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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
2015 Graduates
Stacona
to play for
Northwest
Madras High School
basketball star Mariah
Stacona will play college
basketball at Northwest
University.
She signed her letter of
intent to Northwest on
May 28 at the Madras High
School gym, with family
and friends on hand for the
occasion.
Stacona in her senior
high school was a Class 4A
first-team all-state selec-
tion.
For the White Buffalos
she averaged 16.1 points
and 3.3 rebounds, four as-
sists and six steals a game.
The team won 16 games
during the season, and
made it to the state play-
offs. Mariah, 5-5, plays
guard.
Northwest University is
a private Christian school
in Kirkland Wash., near
Seattle.
Mariah visited North-
west earlier this year, and
loved the school right away.
Besides playing basketball
she will studying Business
Administration.
“I want to say thank you
Shelby Moody
to everyone who has sup-
ported me throughout my
high school career,” Mariah
says.”
“It’s been an awesome
journey. Now onto a new
chapter in my life, and I
could not be more excited.
“This is such a great
opportunity—amazing
school, basketball program,
and a great group of people
to surround myself with.”
locations where sea lion pre-
dation is most acute.
The predation there is
starting to take toll on return-
ing endangered salmon and
steelhead populations.
Willamette Falls is a tradi-
tional fishing site of the
Warm Springs, Wasco and
Yakama Nation.
The broad coalition of
tribal, state and fishing orga-
nizations came together to
draw attention to the urgent
need to pass H.R. 564.
The proposed federal leg-
islation, cosponsored by Rep.
Schrader, would give tribal,
state and federal fisheries
managers the authority to
address this growing threat to
public safety and the survival
of endangered fish popula-
tions in the Columbia River
basin.
(Article continues on page 7)
Fishers Expo in July
The Columbia River In-
dian Fishers Expo is coming
up on July 24.
The expo is hosted by the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission, and is free
to all Warm Springs, Yakama,
Umatilla and Nez Perce fish-
ers.
The event provides Indian
fishers with information, re-
sources, and training that will
help them improve river
safety, fish quality, and equip-
ment maintenance.
The event, held at the Best
Western Hood River Inn,
next to the Hood River-White
Salmon Bridge, includes
lunch.
Among the scheduled pre-
sentations and clinics are:
Boat engine mainte-
nance: Ways to keep your
boat engine running at peak
condition. Also, common en-
gine-killing mistakes and how
to avoid them.
Fiberglass repair: A
hands-on overview of basic
fiberglass repair. Fishers can
bring their own boats to the
workshop to address specific
questions.
Food handling certifica-
tion class: Conducted by
Nancy Collins, Warm Springs
sanitarian. Completing this
class will give fishers Warm
Springs tribally-issued certifi-
cation that is recognized by
the State of Oregon for sales
within the state. Oregon resi-
dency is not required, but
fishers selling to non-Indian
customers over the bank in
Oregon are encouraged at-
tend.
Selling at farmers mar-
kets: Farmers markets focus
on local, sustainable products.
This presents a great oppor-
tunity for Indian fishers.
Learn how to participate in
farmers markets.
Value-added products:
How to develop a product
that meets food safety regu-
lations. Discussions include
proper smoking, canning, and
packaging techniques.
Luncheon presenta-
tions: Keynote presentation
by CRITFC chairman, and
CRITFC executive director’s
update to fishers.
Tyrell Poitra
Congratulations to
tribal member students
graduating this year at
the South Wasco
County High School in
Maupin. The students
include Tony Holliday
Jr. (picture not avail-
able), Shelby Moody,
Tyrell Poitra and Lar ry
Scott Jr.
Jayson Smith photos
Mariah signed her
national letter of intent at
the Madras High School
gym (above), where she
met with Northwest head
coach Ken Crawford
(right).
Rally supports control
of sea lion predation
Leaders from the Colum-
bia River Treaty Tribes, Or-
egon Fish and Wildlife, and
the recreational fishing com-
munity met in late May to
discuss the problem of the
growing sea lion population in
the Columbia.
The tribes, state and rec-
reation interests met at
Clackamette Park on the
Willamette River with U.S.
Rep. Kurt Schrader, and hun-
dreds of concerned citizens.
They were on hand to sup-
port passage of federal legis-
lation to protect endangered
salmon by controlling the sea
lion population.
The Columbia and
Willamette rivers are faced
with unprecedented levels of
predation from the growing
numbers of sea lions.
The rally was held near
Willamette Falls, one of the
June 10, 2015
Larry Scott Jr.
Master’s Degree
Forecasting salmon returns
presents new challenges
By Paul Lumley, CRITFC
Executive Director
One of the key pieces
of information in fishery
planning is the pre-season
forecast—an estimate of
how many salmon will be
returning.
This isn’t always a per-
fect science, and it is
based on past perfor-
mance.
In some years, the
forecast is close to what
we see, but just as often,
the forecast can be way
off.
Forecasts are based on
the historical relationship
between age classes.
For example the num-
ber of jacks returning in
one year is used to fore-
cast the number of four-
year-old fish in the next
year.
This assumes that the
future will behave just as
it has in the past.
The forecast tech-
niques are all based on the
assumption that survival
rate, particularly in the ju-
venile life stages, remains
relatively constant over
time.
As with many other
things in life, conditions
vary over time, resulting
in these assumptions to be
not at all what occurs
when the fish actually
come in.
During the past few
years, we have seen very
high spring chinook jack
returns—more than we
have ever seen before.
While we still saw large
spring chinook adult re-
turns, the proportion be-
tween adults and jacks did
not match up with the pro-
portions seen in the histori-
cal data.
Jack counts are one of
the most important meth-
ods we use to predict the
adult returns, and with their
numbers abnormally high,
our adult returns were
sometimes ‘over pro-
jected.’
We’re still studying why
so many jacks returned
last year. The connection
between jack counts and
future adult counts makes
this year’s low jack return
troubling, as it might indi-
cate low adult chinook re-
turns in the upcoming
years.
Despite being impre-
cise, forecasts are a valu-
able tool for fishery plan-
ning.
We know that the ac-
tual returns will vary from
the forecasts; we just can’t
tell by how much and in
what direction until the fish
start to show up.
Each tribe sets its own
fishing seasons, and to do
this in a responsible and
appropriate manner, they
depend on accurate and
up-to-date run size infor-
mation and forecasts.
CRITFC and tribal fish-
ery staffs gather this infor-
mation, and adjust or fine-
tune the pre-season fore-
casts as the actual return
progresses.
We are constantly trying
to make these forecasts
more reliable, but with the
major changes that are af-
fecting the river, the
salmon and the climate,
this is turning out to be
harder than it was in the
past.
The Warm Springs Youth Council is doing a 50/50
Raffle to raise money for their travel to the Wash-
ington, D.C. for the Inaugural White House Tribal
Youth Gathering and UNITY Conference. The draw-
ing will be this Friday, June 12. Winner receives
approximately $2,500. Call one of these numbers:
541-777-7717 ~ 541-325-3288 ~ 541-410-3293 ~
541-999-7363 ~ 541-460-2799.
Courtesy photo.
Pah-tu Pitt has earned a Master’s of
Environmental Studies from Evergreen State
College. Her thesis is on a Food Sovereignty
related topic.
Pah-tu’s parents are Louis Pitt and Nancy Pitt.
New power line will
affect river traffic
by Nathan Mullen
Big Eddy-Knight Transmission
Line Project, BPA
Since 2012, BPA has been
constructing a new transmis-
sion line running 28 miles
from the Celilo Substation in
The Dalles to Knight Substa-
tion, a new facility about 5
miles northwest of Golden-
dale.
The tribes have been
monitoring and consulting on
the project throughout this
time.
The Yakama Nation
halted construction on one
of the towers due to impacts
to a cultural site. The tribe
and BPA worked together to
come up with a workable so-
lution to relocate that particu-
lar tower.
During June and July,
BPA will be installing 20 new
transmission cables on the
new towers where the new
line crosses the Columbia
River near Wishram, Wash-
ington.
Because of the very long
distance these cables must
cross—about 4,700 feet—
BPA and its contractors plan
to use a small helicopter to
fly high-strength nylon ropes
across the Columbia River
that will be used to pull the
transmission lines across.
This work, called “string-
ing,” requires great precision
and control, and is sensitive
to high winds. Under windy
conditions, the helicopters
cannot operate safely and the
work would be suspended
temporarily.
While some of the string-
ing operations are underway,
it will be necessary to tempo-
rarily stop highway traffic
along I-84 in Oregon, railway
traffic on both sides of the
river, and river traffic within
500 yards of the Celilo train
bridge.
The shutdowns during the
day will be short, lasting from
a few minutes up to one hour
at a time. The shutdowns and
delays will occur intermit-
tently during the day approxi-
mately between 9 a.m. to 5
p.m.
The best chance to avoid
these delays would be before
9 a.m. or after 5 p.m. The
construction contractor will
have a boat in the water dur-
ing the stringing operations to
help ensure safety on the
river.
BPA will continue working
closely with CRITFC’s En-
forcement Team and our
other tribal partners to share
updates and new information
with tribal fishers. Details and
contact information will be
posted at the Celilo and Avery
access sites.
The operation should be
fairly easy to spot when it is
happening. Boats will be in
the water to monitor the
progress. The phone numbers
of the boat operators will be
posted at the access sites for
fishers to contact to check on
up-to-the-minute river traffic
status.
Our goal is to cause the
smallest possible disruption in
river operations, while keep-
ing everyone safe.