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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 2013)
>r Page 6 Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon Tribal farm project picking up T h e N a tu ra l R esources B ranch is developing two tribal farm areas near Kah- Nee-Ta. Range and Ag, Water and Soil, Land-Use, OSU Exten sion and others cooperated on planning and implement ing the project, said Jason Smith, director o f Range and Ag “We got together to find a way to revitalize some farm land that has been idle,” Smith said. L and being w orked o n now is by the Culpus bridge at the Warm Springs River, near Kah-Nee-Ta. N ext will be a larger parcel farth er dow n the river tow ard the D esch u tes, called M oody property. Natural Resources intends for the tribal farm s to be com e financially self-suffi cien t, said Bill R eynolds, Range and Ag specialist. The property by Culpus bridge is about 110 acres in size. The plan is to grow al falfa on this parcel this spring and summer, said Reynolds. The hay would be sold at fair m arket value, either to interested tribal members or off the reservation. T he M oody property is Courtesy of Branch of Natural Resources The farm is located by Culpus Bridge on the way to Kah-Nee-Ta. about 300 acres in size. This land could be used for grow ing hay, and possibly some other crops such as blueber ries, cherries, grass seed, etc. T he id e a fo r a tribal farm has been around for some tim e . N a tu ra l R e so u rc e s w ent to Tribal Council two years ago, requesting the use o f restoration funds to get the operation going. C oun cil ap p ro v ed th e req u est. T here w as some delay, b ut the project is now going for ward. T h e farm su p erv iso r is Zane Wilson, an experienced grower originally from Fossil. T he tribal farm will create one or two new job opportu nities this spring. B oth the Culpus bridge and the Moody property were farmed decades ago. They fell into disuse, and are now be ing reclaimed for farming. Along with the tribal farm, there has been talk in the past about developing a plant nurs ery and greenhouse in the area o f the farms. The tribes currently have a greenhouse operation in the Jo h n D ay area. — Dave McMechan Goats doing fine at Mt. Jefferson (AP) — The mountain goat p o p u la tio n appears to be growing on M ount Jefferson, two years after the Confed e ra te d T rib es o f W arm Springs and state o f Oregon returned the high-climbing animals to the peak. A second release last sum mer helped increase the num ber o f Rocky Mountain goats on and around the 10,495- foot volcano. The goats seem to be suc cessfully breeding and caring for new young, biologists re ported recently. Nanny goats typically pro duce twins when they are re ceiving good nutrients and are generally healthy, and aerial surveys show several pairs o f kids. H alf o f the m ountain is on the Warm Springs Indian R eservation and the oth er half lies within the Willamette National Forest. Tribal N atural Resources and the Oregon D epartm ent o f Fish and Wildlife in July Courtesy photo. Mountain goats are doing well at Mt. Jefferson. 2010 released 45 m ountain goats onto a flank o f Mount Jefferson in a remote section o f the reservation. In July 2012, th e state agency and the tribes released an additional 24 goats, said D oug Calvin, program man ager for wildlife, parks and enforcement with the tribes. Three mountain goats died shortly after th e 2010 re lease— two in falls and one Qverhunting wiped out the goats in the 1850s... possibly in a cougar attack. Calvin said he believes none o f the goats released this year have died. T h ere are no plans for more releases, he said. “We’ve Parties renew agreement to restore Klamath Basin renew ed, giving supporters tains in Eastern Oregon, Start ing with five goats from north ern Washington. E a ste rn O re g o n now boasts a strong mountain goat population, 'with about half o f the 800 m ountain goats statew id e fo u n d in th e E lk h o rn M o u n tain s n ear Baker City. T he tribes and O D FW plucked goats from the Elkhorns for release onto M ount Jefferson. A separate p ro g ram 10 years ago succeeded in rein troducing bighorn sheep to the M utton Mountains. I f the mountain goats con tin u e to th riv e on M o u n t Jefferson, Calvin said tribal m em b ers m ay ev en tu ally hunt the animals. another two years to try to get Congress to pay for the work, officials said Monday. S upporters o f the K la m ath B asin R e sto ra tio n Agreement announced that all 42 signatories— including Indian tribes, local govern m ents, irrigation districts,; salmon fishermen and con servation groups— agreed to the renewal. T he agreem ent lays out how water will be shared be tween farms and fish: during drought years, and calls on C ongress to provide $800 m illion for environm ental restoration. G reg A ddington, execu tive director o f the Klamath Water Users Association, said some in the basin oppose the measure— notably two newly elected members o f the Kla math County Board o f Com missioners-—but the people who depend m ost on the wa ter are solidly behind it. “The dam removal piece o f it gets the headlines, but the reality is that for m ost o f our guys looking at this thing, it is about water in the ditch,” A ddington said. “They are looking at this and saying this is the best chance o f making sure that continues.” Straddling the O regon- California border, the K la m ath B asin regularly has trouble, m eeting the w ater dem ands o f farm s on the federal irrigation project at the top o f the basin, endan gered sucker fish in the irri gation system’s main reser voir, and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River. T he federal governm ent shut o ff water to m ost o f the farms in 2001 to protect the salmon. A fter a summer o f bitter protests and political battles, the Bush administra Foreign & Domestic 541-923-3554 www.autorepairredmond.com nomah Channel. W ashington and O r egon have talked a lo t about requiring sportsmen to use barbless hooks in the Columbia as part of the revamping o f Colum bia R iver harv est rules starting in 2013. I t’s all part o f transitioning the gillnetfers to off-channel areas, req u irin g use o f seines for commercial har vest in the main Columbia and making sport fishing the priority by 2017. Washington’s commis sion is expected to bless the ban on barbed hooks when it decides on the Co lumbia River fisheries har vest reform s Jan. 12 in Olympia. O re g o n ’s a c tio n re quired Washington to fol low suit by Jan. 1 in order to have concurrent rules in the Columbia. T he W ashington and O re g o n com m issio n s heard more than a dozen hours o f testim ony last m onth about the Colum bia fisheries reform. Inter spersed among the com ments about gillnets, purse seines and off-channel ar eas were frequent opinions about barbless hooks. A rou n4 the Region goats in the Wallowa M oun You need to get back on the road call Oscar's Expert Auto Repair. Towing available...If you fix the car with us, we give you the towing for half price. Call Oscar or Byron for more info 541-390-1008 (AP) — State o f Wash ington officials have had an itch for years to shift to b arb less h o o k s fo r salm on an d steelh ead sport fishing in the Colum bia River. It’s been proposed— then postponed becapse O reg o n was n o t on board— before. Well, it became reality on Jan. 1 T he W ashington D e p a rtm e n t o f F ish and Wildlife announced late last m onth that barbless hooks will be required when fishing for salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout from the mouth of the Columbia upstream to the state boundary -with Oregon, 17 miles east of McNary Dam. Sportsmen still may use d o u b le-p o in t or treble h o o k s, So lo n g as the barbs have been filed off or pinched down. O re g o n ’s F ish and Wildlife Comm ission in early December approved a measure prohibiting O r egon license holders from using barbed hooks in the C o lum bia and the Willamette River dow n stream o f W illam ette F alls, in c lu d in g M u lt (AP) — A co m p an io n agreement to a historic deal to remove four dams from the Klamath River has been Serving Central Oregon Community * Warm Springs 821 S W 11th St. * Redmond Columbia going barbless got a pretty good start on the population,” Calvin said. O v erh u n tin g w iped o u t the goats in the 1850s. They were prized for their horns and hide but n ot their meat. Oregon began a program to re in tro d u c e m o u n ta in OSCAR'S EXPERT AUTO REPAIR Complete Service January 9, 2013 tion resto red irrigation in 2002, only to see tens o f thousands o f adult salmon die o f gill ro t diseases that spread rapidly between fish crowded into low pools o f warm water. The two events led many farmers, tribes, conservation groups and salmon fisher m en to o v erco m e th e ir longstanding differences and agree to a water-sharing plan that is finked to rem oving fo u r sm all h y d ro electric dams owned by PacifiCorp on the Klamath River to help salmon. But Republican op position in the H ouse has blocked enabling legislation in Congress The renewal also extends an agreement settling a po tential battle betw een the Klamath tribes and irrigators over sen io r w ater rig h ts, which the tribes appear to be on the verge o f having af firmed by a long and com plex adjudication process. The restoration agreement calls for the tribes to receive tim berland lost w hen their reservation was dissolved in thel950s, and to limit assert ing their water rights. Irriga tors would not contest tribal water rights. Malin farmer Rob U nruh, vice president o f the water users group, said in a state ment that while demands by the Endangered Species Act that fish get water have been in the spotlight, the w ater rights agreem ent is a key achievem ent fo r farm ers, eliminating a huge future con flict, and helping assure fu ture irrigation. The dams produce enough power for 70,000 people. Re moval is n o t scheduled to start before 2020 and de pends on funding, authoriza tion from Congress, and a federal determination that it will actually help salmon and is in the public interest.
