Page 8
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
April 15, 2015
Mobile clinic taking service to the members
T he mobile health clinic
makes regular visits to the
Simnasho, Seekseequa and
Sidwalter communities.
The clinic also makes a
regular day stop at the ad-
ministration building.
The physician and den-
tal team see an average of
20 patients during these
stops.
Last month the clinic
visited the Warm Springs
Eagle Academy, and the
health workers eventually
met with just about every
student at the school.
They also made a special
stop at the Diabetes pro-
gram.
Later this month, the
clinic will be at Fire Man-
agement, giving physical
exams to the 2015 fire
crews.
The mobile clinic has
been in service for about
a year and a half.
The health team can
access the patients’ records
over an internet connec-
Lynn Graybael is the driver of the Warm Springs Mobile Clinic.
Survey looks at piniped problem
Courtesy Steve Jeffries, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Harbor seals at Astoria, mouth of the Columbia.
A recent survey by the
Columbia River Inter-
Tribal Fish Commission
of sea lions and seals in
the lower Columbia River
found this colony of
about 6,400 harbor seals
River forecast
Rising rivers due to snow-
melt is one of many cues that
the Creator tells us that spring
is here. The normal pattern
of rising spring river levels is
a cue to salmon smolts to
move downriver as fast as
possible, which helps ensure
a safer passage route out to
the ocean.
For this spring, though,
many watersheds are lacking
snowpack in a big way.
This winter has been short-
changed due to El Niño in
the tropical Pacific Ocean,
which tends to deliver warm,
dry winters to the Pacific
Northwest.
The Pacific Ocean usually
has a predictable 20- to 30-
year warm-cold ocean cycle.
We should be in a cooler part
of the cycle, but conditions
have departed from the
nor m, and the ocean is
war mer this year. This
warmer ocean, in turn, has
increased the effects of the
El Niño.
The snowpacks in the Or-
egon-Washington Cascades
have been very low. Snow
water equivalent values were
25 to 75 percent below nor-
mal this winter.
A major storm hit in early
at the mouth of the river.
The seals and sea lions—
or pinipeds—are taking ad-
vantage of a high smelt run
this year.
It is unclear what the ef-
fects of this explosion in pin-
niped numbers will have
on the salmon run since
researchers cannot predict
how many of the animals
will remain at the mouth
after the smelt run.
February, which is normally
a time when it would have
fallen as snow.
Instead, the warm tem-
peratures resulted in the pre-
cipitation falling as rain, which
caused many flashy rises in
tributary streams.
These peak flow events
came two to three months
early, which means less water
will be available for the sum-
mer season and the mainstem
river peaks of late May.
The latest Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
water supply forecast for the
Columbia at The Dalles is 95
percent of normal (NOAA
forecast is 80 percent), which
doesn’t sound so bad.
Unfortunately, the warm
temperatures have resulted in
all this water coming down-
stream soon after it falls
rather than being stored in
snowpack to be released dur-
ing the war m summer
months.
This means that streams
this summer will be hotter
than normal, the low water
levels will create fish passage
and habitat problems, and
there will be a greater chance
of wildfires. Kyle Dittmer,
CRITFC Meteorologist/Hy-
drologist.
Fish forecast
(Courtesy The Dipnetter.)
The winter gillnet fishery
ended in March. Based on
catches, it looks like there will
be a good number of stur-
geon available on both the
Bonneville and The Dalles
harvest guidelines, and a few
available on the John Day
pool guideline.
No determinations have
been made by the tribes yet
on how to use these fish.
Additional sturgeon fisheries
may be a possibility.
The spring chinook is fore-
cast to be 232,500 fish. It is
still a pretty small number of
fish, but we have the largest
total to date since 2003.
(Please note this may not
mean the run will be bigger
than predicted, it just started
out early.)
We won’t know how big
the run will be until sometime
in May.
The actual run size will de-
termine what the allowed har-
vest rate and the allowed
catch is for the tribal fishery.
Both treaty and non-treaty
fisheries are managed on the
same actual river mouth run
size.
Stuart Ellis, CRITFC
Harvest Biologist
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
tion, provided by a mo-
bile internet device that is
set up outside the vehicle.
The upcoming sched-
ule will see the mobile
clinic at Fire Management
on April 21; and the ad-
ministration building on
April 28.
On May 5 the clinic
will be at Sidwalter; on
May 12 at Seekseequa;
May 19 back at adminis-
tration; and May 26 at
Simnasho.
On June 2 the clinic
will be at the community
center, and on June 9
back at Sidwalter. The
clinic will visit the senior
center on May 16; and
Simnasho on May 23.
The mobile unit is
made possible by a co-
operative effort among
the Community Health
Program, the Joint
Health Commission,
tribal Health and Human
Services, and the Indian
Health Service.
ASIST training on suicide prevention
Asist—Applied Suicide
Intervention Skills Train-
ing—is coming up this month
at Kah-Nee-Ta.
The Asist workshop—
April 29-30 from 8:30 a.m.-
4:30 p.m.—is for caregivers
who want to feel more com-
fortable, confident and com-
petent in helping to prevent
the immediate risk of suicide.
For more information on
the upcoming workshop,
contact Sarah Wolfe at 541-
553-3205 ext. 0107; or email:
sarah.wolfe@wstribes.org
The registration deadline
is next week, on April 20.
Space is limited to 40 par-
ticipants. For certification
you must attend both days.
The Assist workshop is
hosted by the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs, and
the Northwest Portland Area
Indian Health Board.
The program
Developed in 1983 and
regularly updated to reflect
improvements in knowledge
and practice, Asist is the
world’s leading suicide inter-
vention workshop.
During the workshop, par-
ticipants learn to intervene
and help prevent the imme-
diate risk of suicide.
Over 1 million people
have taken the workshop, and
studies have proven that the
Asist method helps reduce sui-
cidal feelings for those at
risk.
Workshop features:
· Presentations and guid-
ance from two Living Works
registered trainers.
· A scientifically proven
intervention model.
· Powerful audiovisual
learning aids.
· Group discussions.
· Skills practice and devel-
opment.
· A balance of challenge
and safety.
Asist has saved and
changed hundreds of thou-
sands of lives around the
world.
Many professionals attend
Asist because suicide interven-
tion skills are essential for
their work.
Other people attend sim-
ply because they want to be
able to help someone in need,
in much the same way they
might learn CPR. Because the
training is comprehensive and
doesn’t rely on prior qualifi-
cations, they can have the
same meaningful experience
as a professional caregiver.
Ultimately, Asist is
founded on the principle that
everyone can make a differ-
ence in preventing suicide.
(See the ad below for more infor-
mation.)
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See KWSO.org f or
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