Smoke signals., January 15, 2003, Page 7, Image 7

JANUARY 15, 2003
Smoke Signals 7
Natural Resources Department Drilling for Rock
Local rock could save the Tribe money; even be a source of income.
By Ron Karten
"Basically, we're looking for hard basalt," said Jeff
Kuust, a Timber and Roads Coordinator for the
Natural Resources Department.
With three of 11 potential reservation locations
picked out for drilling and evaluation, the Natural
Resources Department could save a lot on Tribal
building projects if some quality basalt is found, ac
cording to Department Manager Pete Wakeland. And
by supplying it to the State's Transportation Depart
ment for upcoming road building in the area, the
Tribe could even make some money, added Kuust.
Currently, the Tribe trucks in all its rock needs,
Kuust said. With the closest rock quarries 27 to 32
miles away, "at least half or two-thirds of the cost of
rock is hauling (it)."
The success of any mining effort will depend on
the quality, or hardness, of the rock. But quality is
only the first question, Wakeland said. Also impor
tant in evaluating whether to open a pit on Tribal
land is how accessible the rock is once a pit is opened,
or put another way, how much money it will cost to
get the rock out. Yet another question is how costly
it will be to reclaim the land.
Hard basalt rock is needed for a four-mile expan
sion of State Highway 18 scheduled for 2004, ac
cording to Kuust. By the end of November, only
one source had the potential for highway use, ac
cording to Wakeland.
"We did find very good rock on the upper west
fork at Agency Creek. Of four tests required for
highway use, the rock from there passed on three,
Wakeland said, and when they get below the sur
face, it may well pass all four tests.
The Old Agency Pit also was tested, though the
findings were not as good. Testing means punch
ing 3 to 4 holes 100 feet deep in two places at the
site.
The Old Agency Pit test yielded lower quality ba-
1 ;.m ' V
Rocks Are Money - Rock Quarries like this one on
the Grand Ronde Reservation are being targeted as pos
sible sources of revenue.
salt. The basalt there, said Kuust, "is mixed with
some sedimentary rock and silt stones and clays and
that's really not what we want." This quality of rock
could still be useful for rip-rap, landscaping, "possi
bly forest road rock, but not surface rock," Kuust
said.
Because of the potential success of the Agency
Creek site, the focus will be there in the immediate
future. Another site, at the Yoncalla Junction, four
miles up Agency Creek, looked like it might have
some pretty good rock, but the site is close to a his
toric trail "so it may be problematic (to mine)," said
Wakeland.
This raises an issue that is always on the minds of
staffers at Natural Resources.
"There's a wide range of perspectives in the Tribe "
said Kuust. "Some would like the Rez left alone and
just let nature rule out there and others think we
need to use every resource we have available. In
between are people like myself, who say, Teah, we
have resources available and if it makes sense and
you can mitigate environmental problems, then we
should go ahead.' What it is is really a balancing
act."
Cultural Resources Manager June Olson said of
the effort to extract basalt, "I don't see it as being
culturally significant." However, she added that if
the rock were obsidian, that "would be a problem."
Obsidian, long used by Indians to make tools and
arrowheads, is generally found higher in the Cas
cades where the lava flows," according to Wakeland.
Newton Consultants Inc., based in Bend, has been
hired by the Tribe to drill the sites and evaluate the
results. A pit with an estimated 200,000 cubic yards
of good basalt "that was reasonably easy to open might
be worth the effort," Wakeland suggested.
And if the effort to open, mine and reclaim the
land afterwards appears worthwhile, Natural Re
sources will be ready to start digging late next spring.
Checker-mallow Management Plan Will Allow Casino Development
Endangered plants have a great future, too.
By Ron Karten
In 1993, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW) named the Nelson's
Checker-mallow to the list of Endangered and Threatened species. This plant is
native to the Willamette Valley and the adjacent Coast Range in Oregon and in
Cowlitz County, Washington.
USFW has isolated 77 populations of the plant nationwide, all but two of them
within Oregon and one of the two others located in the state of Washington, is
called the Oregon Checker-mallow. In short, Oregon seems destined to keep
Nelson's Checker-mallow going.
Of the 77 populations, the Grand Ronde area is home to seven (with about
1,200 plants) and of those seven, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (CTGR)
Tribal land is home to four populations that are being maintained in accordance
with the state. The Oregon Department of Transportation owns two other sites.
The last and largest area is in private hands.
So in 1995, when the Tribe was planning Spirit Mountain Casino, it came as
no surprise that the Tribe might have to make some accommodations for the
460 plants found at the site.
A conservation agreement written at that time included only plants found on
the casino property, but the Tribe has identified a small number of other areas
the plant is located on other Tribal lands so by 1999, the Tribe proposed a wide
ranging plan that would forever keep alive the marriage between Oregon and
the Nelson's Checker-mallow.
USFW was never quite sure of all the elements of this plan, and now, with the
possible expansion being considered for the casino and three acres open for de
velopment, the Tribe returned to the federal department to develop an updated
plan for the years ahead.
The Tribe's approach to preserving Nelson's Checker-mallow is "unique," ac
cording to Andy Robinson, staff botanist for USFW. He called it a "program
matic" approach and described it as proposing conditions for maintaining the
species wherever it is found on Tribal land.
The alternative, and more common approach, is to tailor a plan to each loca
tion and around each development project as they come up.
The following Tribal plan was approved by Tribal Council in September, ac
cording to Natural Resources Manager Pete Wakeland and awaits approval by
USFW:
Transplant existing Nelson's Checker-mallow plants from three acres on
the west side of the casino, behind the RV parking area to four other sites, and
open those three acres for development;
Manage four different Tribal reserves, two from the 1995 agreement with
USFW and two additional sites that already contain a native population. These
sites are designated as Natural Resources, Brown, Bode and South Yamhill.
Natural Resources (2.1 acres) and Brown (1.18 acres) are added to replace the
three-acre area on the west side of the ca
sino; Maintain each area to maximize plant
survival and cross pollination; and
B Provide updates of monitoring efforts
every three years.
The Tribe's approach to "translocate,"
(transplant) the Nelson's Checker-mallow
where it is in the way of development, is not
the first choice of USFW, but Robinson said
that the Bode site has been "fairly success
ful." The project, which currently costs the
Tribe about $5,000 a year, according to
Wakeland, requires active monitoring and
management. That means keeping out Hi
malayan and evergreen blackberry, Scotch
broom, and Reed canary grass. In addition,
it requires the Natural Resources Depart
ment to keep the area at what's called the
"earliest serai stage," or the first stage of
growth after fire or flood wipes out the veg
etation, as is natural in the area.
In fact, Natural Resources staff recently
burned the Bode property for the very pur
pose of returning the area to the earliest
serai stage. "The plant goes dormant at the
end of August or early September," said the
Tribe's Fish and Wildlife Coordinator Kelly
Doerksen. "Fire destroys competing species,
but these guys (Nelson's Checker-mallows) are cozy underground and spring
back next year."
Nelson's checker-mallow is an herbaceous perennial 5 tol5 decimeters (1.6-5')
tall with short, thick rhizomes. The stems bare alternate leaves that are round
toothed and palmately lobed, and the basal leaves are palmately lobed. The
flowers (30-100) have a 5-parted calyx (4-6 mm) that is subglabrous to rather
thickly pubescent with tiny, generally purplish stellae. The 5 petals (5-15 mm)
are colored from lavender to deep pink. The stamens are fused at the base to
form a tube around the style (characteristic of the mallowhibiscus family). The
fruits contain 7-9 single-seeded, lightly reticulate, beaked carpels in a ring that
separate at maturity.
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