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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2001)
JUNE 1, 2001 Smoke Signals 5 Tradliftroral Food Festival The Tribe's Cultural and Fish and Wildlife departments are teaming together to hold a tradi tional foods festival at the Cultural Site at noon on Friday, June 22. Everyone is invited to come sample a number of traditional foods pre pared in traditional and modern ways. There will be skwak-wal or eels, camas, and hopefully some salmon and fry bread. We are also looking for volun teers willing to help gather the camas. Don't miss out on this won derful opportunity to use a shovel. The camas dig is scheduled for June 8, we will meet at the Cul tural department's office at 9 a.m. and carpool to the site. Reyn and Shonn Leno have generously do nated the camas from their prop erty just north of Willamina. De pending upon the number of vol unteers, the dig should last 3 to 4 hours. Camas produces a bulb that was a very important food stuff for Tribes of the West. Camas is a member of the lily family and has attractive blue flowers. The bulb was prepared in a number of ways but one of the most common meth ods was the camas oven. The camas oven commonly consisted of a pit lined with river rock. A large fire was built over the pit and once the fire had died down and the rocks were sufficiently heated, the pit was lined with skunk cabbage leaves. Camas bulbs were then placed on the leaves and one additional layer of leaves was placed over the camas. Then a final layer of soil was placed over the leaves and the camas was left to cook for sev eral days. The cooked camas was of ten pounded into "cakes," or dried for storage. We will be building a traditional camas oven at the Cultural Site. Don't miss your chance to taste ca mas from a traditional camas oven and see how it works. Members of the Fish and Wildlife and Timber Committees will gather the eels at Willamette Falls. North west Tribes have been gathering skwak-wal or eels for hundreds of years at the Falls. The eels congre gate at the falls during their spawn ing migration up the Willamette River. Eels have traditionally been netted in pools below the falls or plucked from the rocks as they use their mouths to inch up the wall of the falls. The upcoming fishing trip represents the first major return of the Grand Rondes to the falls in many years, although a number of indi vidual Tribal members have contin ued to gather through the years. June 22 is your chance to taste skwak-wal prepared several different ways or to hear from the committees about the one(s) that got away! If we have enough interest, we would like to continue and expand the Traditional Food Festival on an annual basis. We've received a lot of positive feed-back and informa tion on traditional foods and their preparation from many Tribal mem bers while planning this gathering, but we would like to hear more. If you have information or recipes for traditional foods please contact the Cultural or Fish and Wildlife depart ments at 503-879-2249 or 503-879-2382. ,' We are very excited about provid ing the membership a taste of these traditional foods, so mark your cal endar for noon on June 22 and join us at the Cultural Site. - J ' . V . ft I - . Ill . .,, ' X Camas for Lunch? The bulbs of the camas plant are Just one of the many traditional foods that will be part of the Culture and Natural Resource's food festival scheduled for Friday, June 22. The food festival will be held at the Tribe's Cultural Site. The camas will be cooked In a traditional camas oven that will be constructed just for the occasion. Riparian Zones and Agency Creek Restoration By Rod Thompson, Water Quality Specialist In recent months riparian areas have been a common subject among the Natural Resources staff and the Tribal committees working on the Natu ral Resource 10 year management plan. Riparian areas are important not only to the stream but also to fish and wildlife. Approximately 157 species in the Oregon Coast Range use riparian areas pri marily for foraging and nesting habitat and an other 32 species use the area secondarily. That is 189 species, out of 204 species (93), that use the riparian zone for foraging andor nesting! (Brown et al. 1985). We have also confirmed coho salmon spawning in Agency Creek, North and West Fork of Agency Creek, Wind River, Joe Creek, and Coast Creek. Riparian areas provide large woody debris (LWD), shade, sediment control, bank stability, and nutrients to the stream. Large woody debris (logs within the stream) can slow water flows, trap sediment, form pools, provide cover for fish from predators and high flows, and are food for macroinvertebrates (water insects). Riparian trees and shrubs can provide shade to keep water tem peratures cool, act as a filter by trapping sediment, and stabilize banks with their roots. Litter fall and woody debris from riparian vegetation supply the stream with nutrients and macroinvertebrates with food. The riparian area also provides travel corridors, thermal protection, foraging and nesting areas, for wildlife. Continuous riparian areas can provide "paths" or "travel corridors" for birds and animals to travel with protective cover from predators and adverse weather conditions. Riparian vegetation provides thermal cover by regulating the tempera ture within the canopy and reduces large fluctua tions in day and night temperatures. Riparian areas are important forage and nesting areas for amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. (Ie. macroinvertebrates for amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and birds and vegetation and berries for birds, bears, deer, and elk.) Downed woody debris (logs) provide food for macroinvertebrates and foraging sites, cover, and denning areas for amphibians; reptiles, and small mammals. Functions provided by riparian areas also depend on distanceJxom the stream! For example, bank . vi: stability is a function that occurs primarily within ,,;.., ' . , , V'. -, , " - -f ' 7 JCSv r.- -. . .... n Jm Photos by Rod Thompson Spawned Out This spawned out Coho salmon will provide nutrients back into the stream, which is food for juvenile fish com pleting the cycle. Pictured at right is a Coho male that spawned out on agency creek a half mile below the forks. Habitat - This fallen log on Coast Creek is a good example of how natural resources in a fish habitat area can provide important things like shade, deeper pools of water and even food for macro invertebrates which in turn feed the fish. The upstream side of the log collects sediment and as the water flows over and under the log it creates a pool. ... "v. " tj. r w. '11 "t. .. v 'm fa. 30 feet of the stream. The occurrence of large woody debris is dependant on the potential tree height for that species of tree and area. For ex ample, if a Douglas fir tree has the potential to grow 250 feet tall it has to be within 250 feet of the stream for it to become LWD (independent of steep slopes or ground movement). These are just a couple of examples why riparian area widths are important when planning forest management activities and stream restoration. The Natural Resource Department over the last few years has been conducting surveys and gath ering data to help the Tribe gain important stream and riparian information. These include stream habitat surveys, stream temperature monitoring, culvert inventory, fish surveys, macroinvertebrate surveys, and water quality monitoring. All this data will be used to develop the Natural Resource 10 year management plan and to manage and restore our riparian areas. The Tribe hopes to conduct more stream resto ration projects in the next few years. One resto ration project, that has been prioritized by the Fish and Wildlife Committee, is the Agency Creek Res toration project along Agency Creek and the South Yamhill River below the pow wow grounds. This area has some very large bank erosion problems and is cause for safety concerns along the high banks. The Tribe is considering bank stabiliza tion and riparian plantings to improve conditions along Agency Creek and the South Yamhill River. The project should reduce the amount of pediment being introduced into the1 stream, improve ripar ian conditions, and improve safety.
