SEPTEMBER 15,2006
Smoke Signals 7
Tribal member Greg Archuleta
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Taylor and Tribal Council member
Reyn Leno, also were on hand, and
stayed in one of the two motor boats
that carried everybody to one foot
of the falls.
The rocks "are as slick as any I've
ever been on," said Dirksen.
And to make the fishing tougher,
said Dirksen, PGE had the dam
wide open at the falls that day
while working on its T.W. Sullivan
hydroelectric facilities. The plant's
16-megawatt capacity serves the
equivalent of 1 1,000 homes. Typi
cally, 4,000 to 6,000 cubic feet
of water is running through the
facilities at any given second, but
on August 25, all that.water was
coming over the falls.
In addition, PGE usually puts
flashboards at the top of the falls
to send more water to the plant.
That creates "real distinct flows,"
said Dirksen, and concentrates the
lamprey in fewer areas. With the
flashboards gone, the water was
rushing down everywhere and the
lamprey were scattered.
The group brought home 138
lamprey, said Dirksen. Then, Sum
mer Youth Program Crew Lead
ers Alyssa Cudmore and Kirsten
Meyer, and Kelly, cleaned, vacuum
sealed and froze the lamprey for
distribution to Tribal members.
Usually, the youth of the summer
youth crew get this job, but the
program finished before the harvest
this year.
Lamprey is distributed during
regular salmon distributions and
on request for cultural events.
One question that didn't get an
swered right away but could help
put these pictures in perspective:
"Does that camera pick up the
smell of this place?" asked Pete
Wakeland. B
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Tribal member Colby Drake, who works summers as a firefighter for the Tribe,
under the falls, in search of lamprey.
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Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Coordinator Kelly Dirksen, left, and Tribal member Shonn Leno tie up Tribal member Pete Wakeland's boat to the rocks.