of
smoke produced by the He He Fire
on the Warm Springs Reservation.
As visibility neared zero, officials
determined that the road had to be
closed until the smoke cleared
enough for safe travel. "The closing
of Highway 26 is a very serious
matter, saidTomAndrade, Incident
Commander," and we applaud the
efforts of officials with ODOT,
was arrested February 25, following
a joint investigation by the Warm
i Springs Police Department and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the US Attorney's
Office, in Portland, Smith agreed to
plead guilty to "assault resulting in
serious bodily injury." Suppah
suffered multiple facial fractures and
a severe head injury.
The sentence resulting from this
case is four years imprisonment for
Smith.
success
many fail to accomplish their
intended purpose because of
bureaucracy and the lack of
cross-organizational team work. The
Tribal Council affirms its resolve to
hold branches and departments
accountable and also to hold
individual community members
accountable for their actions. It is
important to create a community
environment that affords every
member of the Confederated Tribes
the opportunity to attain good health,
self-reliance, pride and self-esteem.
The desired results are:
1. ) define essential services and
establish service delivery standards
for all Tribal government
programs. Implement structural,
budgetary and other changes
necessary to meet the service delivery
standards.
2. ) Define the roles and
expectations of the Federal Trustee,
the BIA, the IHS and the various
state agencies.
These priorities identify
areas that Tribal Council needs to
focus on. In being responsive to the
needs of the tribal membership, it is
imperative that guidelines are set to
monitor progress towards desired
results. In our ever changing and
complex world, this will assure that
clear and positive results transpire
during the 3-year term of office for
Tribal Council.
SliRFALS DLIT
KNKJIfr LIBRARY
Oregon State Police, and Warm
Springs Police and Fire in making
this essential decision." If similar
conditions exist Sunday morning,
the highway could be closed again.
Even though the highway had to be
closed, the fire had not become any
more active than earlier yesterday.
The He He Fire is still considered
100 contained, but that does not
mean our work is done. A revised
acreage calculation has placed the
fire size at 6,172 acres, and
firefighters will continue to work
on the fire, mopping up and resol ving
safety concerns, for what could be
several more days. Again today,
there will be approximately 350
personnel working toward putting
the fire out. Some of these personnel
will be starting to rehabilitate fire
line that was constructed to contain
the fire. The rehabilitation efforts
are very important to the people of
'Warm Springs Reservation. ' ' '
Today is the fourth day that our
firefighters have been on this fire,
and they have all done a great job.
All their hard work has paid off and
we do appreciate the continued
effort.
Highway 26 remained open through
the morning hours today. Officials
determined safe travel was still
possible, although smoke from the
He He Fire on the Warm Springs
Reservation was heavy on the
roadway. "Tomorrow morning
should be a little more clear," shared
Incident Commander, Tom
Andrade, "but travelers should still
use extreme caution while in the
area, or seek an alternate route."
Firefighters and equipment will be
on the roadway for several more
days, so public safety will remain a
seriousconcern.OregonStatePolice
will continue to heavily patrol the
area.
Several agencies cooperated to
contain the fire at 6,172 acres with
Prescribed fires scheduled for Oct.
Fire Management and the Range
and Agriculture Department have
scheduled two prescribed fires for
the month of October. The goal of
both fires is to improve the condition
of rangelands.
A 900-acre fire is being planning
adjacent to the M-100 Road near the
southeast corner of the reservation.
Crews will burn this area in an at
tempt to reduce the density of juniper
trees and sagebrush, which should
prove beneficial to both perennial
and annual grasses.
A 600-acre fire is scheduled for
October in the Charley Canyon area,
where medusahead has invaded lands
once dominated by native bunch
grass. This fire is being funded jointly
by the Bonneville Power Adminis
tration (BPA) and the Bureau of In
dian Affairs (BIA) as a watershed
enhancement project.
BPA has provided funds totaling
$75,000 for native grass seed that
will be planted in this area following
the burn. Staff members with the
Native American College Fund
Receives $30 Million grand
The Lilly Endowment Inc. gave The gift awarded in June and to
to the American Indian College Fund
a $30 million grant to replace
buildings at 30 tribal colleges on
reservations in the Midwest and
West
One of the largest private dona
tions ever made to a Native Ameri
can organization
University of Oregon Library
Received on: 10-19-39
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U.S. Postage
Bulk Rate Permit No. 2
Wurm Springs, OR 97761
.4
a peak of 384 personnel. The
Confederated Tribes of Warm
springs, Bureau of Indian Affairs ,
many private resources, US Forest
Service, Bureau of Land
Management, Oregon Department
of Forestry, National Park Service,
Michigan Department of Natural
Resource, Colorado Forest Service,
and Connecticut Forest Service all
played roles in containing He He
Fire.
Challenging mop up operations
exist in the steep Warm Springs
River Canyon. Helicopters and
firefighters continue to play
important role in holding the fire in
the canyon. Extinguishing smokes
along Highway 26 is still a priority,
and crews are diligently working to
make the road safer by the day.
Rehabilitation efforts will begin to
occupy more personnel time,
returning the burned area to as
natural a setting as possible. V
Good progress was made in the
mop up operations on the He He
Fire on the Warm Springs
Reservation. Firefighters and
helicopters spent the day working
to put out hot spots near the
containment line. Other personnel
rehabilitated sections of line that
had cooled down enough. Engine
crews will be staffing the fire
through the night, helping to put
out even more hot spots. Personnel
will continue working until no hot
spots are left.
Highway 26could potentially close
again tonight if safety concerns
arise. If dense smoke settles on the
highway during the night, the road
could be closed until morning.
Warning signs will be activated in
Madras and at the Highway 26 and
216junction if aclosure is ordered..
Alternate routes are still advised
for travelers because of smoke
conditions and emergency
equipment traffic.
Range and Agriculture Department
will select and plant bunchgrass seed
that was once common within
Charley Canyon, but has been exten
sively replaced by invader annuals
such as medusahead.
Crews will build a fence to ex
clude livestock from the burned area
to give the bunchgrass an opportu
nity to mature. Returning these lands
to native bunchgrass will benefit
wildlife and livestock by providing
an improved forage base. It will also
enhance watershed conditions by
providing better ground cover and
soil stability.
Smoke from both the M-100 and
Charley Canyon fires will be visible
throughout the region. Fire Manage
ment personnel will monitor airqual
ity during the fire and try to mini
mize any impacts the smoke might
cause. Crews have been working for
the past two months preparing fire
lines and burn plans to ensure the
protection of tribal resources and
public safety.
be formally announced in Wash
ington today, is by far the largest
contribution ever received by the
fund, almost matching the $35 mil
lion total the Denver-based charity
has been able to raise in its first
decade of existence.