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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2008)
Page 10 July 17, 2 0 0 8 Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon Language program : new grant funding a big help (Continued from page 1) “She understands the pur pose o f what we’re doing and doesn’t want her language to die,” Johnson said. “We put a lot of effort into getting what we can while we can,” Johnson added. It’s definitely not an easy task to learn Kiksht, Johnson said. While she can understand a lot of the language, she knows her grandmother was lonely after the death of Mclnturff left her without a fellow fluent speaker to converse with. “They pushed each other to continue working,” Johnson said o f Thompson and Mclnturff. “That’s what makes me con tinue to go on no matter what because that’s what they taught me,” Johnson explained. Their efforts to preserve the language have been made pos sible in particularly by Kono’s efforts, Johnson said. While Kono is currently work ing as a professor o f Native American Studies at Portland State University, she has re mained very active w ith the Warm Springs Language Pro gram and even seeks out grants to benefit those preserving the Kiksht language on her own, Johnson said. The funding she has found has had a monumental impact on -the preservation of Kiksht. “It’s been carrying the language,” Johnson explained. “We’ve got ten much-needed equipment that we’ve been using to docu ment and record and archive. Now that we have this bigger Justine Thomas/Spilyay Deenie Johnson, Gladys Thompson, Pam Cardenas, Nariyo Kono and Tonya Thompson (left to right) are all involved in the efforts to preserve Kiksht. grant we’re getting more equip ment.” Before, Johnson explained, all the equipment was shared with programs working to docu m ent the Warm Springs and Paiute languages. In fact, Johnson added, she and her grandmother are cur rently employed through a con tract with Portland State Univer sity as a result o f grant fund ing—not by the .language pro gram. These special conditions ap ply to the Wasco language group because o f the dire situation they face in preserving the lan guage before it is too late, Johnson added. When K ono used to work for the Language P rogram , Johnson said, she became close with Thompson and Madeline Mclnturff. “They talked to her about helping and looking out after I guess us, myself and Pam and whoever takes up the language,” Johnson explained. “To kind of take care o f us so that we can get the work going and get it fin ished.” For that reason, Johnson said, Kono has sought out grants on her own with just letters o f ref erence from other people in volved. After eight years of working with her grandmother, Johnson added, it has instilled in her a desire to continue the language. That is something that her fellow apprentices agree with wholeheartedly. . “I just want to learn the lan guage. T h at is my goal,” Cardenas said. “It is a great challenge for me.” According to Cardenas, “The language is here for me, and I’m going to be here for the lan guage.” Members comment on two proposed timber sales An interdisciplinary team from the Forestry and Natural Resources branches has been collecting tribal member com- mients on timber sales being pro posed for 2010 and 2011. Re sponses to a number o f com ments and concerns are included with this article. The 2010 timber sale will tar get approximately 32 million board feet o f timber in the Bea ver Creek watershed and the 2011 sale will target approxi mately 37 million board feet in the Upper Warm Springs water shed. The harvest approximates the annual allowable cut (recal culated every five years) for these planning units, which is based on long-term sustainability. The process for planning these sales officially began on May'21 when the project interdiscipli nary team (PIDT) completed its second and final scoping meet ing with the tribal public. Meet ings were held at the Agency and Simnasho longhouses, initiating the process to complete a draft plan. A slide show and maps were used to identify potential treatm ent areas, which were described by project leaders M att Jim enez and D oug Dunlap, along with other mem bers o f the technical staff. A field review o f the proposed project areas, and other recent projects, will be conducted dur ing the annual Timber Tour ten tatively scheduled for August 13 and 14. The PIDT, which plans the sale and makes presentations to interested tribal members, is comprised o f individuals from the Natural Resources and For estry technical staffs and com mittees. The team includes a fish biologist, forester, wildlife ecolo gist, hydrologist, fuels manager, forest engineer, archeologist, monitoring representative, range conservationist, soil scientist, w riter/editor, representatives from three tribal committees,, and a representative from Warm Springs Forest Products Indus tries (WSFPI). Comments from the scoping meetings solicit issues, concerns and opportunities used to de velop a planning docum ent known as a project assessment. The assessment contains alter natives for implementing the sale, a strategy to monitor the sale after it has been imple mented, and mitigation mea sures to offset negative impacts. After considering input from the tribal public, the PIDT will de velop at least two alternatives, one emphasizing a balanced ap proach to resource management and the other focused on main taining the status quo. The team will present their L assessment and recommended alternative, to the Resource Management Interdisciplinary Team (RMIDT) this fall and they in turn release the assess ment for public review. Follow ing a 30-day review, RMIDT approves one of the alternatives and attaches a decision docu ment to the project assessment, which is then forwarded to the BIA superintendent for concur rence. Tribal member comments are accepted throughout the process at the main office o f the Forestry Branch. The eiitire process and all management activities related to the forested area must adhere to goals, standards and best management practices adopted under the Integrated Resources Management Plan (IRMP) for the Forested Area. The plan, which strikes a balance between resource utilization and protec tion, is reviewed and updated every five years. T he 2010 and 2011 timber sales are being proposed because they will generate rev enue for the C onfederated Tribes and address forest health. The size and type of trees har vested will determine the value o f stumpage. WSFPI mill During one o f the scoping m eetings, tribal m em bers wanted to know if the mill at Warm Springs Forest Products Industries is going to resume full production at some point in the future. Tribal Council recently passed a resolution approving a contract to have Vanport Inter national lease the Warm Springs Forest Products Industries mill. Vanport will purchase logs from the tribes at market value and process them through the mill. Vanport will be employing tribal members. People also want to know where the logs they see headed down the highway are going. Logs being sold to out side interests are typically headed for Weyco in Dallesport, Feres Lumber in Lyons, Starfire in Cottage Grove, Kinzua at Pilot Rock, In te rio r at M olalla, Prineville Sawmill, SDS o f Bingen, Wa. and Gabbster Inc. ih Prosser, Wa. Warm Springs Forest Products buys the logs and then sells them on the open market. Many of the logs that were leaving the reservation will now be offered to Vanport so they can be processed at the mill. A number of people thought we should stop harvesting trees if the Warm Springs mill isn’t going to process them. The re cent Tribal Council resolution will keep the mill running until next April, at which time the contract with Vanport will be reevaluated. Local jobs will con tinue to be supported through the harvest o f timber on the reservation and tribal crews are always the top priority when is suing contracts. Unfortunately, market values are expected to stay depressed until 2010. T hose atten d in g scoping meetings were inter ested to know if adjustments would be made in the volume of timber being harvested with the mill partially shut down. At present, there is no change to the annual allowable cut or ,to the amount of timber harvests being planned and delivered to Warm Springs Forest Products. The allowable cut is calculated by the Forestry Planning D e p artm en t and ap proved by Tribal Council. Factors influenc ing timber harvests include sus tained yield, employment and revenue for the Confederated Tribes. In regards to questions about firewood at one o f the scoping meetings, it was noted the mill does occasionally sell truckloads of timber as firewood to private individuals. These truckloads are sold for profit and revenue to the Tribes. In previous years the Branch o f Forestry processed and delivered limited amounts o f firewood to tribal seniors, w ith logs being donated by WSFPI. At this point, these are the only two known organiza tions actively involved in deliv ering firewood. Future efforts could expand if there are ad equate personnel, budgets and creativity. Although current efforts are successful in providing a portion o f the seasonal needs, it is ac knowledged that more firewood, per elder household, is needed. This would be a great opportu nity for more tribal and com munity involvement, perhaps on a voluntary basis. Tribal well being is going to require partici pation from the whole commu nity and its families; it is not Forestry’s or WSFPI’s charge to solely provide for personal fam ily needs. P eople are in te reste d in knowing whether , or not old- growth trees should be pre served as a seed source. Forest ers say that depending on the health of the individual trees in question, most retention trees are older, large diameter trees often considered old-growth. Seed tree treatments also strive to retain the more light-tolerant tree species such as ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and western larch. These species exhibit sur vival and growth characteristics more favorable for this type of treatment. The larger diameter examples o f these species are also more fire-resistant. Red cedar is a species o f concern to tribal members who want to reserve these trees for cultural use. Generally, western red cedar occurs in limited num bers, primarily within watered communities or wetter upland slopes. There .are significant amounts o f red cedar within Beaver Butte Creek riparian areas. Under IRMP, such ripar ian areas are protected from harvest activities. Incense cedar is used for other purposes. The bough mar ket for incense cedar creates a seasonal harvest associated with the winter holidays. Incense ce dar is the only cedar species approved for bough harvest. It was once used for making pen cils and to some extent it is still used for firewood. The cutting down o f cedar trees over ten inches in diameter is a non-com pliance issue executed by indi vidual contractors and is being addressed by the Tribal Timber Committee and the Branch of Forestry. Another question from the scoping sessions had to do with blowdown and how it will be handled. Salvaging o f wind- throw n tim ber occurs every year. The actual am ount and particular areas affected are dependent on climatic condi tions, geographic features, and proximity to forest openings. The probability for windthrow increases during times o f satu rated soil and high winds. Sal vaging occurs to capture mon etary value from dead and dy ing timber that would otherwise remain in the forest. Several tribal elders have asked how we can keep snow brush from com peting w ith huckleberries? Snowbrush is a tenacious and opportunistic plant that thrives on disturbance. The best way to minimize the spread o f snowbrush is to re plant harvest blocks with trees that will compete successfully over time for available space. Snowbrush will not be elimi nated through this strategy, but its impacts will be lessened. Hand removal may also be an option in specific berry gather ing areas. Snowbrush is treated immediately after logging activi ties when preparing a site for reforestation through the plant ing o f tree seedlings. Brush is pulled from the ground, piled and burned. Snowbrush is even tually shaded-out as the planted trees grow into a more mature stand, often decades into the future. Another question having to do specifically with huckleber ries was on planting. This sub ject has been raised in the past, but the Cultural Resources pro gram has not yet tried to plant huckleberries. For the Confederated Tribes, success in berry enhancement has been accomplished through the thinning of trees on appli cable sites, thereby redistribut ing the site’s available growing space. Providing favorable con ditions for berry response is a balancing act. You don’t want to open the stands too much be cause huckleberry shrubs would be negatively subjected to the elements. Faster berry response occurs by logging over a snow pack, which reduces impacts to the shrubs. Another component is reducing post timber-harvest debris by transporting treetops back to the landings for piling and burning. Reducing slash lev els keeps the shrubs from being com pacted or adversely af fected. Reduced slash also keeps the forest floor cleaner and more accessible for berry pickers. The huckleberry program continues to evolve and grows in impor tance for forest management and planning efforts. At one o f the scoping meet ings, a tribal member asked if there are lamprey in the 2011 project area. Lamprey do spawn and rear in the Warm Springs River, but not quite as high up as the project area. Fisheries personnel indicate that lamprey redds have been seen in the Warm Spring River as high in the basin as Hehe. Additional surveys will be initiated in the future to see if lamprey distri bution has changed. Additional questions regard ing the 2010 and 2011 timber sales should be directed to the Branch of Forestry at 553-2416. (Submitted by tribal N a tu ra l Re sources.) www.dejagroeveband.com The popular Northwest band Deja Groove returns to Kah-Nee- Ta’s Appaloosa Lounge this Thursday, July 17, at 8 p.m ., Friday and Saturday, July 18 and 19, at 9 p.m. J
