Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
January 18, 2017
School board to fill budget committee positions
The Jefferson County
school district board of di-
rectors is accepting applica-
tions from community mem-
bers interested in serving on
the district budget commit-
tee.
There are two positions,
each for a term of three
years.
The board will review ap-
plications, and make the ap-
pointments at the January 23
board meeting.
The appointments would
become effective immedi-
ately upon appointment and
end June 30, 2019. To be
eligible for appointment, the
candidate must live in the
county, be eligible to vote in
the district, and cannot be an
officer or employee of the
district.
Applications are available
at the district office, 445 SE
Buff Street, Madras. Or go
online:
www.jcsd.k12.or.us
In other 509-J district
business:
Board positions
Superintendent Rick
Molitor will be resigning at
the end of this school year,
and the district board is in
the process of finding a new
superintendent.
School officials met
twice in Warm Springs in
January, taking input from
as to what community mem-
bers would like to see in
terms of qualifications of
the new superintendent.
Twenty-five to 30 people
attended the meetings,
hosted in part by the Or-
egon School Board Associa-
tion. An online survey was
also available for giving in-
put.
Meanwhile, the school
board is considering a zone
approach to the district
board positions. Superinten-
dent Molitor will report on
the matter, and the board
will decide a course of ac-
tion.
One idea is to have some
of the five board positions,
three for example, elected by
zone, and then two elected
at large.
Three board positions—
those held currently by
Laurie Danzuka, Tom
Norton
and
Lyle
Rehwinkle— are up for elec-
tion in May.
A zone approach to at
least some of the positions
would be a way to ensure fair
representation to all com-
munities.
Under the current ar-
rangement, it is possible that
all five board positions could
go to residents of Madras,
for instance, with no board
member from War m
Springs. This has not hap-
pened in recent decades, as
Jeff Sanders, and then
Laurie Danzuka have served
successive ter ms on the
board.
Nevertheless, have district
zones would avoid this pos-
sibility in the future.
Page 3
To students, parents
In regard to the missed
school days in Januar y:
The school district cre-
ates a school calendar
that exceeds the required
minutes in case we have
to cancel or delay school.
However, with eight
canceled school days, we
need to look at ways to
make up some instruc-
tional time. In order to
plan accordingly and pro-
vide as much notice as
possible, the following
recommendation will go
to the School Board on
January 23 for potential
adoption:
· Friday, January 27
will become a full student
day.
· Friday, February 3
will be the end of second
quarter work day for
staff, and a non-student
day.
· Monday, February
13 would be a full student
day.
· Monday, March 13
would be a full student
day.
These recommenda-
tions will allow us to bal-
ance our semesters, make
up some instructional
time, and provide a small
buffer in case we have
more delays or cancella-
tions.
The purpose of this
message is to provide stu-
dents, staff, parents and
stakeholders early warning
on potential changes to
our current school calen-
dar.
Rick Molitor, school
district superintendent.
Restoration: planning, on-site work took more than a decade
(Continued from page 1)
The Warm Springs Tribes
were driven to restore the
river out of a dedication to
their culture and their re-
sponsibility to the genera-
tions to come.
“Our children are our
most valuable resource, and
we want them to have what
our elders passed on to us,”
says tribal member Kirby
Heath.
In 2001, using funding
from Bonneville Power Ad-
ministration, the Confeder-
ated Tribes of War m
Springs acquired the resto-
ration site.
Tribal Natural Resources
and Fisheries began devel-
oping an approach to deter-
mine how to go about re-
versing the damage and re-
building a healthy river.
In 2005, the tribes
partnered with the Bureau
of Reclamation to develop
solutions for the site.
“The War m Springs
Tribes’ goals for this land
are to make it ecologically
healthy and to have all the
native animals and plants
come back and be healthy,”
said Pat McDowell.
Over the next five years,
a plan was developed to re-
store this most degraded
portion of the upper Middle
Fork John Day River.
It would require exten-
sive tree planting, seeding,
installation of browse fenc-
ing, bio-engineering, and
placement of large wood
structures throughout the
entire project area.
The amount of work
couldn’t be performed in a
single year, and was initially
Courtesy CRITFC
Warm Springs Fisheries takes a reading at an
engineered wood jam feature on the river.
divided into three phases,
with two more added as the
project got underway.
With a plan ready, on-the-
ground work began in 2011.
On the ground
After five years of work,
the area is nearly unrecog-
nizable. Nearly one and a
half miles of new meander-
ing channels were created.
Construction crews
moved 200,000 cubic yards
of earth to cover the bare
rock of the mine tailings,
forming new waterways.
Crews planted 24,000
trees and dispersed 2,100
pounds of seed over the
project area. Fisheries and
Wildlife crews moved tens
of thousands of fish, am-
phibians, and other wildlife
to safer locations prior to
each project phase.
All told, the project was
made possible through the
hard work and dedication of
hundreds of individuals.
“A large project like this
really takes a village to ac-
complish,” says Natural Re-
sources Branch manager
Bobby Brunoe.
Prior to 2011, about 13
percent of the chinook
spawning that occurred in
the Middle Fork John Day
happened in the Oxbow
area.
Since 2011 when phase
one began, that total has in-
creased to 23.4 percent. A
project of this scope, how-
ever, doesn’t just benefit
fish.
“If we do what we’re do-
ing in the name of fish—
and we can use that, we can
say it’s for the fish—but
what else is it for?” asks
Anna Stargel, the Oxbow
Conservation Area Care-
taker.
“It’s all the riparian veg-
etation, it’s the wildlife—it’s
the osprey and the deer and
Courtesy W.S. Branch of Natural Resources
This crew in 2016 was collecting fish to move them to safety, before the construction
phase.
the mule deer that come
down here, the elk that come
to water down here—it’s all
of the beautiful things that
come along with that resto-
ration. It’s all connected.”
Project Details
· Property Mined for
Gold 1939-1942 on over
200 acres.
· Tailings leveled in the
mid-1970s.
· Confluences of Beaver,
Ruby, Granite Boulder, and
Butte Creeks affected by
mining.
· Restoration project split
into five phases: 2011-2016.
· 5,800 feet of new river
channel, 1,100 feet of new
creek channels constructed.
· 5,700 feet of existing
river channel enhanced by
flow restoration and habitat
improvements.
· Over 2,600 whole
trees, plus additional slash
utilized for habitat improve-
ments, comprising at least
260 instream structures.
· Over 30,000 contain-
erized plants and 13,000
cuttings planted.
· Project benefits spring
chinook salmon, summer
steelhead, and lamprey
through greatly increased
instream habitat structures,
alcoves, spring channels,
sided channels, reconnected
floodplains, and deep pools.
· Multiple partners joined
the Confederated Tribes in
completing this project, in-
cluding:
The Bonneville Power
Administration, the Bureau
of Reclamation, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, Or-
egon Watershed Enhance-
ment Board, the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice,
NOAA Fisheries,
and others.
(This article is by Jeremy
FiveCrows, courtesy of the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission.)