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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2011)
P^ge 6 Garcia already has 2 buckle wins steps o f his great-grandfather, Wally Garcia o f Elko, Nev., who was a lifetim e cow boy and rancher. “Avan is always putting him self in that cowboy role, talking cowboy this and cowboy that, and ‘Which is the next rodeo, dad?’” said Aldo. “As parents,” he said, “we can only insure to him that we sup port him in whatever he would B y D ave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo A t age 6, young cowboy Avan Garcia already has two buckle wins at youth rodeo competi tions in the Northwest. His fa vorite competitions so far are mutton busting and calf-riding events. He won his first buckle at the Fourth o f July Buckaroo Rodeo at Molalla. On July 31 at Hood River he won his second buckle. He has finished third-place or better in 80 percent o f his ro deo competitions. Avan Garcia is the son o f Aldo G arcia and D ella Rae Suppah, both o f Warm Springs. “Della and I are very proud that Avan has followed in the footsteps o f his grandfather Delbert Garcia,” said Aldo. Delbert, he said, was part o f the ro d eo circu it fo r years around the West Coast, compet ing in the saddle bronc compe titions through most o f his life. Avan also follows in the foot- like to do.” Som e o f the main events Avan has competed in during Dave McMechan/Spilyay Avan Garcia with buckles won at recent rodeo events. 2011 are: T he Cowdeo in Je ffe rso n County, the Root Feast Rodeo in Warm Springs, Tygh Ridge, White Swan Junior Rodeo, Pi- U m e-Sh a, M olalla, Warm Springs Play Day, Santiam Can yon Stampede, and the Hood River Rodeo. U p com in g ro d eo s are Heppner-Morrow County, Kla math Treaty Days, Cheney Pee Wee, and La Grande. C o n g ratu latio n s on the buckle wins, Avan! NW tribes drive effort to save ancient fish (AP) — As long as American Indians have lived in the Pacific Northwest, they have looked to a jawless, eel-like fish for food. Tribes once harvested the lamprey from rivers throughout the C olum bia B asin , which stretches from the Oregon coast up into Canada. But with doz ens o f hydroelectric dams in the way, the fish has followed the path o f the buffalo — from a food staple o f a people to a curiosity. Today, the trib es in the Northwest have just one place to go for them: a 40-foot water fall on the W illam ette River flanked by an abandoned paper mill and a power plant, and lo cated about a dozen miles up stream from a Superfund site. Unlike salmon, which have drawn billions o f dollars in gov ernment funds to modify dams and restore habitat, the lamprey have gone largely ignored. It’s the tribes that still eat them that are driving the effort to bring them back. The greatest threat the fish now face is the dams, which “will probably lead to their demise,” said Aaron Jackson, who heads the Confederated Tribes o f the Umatilla Reservation efforts to restore lamprey. “That's really sad,” he said, o f a fish that has survived hun dreds o f millions o f years while other animals, such as dinosaurs, didn't. “That something this old would just wink out in my life time — that’s unfathomable to me.” The lamprey, whose English name comes from the Latin for “rock sucker,” uses its mouth to glom onto rocks and other fish. Several years after hatching, they swim downstream to the ocean, where they suck onto the sides o f whales, sea lions and fish, feeding as parasites. At full m aturity, they swim back upriver to spawn and die. Three days a week in July, Indians drive hundreds o f miles from their reservations, wade through the green water and, with hands covered in white cotton gloves, pull the writhing gray fish from rocks and stuff them into burlap sacks to take home. There, tribal elders will grill the oily, pungent fish, or cut them into links and roast them like hotdogs over open fires. The tribes o f the Northwest have had a special connection with the lamprey for thousands o f years. The seven gill slits on the side August 10, 2011 Spilygy Tymoo, W^rm Springs, Oregon o f its head marked them as a food designated for the region's tribes by the creator, co rre sponding to the seven drummers and seven songs oflonghouse ceremonies, Jackson said. But as more dams were built, the lamprey declined. Biologists have estimated that 1 m illion were still crossing Bonneville Dam on the Colum bia east o f Portland in the 1970s, before accurate counts were taken. That dropped to 200,000 by 2003, and stands at about 20,000 now, said Bob Heinith, hydroelectric program coordina tor for the Columbia River In ter-Tribal Fish Commission. A petition to list them as an endangered species was turned down for lack o f information. The full gamut o f reasons for the declining numbers is not well- understood, but the dams are clearly a big one. About half the fish that pass one dam fail to get over the next, until only a dozen make it to the Idaho bor der, Heinith said. Fish ladders and screens de signed for salmon are tough on lamprey. Pollution is, too. Stud ies on eels in Europe link high levels o f industrial toxins, such as dioxin from paper mills, mer cury from coal power plants, and pesticides, with low levels o f reproductive success. Based on an agreement with the tribes, the U.S. Army Corps o f Engineers is working on ways to get lamprey over the dams without making it tougher for salmon, which can be tricky, said David Clugston, a biologist for the corps. Adult lamprey, which grow to about 2 feet long and are as big around as a fat hotdog, have trouble with the fast water and sharp corners o f fish ladders designed for salmon. The young ones, the size o f a nightcraw ler, get stuck on screens designed to keep young salmon out o f turbines. So far there have been baby steps. Special lamprey ramps have been installed at Bonneville Dam, and fish ladders have been modified at two more. The tribes are experimenting with capturing adult lamprey at dams and releasing them in tribu taries, hoping they will re-estab lish populations o f young lam prey that emit the pheromones the adults follow to spawning beds. They are also talking to ex perts in Finland about building lamprey hatcheries. With no dams between it and the ocean, Willamette Falls has become the last best place to harvest. T rib es from the W arm Springs, Umatilla and Grande Ronde reservations in Oregon, the Yakam a reserv atio n in Washington and the Nez Perce reservation in Idaho drive there every July. The time is depen dent on when Portland General E lectric reduces the flow o f water over the falls, diverting it into the dam's electricity-gener ating turbines and in the process making it easier to harvest the fish. Tribal members leaned o ff the bows o f boats, balanced on slippery rocks or dove into pools to grab the wriggling lam prey. Tribal elders who enjoy the strong fishy taste roast the oil dripping flesh over small cook- fires amid reservation housing projects. C hayenne W ahneta, 18, laughed with friends harvesting the fish, but has no intention o f actually eating one. “I never tried them, and I don't want to,” said Wahneta. “They look ugly” Salmon plan rejected A federal judge in Oregon hsa ruled the O bam a administration’s attempt to make federal hydroelectric dams in the Northwest safer for protected salmon once again violates the Endangered Species Act. In a sternly worded ruling, U.S. D istrict Judge Jam es Redden in Portland wrote that the plan, known as a bio logical opinion, is too vague and uncertain on specific steps that will be taken in future years to im prove salmon habitat. Redden added that he doesn’t think the government can meet the standards o f the Endangered Species Act by habitat im provem ents alone, and it is time to con sider new options, including removing some o f the dams. The judge left the plan in place through 2013, when federal agencies must come up with m ore sp e cific p ro je cts to help salm on through 2018. While the dams have pro vided the West with cheap hy droelectric power for decades, they are also a leading factor in the steady decline in popu lations o f wild salmon, which only account for a small frac tion o f annual returns any more. The bulk o f the fish returning each year to spawn come from hatcheries. Since the 1990s, 14 differ ent species o f salmon and steelhead from the Columbia Basin have been protected as threatened or endangered. E a rth ju stic e atto rn ey Todd True, who represented the conservation and fishing groups that challenged the biological opinion, noted this is the third straight time Red den has re je cte d the government’s attempt to say that the harm caused by the dams can be mitigated by im provements to habitat. The judge is saying, “It is time to go in a new direc tion,” True said. “We have been saying that for years. Hopefully the government will get the message now.” A spokesman for the Na tional Oceanic and A tm o spheric Administration Fish eries Service, which wrote the biological opinion, said they were still evaluating whether to appeal the ruling. “We are o f course disap pointed that the court has not agreed with all o f all o f our arguments in this long standing litigation, but the court specifically recognizes that the unprecedented level o f regional co llabo ratio n over the past few years has provided beneficial measures that help protection for listed species,” Brian Gorman said in an email. “We'll continue our efforts to provide pro tection for salmon and steel- head in the Basin and work toward their recovery” The 2010 biological opin ion co vers 14 federally owned and operated hydro electric dams on the Colum bia and Snake rivers in O r egon, Washington and Mon tana. 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