Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
February 13, 2019
Page 5
Youth hoops tourney in W.S.
The Warm Springs Cougars
Youth Organization is hosting
youth basketball tournaments in
February.
The tourneys are the All-In-
dian Third- and Fourth-Grade
Co-Ed, and the 15-And-Under
(plus two non-Native) Tourna-
ments.
Play is Friday through Sun-
day, February 22-24 in Warm
Springs. The entry deadline is
February 15.
Twenty-Sixth Annual
Then in April will be the
Twenty-Sixth Annual Warm
Springs Cougars All-Indian High
School Boys and Girls Basket-
ball Championships.
This tournament will be April
5-7. The entry deadline is March
22.
For more information con-
tact Austin Greene, tourney di-
rector, 541-553-3243.
Platform, hook and line fisheries
Jayson Smith/Spilyay
Mariah Stacona, now a senior at Northwest University, this month played her final home game for the
Eagles. After the game—a Seniors Night win for the Eagles—family and friends (above) joined Mariah
on court for a farewell ceremony. In high school Mariah was an outstanding player for Madras. She
attended Northwest, near Seattle, on a sports scholarship.
Tribal Northwest fisheries reports
River temperatures
A move to initiate state regula-
tion of salmon-killing hot water in
the Columbia and Snake rivers has
been iced by the Trump Adminis-
tration—for now.
The Washington State Depart-
ment of Ecology initiated a pub-
lic comment process on draft per-
mits that would enable it to en-
force state water-quality stan-
dards at federal dams, including
temperature.
But last week the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency wrote to
the department to announce it is
yanking the draft permits that were
under review.
That has the effect of stopping,
at least for now, Ecology’s effort
to enforce its water quality stan-
dards at federal dams for the first
time.
Ecology was surprised by the
move and is seeking more infor-
mation—and not backing down.
Bird predation
The federal government killed
thousands of double-crested cor-
morants living on a Columbia
River island between 2015 and
2017 in an effort to help young
salmon make it to the Pacific
Ocean alive.
But Oregon state biologists say
the birds just moved upriver—pos-
sibly tripling the number of salmon
each bird ate.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers killed 5,576 cormorants and
destroyed 6,181 nests in an effort
to prevent the birds from eating
an estimated 12 million young
salmon each year as they swim past
New law allows tribes to take sea lions
When a herd of sea lions first
arrived at Bonneville Dam in
2001, tribal fishermen were the
first to notice.
Sea lions had long been ab-
sent from that part of the river,
having been reduced in the
early 20th century to a popula-
tion of around 10,000 through-
out their range.
The pinnipeds eventually re-
covered after the 1972 passage
of the Marine Mammal Protec-
tion Act. Today, there are
around 300,000 of them.
Tribal officials immediately
recognized that the upsurge of
sea lions—along with the pro-
tections established by the 1972
act—would be a problem for
the Columbia River salmon
runs.
“Even the best laws have un-
intended consequences,” says
Chuck Hudson, intergovern-
mental affairs director for the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission. “Among
those consequences is when a
East Sand Island, just east of the
mouth of the Columbia as it flows
into the Pacific.
Biologists say the mass slaugh-
ter may have caused the collapse
of the birds’ largest breeding
colony. It also may have been for
nothing.
The Oregon Department of
law protects one species so
much that it conflicts with the
Endangered Species Act.”
Congress at the end of 2018
passed a bill that would make
it easier for the state and tribes
to reduce the number of sea
lions in the Columbia. President
Trump signed the bill into law
last month.
The new law amends the
1972 Marine Mammal Protec-
tion Act, allowing some Native
American tribes—including the
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs—to kill sea lions.
This
change
eases
protections on sea lions in the
Columbia River, the Willamette
River and their tributaries.
Tribes first will receive a
National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration permit
before taking a sea lion.
The law authorizes NOAA
to issue the permits to the
War m Springs, Yakama,
Umatilla and Nez Perce
tribes.
Fish and Wildlife expects “little to
no gain in survival” from the
corps’ actions for young salmon
swimming through the Columbia
River estuary.
That’s because cormorants are
now living farther upriver—still in
huge numbers.
A new platform, and hook and
line season has been set.
The season opened earlier this
month, and runs to 6 p.m., Thurs-
day, March 21.
The open area is all of Zone 6.
Allowed gear is dip nets, hoop
nets, and hook and line.
Allowed sales are salmon, steel-
head, shad, carp, catfish, walleye,
bass and yellow perch. Sturgeon
may be kept for subsistence use.
Size limits are between 38 and
54 inches fork length in the
Bonneville Pool, and from 43 to
54 inches fork length in The
Dalles and John Day pools.
Closed areas applicable to scaf-
folds and hook and line are in ef-
fect.