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Possible threat to fish from fire
retardant was ignored, memo says
GRANTS PASS (AP) - The
Bush administration ignored
advice from government agen
cies that they should be con
sulted about the potential harm
to threatened and endangered
fish from fire retardant dropped
on wildfires, according to docu
ments released in a lawsuit by
forest services workers.
The Forest Service Employ
ees for Environmental Ethics
obtained the documents, which
it released last week, from the
government as part of its law
suit over fire retardant use filed
last October in U.S. District
Court in Missoula, Mont.
Salmon reintroduced to
BAKER CITY (AP) - The
black-speckled fish, most of a
yard long and thick as a
weightlifter's biceps, flops wetly
in the net and then, with a single
thrash of its tail, disappears into
the murky currents of the Pow
der River near downtown Baker
City. It is a chinook salmon.
And it is the first of its kind
to swim in these urban waters
since the Great Depression.
Fifteen minutes later, about
a dozen more salmon have
splashed into the chilly Powder,
which is running fast with irri
gation water.
Up on the river's east bank,
Bob Becker climbs into a white
Ford pickup truck, which rides
a bit higher on its rear springs
now that it has disgorged half
its load of 10- to 15-pound
salmon, plus a couple hundred
gallons of water.
Becker is the fish transport
coordinator at the Oregon De
partment of Fish and Wildlife's
(ODFW) La Grande office.
On this day, he is in Baker
City with ODFW fish biologists
Jeff Zakel and Nadine Craft.
The trio's task is to reintro
duce salmon to the upper Pow
der, where they have not swum
since Thief Valley Dam blocked
Wild horse race memorial .
for Thurman Squiemphen
In conjunction with the Pi-Ume-Sha
Rodeo this year will
be the Thurman Squiemphen
Wild Horse Race Memorial.
The prize for this race is
$3,000 added. There is a
$150 entry fee, and 100 per
cent payout. There is no con
testant fee. There is a 32
team limit for this race.
Thurman Squiemphen
was a rodeo rider. He rode
in the wild horse races, and
the saddle bronc competition.
Pi-Ume-Sha Treaty Days Sports
SA Sanctioned Amateur Boxing
Boxing
"Pi-Ume-Sha Treaty Days Boxing"
4 p.m. Saturday, June 26
Warm Springs Community Center
2200 Hollywood Blvd., Warm Springs, Ore.
This USA Amateur Boxing event will be a fundraising activity
for the Warm Springs Nation Boxing Team traveling to the
National Indian Boxing Tournament being held this year at
Haskell Indian Nations University at Lawrence, Kansas. Total
estimated distance is 1,718 miles from here. Please come and
support this youth activity and boxing.
Information: Call Austin Smith at 553-3243, or 553-3250.
After 9 p.m. leave a message at 553-3094.
PRINTING
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"The public needs to know
that if the judge orders retar
dant use to be stopped, it's be
cause the government chose to
break the law, and it knew bet
ter," said Andy Stahl, director of
the Eugene-based environmen
tal group.
"We could avoid that out
come. The way to do that is for
the government to agree it has
to write an environmental im
pact statement and involve the
public in deciding how we man
age fire on public lands, some
thing the government has never
done in 100 years."
Fire retardant dropped from
their path in the early 1930s.
Before they left Baker City,
the biologists poured 25 salmon
into the river between Campbell
Street and Hughes Lane. A sec
ond truck hauled 75 more fish
to the river just below Phillips
Reservoir.
Then, days later, ODFW of
ficials released 78 more chinook
- 26 in town, 52 below the res
ervoir. The salmon, most of
them 4 years old, were raised in
a hatchery, Zakel said.
They migrated down the
Snake and Columbia rivers and
lived in the Pacific Ocean for
about 2 years before they
heeded their genetic imperative
and returned to the fresh water
of the Columbia late this win
ter. The salmon migrated up
stream more than 300 miles,
Zakel said, fighting through the
fish ladders at eight dams on the
Columbia and the Snake.
This spring, the chinook
reached an obstacle they could
not conquer: Hells Canyon
Dam.
There they swam right into a
trap below the dam's 300-foot-high
concrete face.
After spending a few days at
the Oxbow hatchery, the salmon
He passed away in an ac
cident last year.
The family put the memo
rial race together in his honor.
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Spilyay Tyrooo,
air tankers contracted by the
Forest Service contains sodium
ferrocyanide, which breaks
down to form hydrogen cya
nide, which kills fish when it is
jmixed with water and exposed
to sunlight, the lawsuit contends.
At least three fish kills from fire
retardant falling in streams have
been acknowledged by the gov
ernment. In allowing timber interests
to intervene in the lawsuit, Judge
Donald W. Molloy wrote that if
the environmental group wins its
lawsuit, the Forest Service will
have to stop using fire retardant
until it complies with the law.
upper Powder River
- about half male, half female -were
ensconced in Becker's wa
terlogged truck and on their way
to Baker City.
Their lives in the Powder will
be brief, Zakel said.
The females will try to lay
their eggs late this summer,
Zakel said, and it's possible some
will be fertilized. But whether or
not they spawn successfully, the
adult salmon almost certainly
will be dead by Halloween, he
said.
Zakel, however, hopes most
of these fish will die with hooks
lodged in their mouths.
Anglers landed at least five
salmon Memorial Day weekend.
Giving anglers a chance to
catch these fish, which are sev
eral times larger than the
Powder's diminutive trout, is the
reason ODFW officials decided
to dump these salmon into the
Powder, Zakel said.
"These are eatin fish," he
said. "They're in pretty good
shape."
Biologists aren't trying to es
tablish salmon runs in the Pow-'
der, he said.
The river can't support an
nual runs of chinook, Zakel
said. And although there's a slight
chance these stocked salmon
will produce offspring, the baby
fish can't reach the ocean (four
dams, none with fish ladders,
stand in the way), and they
would not survive long in the
river, he said.
Zakel predicts anglers will
catch most, if not all, of the
salmon now swimming in the
553-3274
Small Hands to Hold Love ...
Fact: Children from age two to seventeen start fires
that endanger lives, cause injuries, death and burn
millions of dollars in property.
Fact: Children under the age of three cause a
majority of these fires and lose their lives in the
process.
This does not have to happen. Parents need to teach
their children about the dangers of fire and create a
fire-safe home.
Install Smoke Detectors ... Plan an Escape Route
AMERIND offers Home and Fire Safety Training to Children in
Indian Country.
Contact AMERIND'S Loss Prevention Team for more information:
AMERIND:
Warm Springs, Oregon
The lawsuit claims the For
est Service has violated the
National Environmental Policy
Act by failing to go through a
public review of the environ
mental effects of dropping re
tardant. It also argues the Forest Ser
vice violated the Endangered
Species Act by failing to consult
with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and NOAA Fisheries,
which have jurisdiction over
threatened and endangered fish,
on the lethal effects of fire re
tardant on bull trout and
salmon.
Powder.
The fish are so focused on
spawning that they don't eat, so
anglers who try to tempt the
salmon with tasty baits such as
worms or fish eggs probably
won't get even a nibble.
But the chinook might bite
at things that bother them,
Zakel said.
"They're biting because
they're annoyed," he said.
"Throw something at them
that's ugly or that makes noise.
They're definitely fish that can
be caught."
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A Consortium of Tribes Protecting Tribes
Siletz Tribes bless the
returning salmon with ritual
EUGENE (AP) - Agnes
Pilgrim presided over a rite
once common among West
ern Oregon Indian Tribes on
the banks of the Applegate
River where her ancestors
lived.
At 79, Pilgrim still leads the
annual sacred salmon cer
emony she helped revive a
decade ago.
An honored elder with the
Confederated Tribes of
Siletz, she normally uses a
motorized wheelchair because
of a herniated disc and an
atrophied foot. But she is so
energized by this event and
this place that she gets around
here with only a cane.
Rising at dawn at last
weekend's ceremony, she
hollers a wake-up call to sum
mon sleepy campers to a sun
rise prayer circle.
Pointing with her crooked
cane, she directs details of a
200-person feast, down to
making sure there are clean
white tablecloths and vases
of flowers. Raising her hand
and chanting a prayer, she
waves a smoldering braid of
sweet-grass over ceremonial
utensils.
Salmon were important to
the survival of dozens of
Northwest tribes, including
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June 24, 2004
the Kalapuya who lived in the
Eugene-Springfield area.
More than two dozen differ
ent bands formed the Con-
federated Tribes of Siletz,
and many of their descen
dants conduct salmon cer
emonies, says Selene Rilatos,
the tribes' cultural activities
coordinator.
As granddaughter Tonya
Nevarez Rilatos watches
closely, Pilgrim blesses the
freshly spaded fire pit, the
obsidian blade to cut the fish,
the sharpened redwood stakes
used to bake it.
Later, as the first cooked
salmon comes off the fire,
Pilgrim slices a bite for each
of the participants, who re
turn the bone and skin to her.
Drums thump as four young
men emerge from a sweat
lodge, skin flushed by the
heat of the purification rite.
Each holds cedar boughs to
wrap up the bone and skin
offering.
As they run to the frigid
river to dive in and leave
their bundles on the bottom,
the women dance in a circle.
"We bless the female
salmon," Pilgrim prays, "for
her long, dangerous journey
up the river to spawn, still
nurturing as she dies."
330 S.W. Culver Hwy.
Madras, OR 97741
Not Hre
and Their Families
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