6
S moke S ignals
JUNE 15, 2017
Tribal Council OKs Felled Tree Study
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
Tribal Council approved Natu-
ral Resources staff cutting down
between 58 and 94 trees on Tribal
trust and fee lands on Wednesday,
May 31, to calibrate the depart-
ment’s forest inventory computer
software to local conditions, which
will enable the software to make
better predictions about future
timber growth and yield.
Tribal Council approval was re-
quired to obtain a free-use timber
cutting permit from the Bureau of
Indian Affairs to fell trees on trust
land.
According to Forester Andrew Pu-
erini’s “Forest Officer’s Report,” the
Tribe uses a computer-based forest
inventory called Forest Projection
and Planning Software for forest
modeling and harvest scheduling
purposes.
The Forest Biometric Research
Institute recommends a process
where 100-foot trees or taller are
felled across the landscape and cross
sections are measured and inputted
into the software to calibrate growth
and yield. The Tribe will cut down
trees in 19 different locations with
primarily Douglas fir being felled.
At the Wednesday, May 31, Leg-
islative Action Committee meeting,
Timber and Roads Program Manag-
er Jeff Kuust said the estimated net
worth of the felled trees will range
from $2,538 to $4,113, but the study
will give the Tribe a more accurate
estimate of its forestland yield.
In response to a question from
Tribal Council Vice Chair Cheryle
A. Kennedy, Kuust said most trees
on Tribal forestlands take about 28
to 30 years of growth before they
become commercially viable.
In other action, Tribal Council
approved the Portland Harbor Nat-
ural Resource Damage Assessment
Restoration Plan and Programmat-
ic Environmental Impact State-
ment because the Tribe is acting
as a trustee for natural resources
damages at the superfund site.
Tribal Council also OK’d an
agreement between the Trustee
Council, the University of Portland
and the Oregon Department of
State Lands that provides not less
than $33,850.90 to fund Tribal em-
ployees and technical consultation
with designing and estimating a
value for a restoration site.
Cultural Resources Department
employees Bobby Mercier, Jordan
Mercier and Brian Krehbiel, Youth
Council member Izaiah Fisher,
Lea Pratt, Kim Contreras and
Tribal youth Jacob Holmes, Nokoa
Mercier, Kyoni Mercier, Kaikanim
Mercier, Kailiyah Krehbiel and
Red Sky Clawson performed the
cultural drumming and singing to
open the meeting.
Also included in the May 31
Tribal Council packet was an ap-
proved staff directive requesting
the Tribal Attorney’s Office prepare
amendments to the Enrollment
Ordinance that would return final
decision making on involuntary loss
of membership cases back to Tribal
Council and an approved authori-
zation to proceed for the Health &
Wellness Department’s $150,000
Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist
Project to become the Tribe’s 2017
Spirit Mountain Community Fund
Tribal Grant application project.
The meeting in its entirety can be
viewed on the Tribal website, www.
grandronde.org, by clicking on the
News tab and then Video.
Tualatin sign dedication
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Council Secretary Jon A. George, right, accepts an atlatl weight,
in his hand, from Sandra Lafkey Carlson during the dedication of
the interpretive sign at the Tualatin Heritage Center in Tualatin on
Wednesday, June 7. The weight was found by her grandfather in 1930
on his farm in the Tualatin area and Carlson wanted to return it to the
Tribe. The dedication also included a drum song by Tribal drummers
and a speech from Tribal Council Vice Chair Cheryle A. Kennedy.
This interpretive sign telling the Grand Ronde Tribe’s history, some
specific to the Tualatin area, is now outside the Tualatin Heritage Center.
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