Page 6
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
September 13, 2017
Fall events with Recreation
The Madras High School
girls varsity soccer team
has series of away
games coming up:
Thursday, September 14
at The Dalles Wahtonka;
Tuesday, September 19
at Molalla; and Thursday,
September 21 at
Estacada. The girls are
back home on
September 25 against
Gladstone.
The Warm Springs Recreation
Department is gearing up for fall,
with activities starting soon.
Recreation will host the Kah-
Nee-Ta Fall Run—‘For a Change
of Pace’—on Saturday, October
14. This will be a 10k and two-mile
fun run/walk.
Registration will be at 8 a.m.,
and the run/walk starts at 9. Pre-
registration before October 11 is
$15; and afterward $20. For more
The boys varsity soccer
is at home on September
14, 19 and 21, against
Wahtonka, Molalla and
Estacad.
information contact Recreation at
541-553-3243.
Later in October Recreation
will present the Happy
Spooktacular Halloween. There
will be Trunk-or-Treating, Hallow-
een Carnival, booths and costume
contest. The costume categories
will be best Looney Tune squad
member, meanest monster, silliest
granny, best Michael Jordan, and
cutest baby Tune.
Fishery open til Friday
The boys and girls junior
varsity soccer squads
play the same days at
the same schools as the
varsity teams. Game
time is 4 p.m.
The fourth fall fishing period
has been set. There is a fishery
opened through 6 p.m. this Friday,
September 15.
The open area is all of Zone 6.
Allowed gear is set nets and
driftnets with an 8-inch minimum
mesh size.
Allowed sales are salmon, steel-
head, shad, yellow perch, bass,
walleye, catfish and carp.
Sturgeon may not be sold. Le-
gal-size sturgeon between 38 and
Jayson Smith photos/Spilyay
54 inches fork length in the
Bonneville Pool, and sturgeon be-
tween 43 and 54 inches fork length
in The Dalles and John Day pools,
may be kept for subsistence use.
Standard river mouth and dam
closed areas applicable to gillnets
are in effect, including the Spring
Creek National Fish Hatchery sanc-
tuary. Fish may be sold after the
period ends if caught during the
open period.
Fall fishery update and forecast
by Stuart Ellis
CRITFC Harvest Biologist
White Buffalo football home opener Friday
The Madras high school foot-
ball team has their first regular sea-
son home game this Friday, Sep-
tember 15, against Valley Catholic.
They’re at home again the follow-
ing Friday against Molalla. In other
fall sports at the high school:
The girls varsity volleyball team
plays this Thursday, September 14,
at home against Estacada; followed
by a trip to Gladstone on Mon-
day, September 18.
Varsity cross country is at the
Hood River Skip Sparks Invita-
tional next Wednesday, September
20; then at the Three Courses Chal-
lenge at Seaside on September 22-
23.
Camelback Trail hike with Diabetes Prevention
Warm Springs Diabetes Pre-
vention will host the Camelback
Trail Hike next Friday, September
22, starting at noon.
Be one of the first 50 hikers
(18 and over) to sign up at the start
of camelback before 12:30 and
receive a gray zip up hoodie. Look
for the tent across from Upper
Dry Creek Road.
This hike usually takes an hour
to complete. Please bring proper
shoes and attire, and plan on plenty
of time to enjoy the trail.
Water will be provided for the
hike, and Diabetes Prevention will
be serving a healthy bean salad af-
ter the hike.
Sports team pictures coming up at the high school
Sports team photos are coming
up at Madras High School. Here is
the schedule:
This Wednesday afternoon, Sep-
tember 14: Football squad, 3:30
p.m. picture at the stadium; cheer-
leaders also at the stadium at 4:15.
Next Thursday, September 21:
Volleyball team at 3:30 in the gym;
Cross Country team at 4 p.m. at the
Buffalo sign.
Friday, September 22: Girls soc-
cer at 3:30 p.m. at the socceri field;
and boys soccer ta 4 also at the
field.
Birth announcement
Oliver Wells, born on September 5,
2017.
Kadyn joins brother Rylan, age
3.
Grandparents on the father’s side
are Tammy Wilson of Madras, and
Travis Wells of Madras.
Grandparents on the mother’s
side are Bryon and Jean Hinton and
San Angelo, Texas.
Jaron M. Wells and Megan K.
Wells of Madras are pleased to an-
nounce the birth of their son Kadyn
Through the treaties of 1855
with the U.S., the Warm Springs,
Yakama, Umatilla and Nez Perce
tribes reserved the right to take fish
in all our usual and accustomed
fishing places.
Treaty signers intended that fish
would be present in perpetuity. En-
suring perpetuity is the responsibil-
ity of this generation. The tribes
seek to manage their fisheries wisely
and carefully on behalf of future
generations.
This year has been a very un-
predictable one for salmon and fish-
eries. Unusual river and climate
conditions led to a very late spring
run that didn’t conform to scien-
tific models, making fishery man-
agement very difficult. It was also
frustrating to the fishers who were
eager to begin fishing.
As we leave summer, the fall
salmon and steelhead have already
begun their migration upstream.
The tribes opened the first fall
Zone 6 fishery on August 21.
The fall fishery will likely be as
unpredictable as the spring and
summer fisheries have been this
year. River temperature at
Bonneville Dam passed 68 degrees
on July 12, which marks the stress-
ful zone for salmon and steelhead.
In early August the river tem-
perature passed 72 degrees, which
closed CRITFC’s fish sampling op-
erations at the dam to minimize
handling stress on the fish.
The tribes are also aware of and
concerned by the low B-Index sum-
mer steelhead forecast, and this
year’s low steelhead counts in gen-
eral.
From July 1 through August 29,
only 69,030 summer steelhead
passed Bonneville Dam. This is
only about 30 percent of the 10-
year average of 225,320 normally
seen by that date.
The tribes will be monitoring the
fishery on a weekly basis in order
to provide accurate harvest esti-
mates. The tribal fishery is highly
responsive when adjustments are
required to remain within tribal
catch guidelines. This monitoring
system, done in compliance with
the terms in the 2008-2017 U.S.
v. Oregon management agreement,
works well to ensure fisheries re-
main within the tribes’ adopted lim-
its.
Guided by a commitment to
protecting the health of Colum-
bia River salmon and steelhead and
tempered by the low steelhead re-
turns, the tribal fishery plans will
follow the abundance based har-
vest rate framework in the U.S. v.
Oregon management agreement.
Based on the current forecasted
run sizes, the tribes have an al-
lowed 30 percent harvest rate on
URB fall chinook, and a 13 per-
cent harvest rate on B-Index steel-
head.
The tribal fishery plans include
efforts to harvest as many of the
harvestable fall chinook as possible
given the steelhead constraints.
Constraining fisheries to these
rates represents a significant sac-
rifice on behalf of the tribes for
the conservation of the resource.
The harvest rate schedules used
in the U.S. v. Oregon management
agreement are abundance-based,
which means that a larger percent-
age of a run can be caught in years
with plenty of fish, but a smaller
percentage in years when run sizes
are low.
(See FALL FISHERIES on 8)
‘Herman the Sturgeon’ survives Eagle Creek fire at Columbia
He’s survived a stabbing, a kid-
napping and now a wildfire.
Oh, and he’s a fish.
The Eagle Creek Fire burned
tens of thousands of acres in the
Columbia River Gorge.
The fire forced the Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife to
evacuate three fish hatcheries in the
gorge, and to release thousands of
juvenile salmon into the Columbia
River ahead of schedule after ash
and fire debris clogged hatchery
intakes.
Despite all that, ‘Herman the
sturgeon’ has survived.
“Right now, Herman the stur-
geon—who is a very large sturgeon,
almost 11 feet long—Herman is
fine,” said Michelle Dennehy of
the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife.
For the unfamiliar, Herman is
the star attraction of the Sturgeon
Viewing Interpretive Center at the
Bonneville Hatchery, adjacent to
the Bonneville Dam.
Herman is 79 years old. And
he’s huge, weighing in at 500
pounds.
The fish is “an icon and some-
thing of a pop-culture figure,”
Dennehy said.
People love Herman, especially
kids. Dennehy said he typically gets
about a half million visitors a year.
When ODFW had to evacuate
the hatcheries, many people
wanted to know, was Herman OK?
Dennehy said ash in the water
can affect gills, stressing fish and
potentially causing respiratory
problems. But the water in
Herman’s viewing pond comes
from a well, and hasn’t been im-
pacted by the fire.
The fire isn’t Herman’s first
brush with death, either.
“Herman has had a wild life,”
Dennehy said.
Herman was kidnapped from
a viewing pond at Roaring River
hatchery in 1983, and a man once
jumped into his pond and stabbed
him with a knife.
Herman has been nursed back
to health so many times, ODFW
said his caretakers are on guard
for any people who would seek to
disturb him.
“Nowadays, Herman is kicking
back and enjoying the good life at
Bonneville,” according to
ODFW’s website.
Well, at least he will be once
these latest fires subside.
Conditions at the three hatch-
eries affected by the Eagle Creek
Fire improved last week, though
some trees were still smoldering
near the hatcheries.
At the Cascade Hatchery, the
power was out, but an emergency
generator was operating necessary
electrical equipment. And crews are
building a fire line and planning con-
trolled burns to help protect the
Oxbow Hatchery.
ODFW is also preparing for
possible emergency evacuations
of fish stocks, and has trucks and
raceway space ready to go if
fish—including Herman—need
to move.