‘Mink River’ author in Warm Springs
Award-winning author Brian
D oyle w ill be at th e W arm
S prings L ib rary o n Friday
evening, March 16.
Doyle, author o f M ink River,
will be at the Warm Springs Li
brary at 7 p.m., as part o f the
N inth Annual Jefferson County
Community Read.
The presentation, sponsored
by the Jefferson County Library
District, is free to the public.
Doyle will expand on the N a
tive American themes in M ink
River and any other topic that
surfaces from dialogue with the
audience.
Doyle is a frequent speaker
and author o f ethical and spiri
tual essays. His sense o f hu
m or can be seen in his presen
tation title: “An evening o f bur
bling storytelling & snickering &
etc. in that vein with O regon
author Brian Doyle.”
H is ap p earan ce in W arm
Springs is p art o f his visit to
Central Oregon, which will also
include events at the Madras li
brary, and Great Earth Natural
Foods.
Also in March, the A rt Ad
venture Gallery is hosting an ex
hibit o f photographs and paint
ings created for a project called
“Lake O sw ego R eads M ink
River.”
The photographers “set out
to capture the essence o f Brian
Doyle’s Oregon coast,” and the
18 professional artists reveled in
the “rich visual possibilities” o f
March 7, 2012
Spilyay Tym oo, W arm Springs, Oregon
Page 8
Book cover of Mink River.
the book.
A Saturday morning, March
17, writers’ workshop, limited to
just 18 individuals, will be held
in th e b a se m e n t o f th e
R o d rig u ez A n n ex o f th e
Jefferson County Library from
10 a.m.-noon. Call the library at
541-475-3351 to sign up for: “A
not-workshop with Brian Doyle
during which we will play with
starts and seeds o f stories for
Donkey
basketball
at MHS
The Madras High School
gymnasium was the scene
on Sunday of a Donkey
Basketball tournament.
Teams Included the tribes’
Range and Ag summer
yo uth, M H S teachers,
Madras FFA, and Jefferson
County Fire and Safety.
The event was sponsored
by the Madras FFA alumni.
Before the games, Mary
Olney of Warm Springs (at
left) sang the National
Anthem.
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
sheer entertainment.”
The Doyle book o f essays,
The Grail: M year ambling &
shambling through an Oregon vine
yard in pursuit of the best pinot
noir wine in the whole wild world,
a b o u t th e L ange W inery in
Dundee, inspired a wine-tasting
event with Great Earth Natural
Foods from 2-4 p.m. on Satur
day afternoon, March 17.
And finally, at 7 p.m. Satur
day nig h t, M arch 17, at the
Rodriguez Annex, D oyle will
make a presentation with the
sam e title as th e p rev io u s
evening in Warm Springs, “but
we can guarantee that it w on’t
be the same presentation at all.”
Come hear a gifted speaker
and au th o r o f 11 books talk
about M ink River with its fic
tional small town on the Oregon
coast in all its humanness and
oddity and beauty, and a phi
losophizing crow.
Brian Doyle is thrilled to be
coming to W arm Springs and
Madras, because he’s a fervent
fan o f o u r local icon Jacoby
Ellsbury.
For m ore inform ation con
tact the Jefferson County Li
brary: 541-475-3351. E v ent
sponsors: Sum ner and Adele
Rodriguez Fund o f The Oregon
C om m unity F oundation; the
Jefferson County Library D is
tric t; G re a t E a rth N a tu ra l
Foods; Mail Copies and More;
D on and Ruth Ann Hopps; and
Mountain Photo and Graphics.
Chinook showing
progress on Snake
From the Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
Continued high numbers
o f Snake River fall chinook
redds throughout the Snake
and Clearwater river basins
demonstrate the success o f
tribal restoration projects.
D ata released last week in
the 2011 C ooperative Fall
Chinook Salmon Spawning
Summary w ritten by tribal,
federal, state and utility biolo
gists shows approxim ately
4,600 redds, or gravel nests,
were built by returning adults
in the Snake River and its
tributaries betw een Lower
G ranite and Hells Canyon
dams.
Distributed widely through
11 o f the 12 survey areas
throughout the basin, the in
crease in redds and their dis
tribution are the result o f
higher adult returns. O ver
27,000 ad u lt fall chinook
passed Lower Granite Dam
in 2011, the second highest
return since com pletion o f
the four lower Snake River
dams.
The high redd counts are
the result o f tribal efforts to
supplem ent existing Snake
River fall chinook with bio
logically appropriate hatch
ery-reared fish to assist natu
rally spawning runs.
The N ez Perce Tribe, in
coordination with co-manag-
ers from Washington D epart
m ent o f Fish and Wildlife,
Confederated Tribes o f the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
Idaho D epartm ent o f Fish
and G am e, U.S. F ish and
Wildlife Service, NOAA Fish
eries, and O regon D ep art
m ent o f Fish and Wildlife are
im p lem en tin g th e Snake
River Fall Chinook Program
in an effort to restore fall
chinook salmon above Lower
Granite Dam.
“The Snake River Fall Chi
nook Program is returning
fish to the Nez Perce Tribe’s
usual and accustomed fishing
areas and allowing our tribal
m em bers to exercise their
treaty reserved fishing rights,”
said Joel M offett, commis
sioner for the Columbia River
Inter-T ribal Fish C om m is
sion and treasurer o f the Nez
Perce Tribal Executive Com
mittee.
“This success is the cul
m ination o f years o f hard
w ork and dedication, both
o f w hich m ust continue if
we are going to m aintain
salmon runs into the Snake
River Basin.”
The Snake River Fall Chi
nook Program was initiated
in 1994 as a result o f legal
actions by the tribes under
US v. Oregon.
Oregon condors on track for exceptional year
C alifornia co n d o rs at the had been harassing No. 174 be
O reg o n Z o o are laying the fore she laid the egg and con
groundwork for species recov tinues to be somewhat aggres
sive tow ard h er in th e n est
ery one egg at a time.
Six eggs have been laid so far room . She said the birds will
during this year’s condor-breed probably not be given a chick
in g seaso n , w ith p e rh a p s a to rear this season, and they will
couple more still to come. The likely be split as a breeding pair
two m ost recent eggs arrived on due to ongoing problems dating
Feb. 16, laid by Ojai, and Feb. back to 2006.
Earlier the same day, Walker
18, laid by Squapuni.
The condors and their mates had pulled the season’s second
will sit on them for up to two egg to test its fertility and no
weeks before keepers remove ticed w hat appeared to be a
the eggs to determine whether small hole in the egg’s shell. Af
ter treating the area with sterile
they are fertile.
“We’re proud to be making a water and a diluted antiseptic,
contribution to the California Walker used a thin layer o f white
condor’s comeback,” said keeper glue to cover it.
Despite the defect, the egg
Kelli Walker. “Each new egg is
critical to the survival o f this did p ro v e to be fertile and
Walker is hopeful her repair will
species.”
The fourth egg o f the sea ensure a normal hatching. The
son arrived on Feb. 8 with a bit parents, Timocho and Willie, are
o f dram a. T he parents, Mali doing extremely well with incu
(male) and No. 174, squabbled bation and egg-sitting duties,:
over the new egg as soon as it Walker noted. Through a pro
had been laid. Keepers quickly cess called candling— which uses
pulled the egg from the nest a bright tight source behind the
room to prevent any damage, egg to show details through the
shell— Walker has already deter
replacing it with a dummy egg.
A ccording to Walker, Mali mined the first four eggs o f the
season are fertile.
These eggs are now in an in
cubator. The condor parents are
sitting on dummy eggs. When
hatching begins, usually in 54 to
58 days, Walker switches the real
eggs back, so that the chicks can
hatch under their parents. The
conservation center should see
its first chick o f the season to
ward the end o f March.
The California condor is clas
sified as a critically endangered
species. In 1982, only 22 indi
viduals remained in the wild.
W ith the help o f breeding
programs like the Oregon Z oo’s,
fo r w hich the C o nfederated
Tribes have expressed their sup
port, condor numbers now to
tal around 390, counting those
in programs and in the wild.
T hirty healthy chicks have
hatched at the Jonsson Center
since the p ro g ram began in
2003. Around 20 Oregon Zoo-
reared birds have gone out to
field pens, with m ost released to
the wild. Last year, three eggs
laid by O regon Z oo condors
w ere placed in wild nests to
hatch.
Ore., Calif, rivers may get big chinook returns
Wild chinook protection plan would create fishery
(AP) — An effort to reduce
the number o f hatchery salmon
spawning in the McKenzie River
will spur the release o f m ore
than 200,000 Chinook smolts
into the Coast Fork Willamette
River.
The Oregon D epartm ent o f
Fish and Wildlife plan would
attem pt to create a recreational
fishery between Cottage Grove
and Springfield for the first time
in more than 30 years while pro
tecting the genetic stock o f the
wild Chinook.
O D FW plans to release the
smolts on March 12, and expects
a return o f between 1,000 and
2,000 Chinook in 2014.
“We hope to create a tittle
m ore intim ate and dispersed
sa lm o n fis h e ry ,” said J e f f
Z ille r, fish b io lo g is t fo r
O D F W ’s S o u th W illam ette
W atershed D istrict, in a press
release. “The Coast Fork is n ot
a giant river, b ut it runs enough
w ater in the springtime to p ro
vide the structure for a good
spring Chinook fishery.”
Last year m ore than 6,000
hatchery spring C hinook re
turned to the M cKenzie River.
(AP) - Federal biologists are
forecasting a big increase in
salmon returns to two N orthern
California rivers that have been
stingy in turning out catches for
O regon and California fisher
men in recent years.
While a lot o f work has been
done to provide more water for
fish in the Klamath and Sacra
m en to rivers, experts say an
upturn in the cyclical supply of
food in the Pacific O cean is
largely responsible.
The Pacific Fishery Manage
m en t C ouncil forecasts 1.65
million adult Chinook salmon
for the Klamath, and 819,000
for the Sacramento. T he two
rivers drive the process for set
ting ocean fishing seasons o ff
much o f California and Oregon,
and recent downturns in returns
have proved disastrous for the
commercial fleet.
T he K lam ath expectations
are more than four times higher
th an last year, and 15 tim es
higher than 2006.
B ut forecasts d o n ’t always
prove correct.
O n the Sacram ento River,
last year’s predictions were for
729,900 returning chinook, but
the actual returns w ere only
200,000. Council salmon staff
Chuck Tracy said the computer
model has been revised in hopes
o f getting better results.
In 2005, before a spate o f clo
sures or sharp reductions in com
mercial salmon fishing, Oregon
fishermen landed $8.46 million
worth of salmon. Landings were
down to $2 million last year.
Dams adviser claims firing unjustified
(AP) « A scientist who ad
vised a federal agency on
ethical issues that included
rem oving K lam ath R iver
dams filed a whistleblower
complaint over his firing.
Paul Houser, an associate
professor o f hydrology at
G eorge M ason University,
tsays he was fired by the U.S,
Bureau o f Reclamation af
ter questioning the positive
spin U.S. D epartm ent o f In
terior officials were putting
on scientific studies that sup
ported dam removal.
PacifiCorp wants to re
move its four aging hydro
electric dams on the Klamath
River rather than pay to up
grade them to meet modern
salmon protections.
In te rio r Secretary K en
Salazar announced this week
he can’t make the decision
on dam removal until Con
gress gives him the author
ity-
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