Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2002)
Spilyqy Tymoo, Wjrm Springs, Oregon April 4, 2002 Page 5 Root Feast at Simnasho I Ami t&l' r it ,taM. u. f 4 0 1ST? .Jt. ' t: - j-SiWil w at jT n 1 jyw. .! Sr i. (iff r-?&k Dave McMechanSpilyayTymoo Darlene Foster and others prepare for the Root Feast at the Simnasho Longhouse. The feast was held on Sunday, March 31. The Agency Longhouse will be the host of the Root Feast on Sunday, April 7. Fluhr: enjoying job of district chief Round Dance set at White Swan There will be a round dance Blacklodge, and everyone is wel- later this month at the White Swan come. Community Center in White The round dance schedule starts Swan, Wash. at 7 p.m. nightly on April 26 and The event is sponsored by 27, a Friday and Saturay. (Continued from page 1) While the fire district is rural and sparsely populated, there is a good amount of emergency response activ ity, including major wild-land fires. Last summer, for instance, the Grass Valley Fire Complex burned right up to the edge of town, scorch ing about 24,000 acres of land. In con taining this fire, Fluhr and her dis trict received mutual aid from a num ber of neighboring fire districts. In the South Sherman County dis trict, motor vehicle accidents account for most of the emergency response activity. Highway 97 runs through the middle of the district, and the vehicle traffic, especially large trucks, is heavy throughout the year on this road. ' . Winter time, when the roads are icy, is the busy time for accident re sponse in Sherman County, said Fluhr, who is trained in first-response emergency medical care, as well as in fire-fighting. Fluhr is the daughter of Herb Graybael and Earlynne Squiemphen. She is a 1996 graduate of Madras High School. She began her career in fire and safety even before graduating high school. In the summer of 1995, she was a fire-fighter cadet at Warm Springs, "and I've been hooked ever since. It just got in my blood," Fluhr said. The following year, the summer after graduating from high school, she began participating in a fire and medic apprentice program. She continued her work at Warm Springs Fire and Safety for the next three years. In early 1997, while responding to a rollover motor vehicle accident near the Mill Creek Bridge, Lynn met Glenn Fluhr, who was working as a Warm Springs police officer. They were married that summer. Two years later, Glenn received an offer to work as second-in-command of the Sherman County Sheriff's De- . - Fire Chief Fluhr partment. The Fluhrs - Lynn, Glenn and 6-week-old Zachary - moved from Warm Springs to Grass Valley. For the first few years at her new home, Lynn worked as a volunteer with the South Sherman County Fire District. She was also a full-time mom, and served as a reserve officer for the sheriff's department of nearby Klickitat County, WA. Then early this year, the former chief of the South Sherman County Fire District retired. In February, the district fire board unanimously agreed that Lynn would be the ideal person to fill the job. On February 20, she was named district fire chief. She is the only paid fire district em ployee in Shermaa County. As chief, her duties include recruit ing and training, writing the district policies, grant writing, and develop ing the budget. She is currently in the process of acquiring a new brush rig for the district. Of course, her work also involves responding to emer gency calls. , , When an emergency tone-out hap pens, Fluhr will leave her son Zach in the care of friends, and then pick him up on her way back home. As fire chief, Fluhr has an office at the fire hall. The room is also used as a meeting place and office of the Grass Valley City Council. Small rural towns often have this arrangement, housing the city office at the fire hall. Glenn Fluhr serves on the city coun cil. Besides her work for the fire dis trict, and as a reserve officer in Klickitat County, Lynn serves on the regional 911 board. She is the execu tive vice-chairwoman of this board. Born and raised on the reservation, Lynn says the things she misses most about Warm Springs is her family. At the same time, her job as fire chief is a great one, providing a rare oppor tunity, she said. Bend man cited in wreck A Bend man was injured last week in a single-vehicle accident at milepost 5 on the Kah-Nee-Ta Highway. Mark Shields, 29, was the only occupant of the vehicle, a 1993 Ford pickup. Shields was trans ported by Warm Springs ambu lance to Mountain View Hospital, where he stayed over-night. Shields was cited by Warm Springs Police following this ac cident. Alcohol and an excessive rate of speed appear to have been involved in the wreck, said Don Courtney, Director of Warm Springs Public Safety. The incident happened last Thursday night, March 28, at approximately 8:25 p.m. Traffic on the Kah-Nee-Ta Highway was disrupted for a time. Resource stair responds to tnb member comments A project assessment is being de veloped by the project interdiscipli nary team (PIDT) to address pre-com-mercial thinning, underburning and mistletoe treatments. Treatments are being proposed to improve forest health and reduce the risk of fire. Scoping meetings were held re cently to gain tribal member com ments on these activities and the PIDT has addressed a number of con cerns in the following article prepared for Spilyay Tymoo. The project assessment will span a 9-year planning period and address pre-commercial thinning on approxi mately 500-2,000 acres, underburning on 4,000-5,000 acres, and mistletoe treatments on approximately 1,000 1,500 acres within the forested area each year. General areas will be de scribed in the assessment, but specific activities will be subject to review on an annual basis. All of the activities associated with this project will be monitored annually. The PIDT docs not anticipate any adverse impacts to soil resources as a result of this proposal, nor do they foresee any changes to the road sys tem. Prior to the implementation of any activities, the Culture and Heri tage Department will survey for cul tural resources, including cultural plants, and recommend protective measures after consulting with the Culture and Heritage Committee. When project-related activities are likely to affect culture resources, the PlD7 recommends mitigation mea sures. Mistletoe Dwarf mistletoe is the major dis ease affecting trees found in the lower elevation of the Warm Springs Reser vation. When compared to other ar das off the reservation, Warm Springs w rated as variable in levels of dwarf mistletoe. Treatment areas arc priori tised based on the dwarf mistletoe rating system, which has a 6 as the highest level. A rating of 0 would in dicate there is no infection. I Under the proposed action the 1 i levels would be treated first, which ! '' y .'. The dark vegetation growing on the trees is mistletoe. allows the existing stand to grow un til it has completed a typical rotation. The 4-5-6 levels require Forestry to start a new stand. Clear-cuts are not the primary means of treatment. In stead, foresters look for other species or isolated trees of the same species with no infection. Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir are the primary species targeted for treatment since they are the most abundant in the low eleva tion stands. Another treatment avail able for dwarf mistletoe is to prune the infected branches and two whorls above and below the infection. Fire Fire Management hosts public meetings in the spring and fall to no tify tribal members of the areas to be burned. While reductions in fuel load ing arc a primary objective of the pro gram, there are other benefits that include stimulating tree growth, thin ning of overstocked stands, improv ing forage conditions for wildlife and livestock, and helping to control some invasive plant species. A prescription process, which in cludes weather considerations, is uti lized to determine the timing of burn operations. The goal is to burn from 60-70 percent of the unit being treated, which leaves a mosaic of veg etation that makes excellent wildlife habitat. I 'ire Management also uses bulldozers to create fire lines around rural homes and subdivisions, and mowing will be used at increased lev els in the future. An extensive moni toring program is being established to study the results of burning strategics on the reservation. Allottees who wish to participate in the Fire Man agement program should contact the Forestry Branch. Precommerclal Thinning Pre-commercial thinning is an in termediate silvicultural treatment that is performed in forest stands that have a high concentration of young trees, typically 15-20 years old. Thinning the trees provides faster growth rates with less competition for nutrients and a greater chance of surviving dis ease or insect attack. Trees targeted for removal are those showing all or some of the following characteristics: disease, poor form, or low commercial value. Thinning can create a lot of slash (downed trees). To reduce fire danger, the slash would be piled and chipped, or it could be utilized for firewood, posts and poles, or in essential oils production. Thinning is done in plantations and wild stands in both the timber and the wildlife zone, but not in con ditional use areas. Tribal members who bid on contracts for thinning acres do the work. The contractors are monitored to make sure their work is done in a manner that is environmentally conscious. Water All of the proposed activities are designed to increase the health of the forest. Proposed treatments will create a more substantial overstory, which will provide more shade and allow winter snow to remain on the ground longer. As a result, the eventual snowmelt and runoff will occur at a slower rate, which will prevent erosion, drought and flooding. If the proposed action is not implemented then the poten tial for a catastrophic fire will in crease. If a catastrophic fire occurs there will be a high likelihood of ex tensive erosion, flooding and drought in the local vicinity. Roads Road eradication and blockage is an integral part of the forest manage ment program, which is intended to reclaim excessive roads and skid trails for forest production. Some roads have been ripped or blocked to pre vent vehicle use. If a road was closed on one end, but not the other, it was an oversight. If roads have been re opened on one end and not re-closed, the Branch of Forestry would like to be notified so it can take appropriate action. Road maintenance, on roads that are not part of an active timber sale, has been a problem for many years, partially because BIA Branch of Roads has limited funds for main tenance and no mechanism exists to fund maintenance of roads by the Branch of Forestry outside of active timber sale areas. At the present time, seasonal clo sures are used on a limited basis to restrict vehicle use. Some gates have been installed for this purpose (south end of the J-100 and north end of the S-42N). Criteria for opening these gates are established by the Natural Resources Branch. Over the next 10 years, one can expect to see an increasing number of seasonal closures in the wildlife management zones to protect winter ing big game animals and a variety of other wildlife species. Wildlife All of the treatments proposed under this project will have some af fect on wildlife resources. Some of the effects may have negative impacts in the short term while others may be positive. Over time these effects will change as the vegetative condition of the area changes. For example: pre commercial thinning will reduce the density of trees in an area, which may reduce hiding cover and security for big-game. However, the same treat ment will allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor and thereby in crease the overall growth of forage plants. Likewise under-burning re duces the quantity of vegetation in the short term, but it also increases the growth of palatable forage. Most of the effects to wildlife will depend on the number and frequency of treatments. The wildlife manage ment zones designated in IRMP were established with standards and best management practices (BMPs) to maintain a certain level of cover for big-game, while also providing ad equate forage for the animals to con sume. Forty percent of each wildlife management zone should retain at tributes that meet some level of cover characteristics, and the other 60 per cent should produce forage. I lowcver, change is often the driving force that determines sustainability and diver sity, so ecosystems should not be thought of as static. There were many excellent com ments from the public regarding this project. These include suggestions to leave some unburncd or untreated vegetation along roads for screening to protect big game, and implement ing the treatments in mosaics rather than covering large scale portions of the landscape. The protection of big-game trails and the permanent or seasonal clo sure of roads are also necessary in order to maintain big game popula tions at harvestablc levels. Many concerns are addressed in IRMP, but input is needed on specific activities so it can be incorporated into project-related documents.
