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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1991)
Smoke Signals June 1991 page 5 Health Information : Alcohol & Pregnancy Don't Mix Tribal Timberccont.) Adams. Adams explained that these type of activities aren't all that new to the timber industry. "One of the activities that we are experimenting with a little bit is pruning," said Adams. "Other folks around us are doing a little experimentation with it as well." Although the experimental pruning has been taking place for some time, it's the latest thing in the timber industry's quality improvement efforts. "It is a long term project where you go in and you limb prune trees to a certain height and then hopefully 25 to 40 years down the road you'll have some better quality wood," explained Adams. "So, it's kind of a futuristic venture but, it's one that more and more people are getting involved in." Adams believes that the program's current activities are enhancing the forest for future generations. "We're going to try and gear our activities to increase the volume and the quality of the wood." One of the current activities that should go a long way in ensuring an increase in both the volume and the quality of our timber is cone collection. Adams said that although the program has yet to do any cone collection to date, it is in the works to have collections each time there is a timber sale on the reservation, "Ideally, I would like to start doing cone collections for every sale. We would mark some of the superior looking trees for cone collection." The seeds are then stored so that when the timber is eventually harvested from the reservation the original seed source can be preserved. Plans call for the estab lishment of a seed orchard in the near future. Right now the forestry program is preparing for the "Windy Joe" timber sale. The sale is 7.3 million board feet (mbf) and will take place June 18th. Other activi ties include preparation of a logging transportation plan that should be completed by the end of the year., "It's a plan where all the areas are laid out into logging settings," said Adams. "The roads and the landings are identified throughout the entire reservation. This will end up being a master logging plan for us so that if we want to log 6 mbf then we'll be able to go into the areas that we want to log and the preliminary office work will be done." According to Adams, Atterbury Consultants have just completed an inventory plan of the reservation. "We haven't had time to start analyzing it yet but what it means is that now if we want to find out information about a certain age or species of tree on the reservation then we can just pull it up on the computer." Then, they will take the just completed inventory plan and incorpo rate it into the harvest and logging plan. This informa tion will make up the program's forest management plan which is a "total" plan for the reservation. "It's going to be an 18 year plan to take the reservation through to the end of this present agreement we're in," said Adams. . One of the future activities that Adams is looking forward to is taking over the maintenance of the roads on the reservation. The Bureau of Land Management has been doing the road maintenance until now but, Adams feels that his staff will be ready to take over the maintenance by the end of the year. "It will mean addi tional work but we're preparing for that." Tribal members should know the Tribal forestry pro gram will be busy in the future with their myriad of projects. Tribal members are encouraged to come and see what the forestry program is all about. And, you should be aware of the fact that head forester Cliff Adams is dedicated to keeping the program at the forefront of the latest in timber technology. By Holly F. Reimer Tundra Times reporter Alcohol Related Birth Defects Awareness week started May 12th, (Mother's Day) in Alaska, and according to health officials not just mothers, but everyone, should be involved. For the first time last year the governor proclaimed the week should be set aside to increase the awareness of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects, both caused by women who drink during pregnancy. Sharron Zandman-Zeman from the Department of Health and Social Services in Anchorage said, it is important to increase awareness and involve everybody because drinking alcohol while pregnant is the leading cause of retardation in the United States. If alcohol is avoided during pregnancy, FAS and FAE are totally preventable. If it's that simple, why then does Alaska have the highest incidence of FAS and FAE births in the nation? Mary Carmen Edmonds, associate case manager at the Prenatal Support Services Division of Southcentral Foundation said, "The answer is as simple as the question. Because people aren't educated in the field of alcohol and pregnancy. Education seems to be the most important way to get people to recognize how serious FAS and FAE really are." Zandman-Zeman from the state agency said the Native FAS birth rate is 4.2 per 1000 and the non-Native estimate is approximately 1.7 per 1000 in Alaska. On a worldwide scale, Alaska's FAE birth rate is from 2 to 15 times greater. Edmonds and Carol Richards, who is also a case worker at the support center, know how important it is to encourage women to not drink or do drugs during pregnancy. "We're still learning about the effects of alcohol," Richards said about the entire medical field. "I'm a full fledged alcohol and drug counselor and I didn't know that alcohol was the number one cause of retardation. I'm still learning myself." Edmonds and Richards say there is no way to deter mine (even with current technology) at what stage of pregnancy alcohol consumption is the most or least harmful to the fetus. One must assume it's never safe to drink while pregnant. "It's important for the husband or boyfriend to be involved in the alcohol or drug abstinence. They receive the same literature and education. He should also abstain from alcohol and drugs, keep it outside the ' house and never urge or supply it to the woman. Families and communities can also get involved by giving emotional support to the pregnant woman. Everybody wants healthy children," Richards said. Employees of the Alaska Native Medical Center along with Edmonds and Richards, make sure pregnant women needing help with addictions are treated non judgementally, with love, compassion and total confiden tiality. The first step is evaluation. The pregnant woman fills out forms so a determination can be made whether she is a high risk alcohol or drug user. They make sure the woman knows about other avail able support services, such as where to get free clothing or food stamps. Women who abuse alcohol or drugs should be aware of the FAS and FAE risks if they become pregnant. If they realize they are pregnant while they have been abusing, they should stop using alcohol and drugs immediately the women said. "If the pregnant woman stops using alcoholdrugs, the fetus will not incur any further damage. For some women the struggle to stop is from day to day and for others it may be from hour to hour." Edmonds said. "Anybody can come to the center for help. When someone misses an appointment we'll call them and ask if they're OK or if they need anything. If they don't have a phone we write them a letter and ask how they are and why they couldn't make it to the appointment. If they did drink we ask why, in what situation did they drink and with whom did they drink. We also ask if they can work on changing the situation in which they drink in," she explained. "Moms are carrying our future," said Edmonds, who is Choctaw and Mexican and has lived in Alaska for 17 years, "and I'm worried about what FAS and. FAE is doing to the Native cultures." What is FAS and FAE? Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is the name given to a consis tent pattern of physical, mental and behavioral deficits observed in infants of women who drink heavily during pregnancy. Fetal Alcohol Effects describes a similar but less severe pattern of abnormalities also due to fetal alcohol exposure. When a pregnant woman drinks, the blood alcohol level of her developing child reaches the same concen tration as her own. It takes about 48 hours for a woman's body to detoxify after alcohol ingestion. It takes nearly twice this time for the alcohol to be com pletely eliminated from the fetal environment. Research shows that children born with FAS have congenital defects, many of which are immediately evident. The most obvious of these are the facial abnormalities, low birth weight and small head which reflect inhibited brain growth. FAS children are usually below the third to 10th percentile of weight andor length at birth. Many have malformations of the ears and eyes and cleft lip and palate. Skeletal abnormalities and aberrant develop ment of internal organs are common. FAS children are at high risk for central nervous system damage including mental retardation, and eating and sleeping disorders which lead to failure to thrive. The average IQ of FAS children generally ranges from 20 to 90: for FAE children the range is 39 to 105; the average for both groups is 68. Parents report that as infants, FAS children are overly irritable, difficult to relax and do not respond to affection, all of which makes bonding difficult. The congenital defects associated with FAS and FAE are irreversible. This information was provided by the Southcentral Foundation.
