2A — BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020
SALMON
Continued from Page 1A
T URNING B ACK THE P AGES
50 YEARS AGO
from the Democrat-Herald
October 2, 1970
(Photo cutline) — With syringe in hand Sister Margaret,
administrator of St. Elizabeth Community Hospital, tries
unsuccessfully to discourage an injured porcupine from
seeking admittance to the hospital. Thursday morning the
spiny porcupine reported to the new hospital for treat-
ment of a gunshot wound. Sister Margaret explained that
the hospital has not yet opened and hopefully operations
will begin early this month. Upon hearing the word “op-
eration” the sick porky decided to leave.
25 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
October 2, 1995
One of every four hunters in the Sumpter and Keating
units killed a buck during the opening weekend of deer
season.
The 25-percent success rate is far better than in 1994,
when 16 percent of hunters in Baker County bagged a
buck during the season’s fi rst two days.
Biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife checked fewer hunters this year than last, said
George Keister, head of the agency’s Baker City offi ce.
The two biologists talked with hunters in the Sumpter
and Keating units only; ODFW has no opening-weekend
numbers from Baker County’s two other units, Lookout
Mountain and Pine Creek.
10 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
October 1, 2010
Baker County isn’t rich in prime moose habitat, but love,
it seems, can lure the massive animals here even so.
Last week a young bull moose spent much of one day
in a fi eld near the Medical Springs Highway about 15
miles northeast of Baker City.
ONE YEAR AGO
from the Baker City Herald
October 2, 2019
Brooklyn Primary School became an eerie scene of
chaos and violence Friday and Saturday afternoons as
shots rang out in the hallways and teenagers fell to the
fl oor with wounds sustained by the gunfi re.
The good news is the wounds weren’t real and neither
was the gunfi re.
The shots came from pistols and rifl es loaded with
plastic silicone bullets, known as “simunition” rounds and
used for training.
And the injuries were described on tags hung around
the necks of the volunteers who helped bring a greater
degree of realism to the scenarios played out both after-
noons.
A group of teenagers, who also were joined by a few
adults on Friday, fi lled the empty school with shrieks of
terror as they ran aimlessly through the hallways seeking
safety and crying out for help for themselves and their
injured friends. It was all a part of “active threat” scenarios
conducted during training brought to Baker City by offi -
cers with the state Department of Public Safety Standards
and Training.
Baker City Police, Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce and
Oregon State Police offi cers were joined by others from
agencies in Union and Umatilla counties for the exercises.
Dispatchers also participated along with EMTs and para-
medics from the Baker City Fire Department.
The fi rst coho fi shing
season on the Grande Ronde
since 1980 started today.
The season will continue
through Nov. 30, or until
further notice, on the Grande
Ronde from the Oregon-
Washington border upstream
to the Grande Ronde River
Road bridge, about 7 miles
above Troy.
Anglers can keep up to two
adult coho — ones longer
than 20 inches — per day,
and up to fi ve jack coho,
shorter than 20 inches, per
day.
Yanke said coho average
between 20 and 27 inches.
“This is a bit of light in
what has been a pretty dark
period for anadromous fi sh
runs in the Columbia and
Snake River systems,” Yanke
said. “It’s been a really hard
fi ve years to be a fi sh biolo-
gist.”
Coho, which are somewhat
smaller than their salmonid
cousins, the chinook, were
once plentiful in the Grande
Ronde basin, including the
Lostine River, one of the ma-
jor streams fl owing from the
Wallowa Mountains, Yanke
said.
An estimated 20,000 adult
coho returned to the basin
annually.
But coho were extirpated
from the basin as early as
1912 due to overfi shing, dam
construction and damage to
their spawning and other
habitat, according to ODFW.
State offi cials tried to re-
store coho runs several times
up to the early 1970s, but
though there were enough
fi sh to have a harvest season
as late as 1980, the salmon
didn’t establish persistent
runs.
The Nez Perce tribe,
for which coho and other
anadromous fi sh were vital
sources of food, reintroduced
the salmon to the Clearwater
River in Idaho.
Then, working with
ODFW, the Nez Perce in
March 2017 released 500,000
coho smolts — baby fi sh — in
the Lostine River near the
town of Lostine.
Those smolts migrated
down the Lostine, Wallowa,
Grande Ronde, Snake and
Columbia rivers to the Pacifi c
Ocean.
Most coho spend 2 years
in saltwater, although Yanke
said some will begin their
upstream migration after one
year in the ocean.
This graphic from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife depicts the differences
between chinook and coho salmon and steelhead, all of which anglers could poten-
tially hook on the Grande Ronde River this fall. Anglers are not allowed to keep fall
chinook salmon. The season is open for steelhead and for coho salmon. Anglers are
encouraged to check regularly to updates on fi shing seasons, which can change de-
pending on fi sh numbers. Go to https://myodfw.com/recreation-report/fi shing-report/
northeast-zone
“This is a bit of light in what has been a pretty dark
period for anadromous fi sh runs in the Columbia and
Snake River systems.”
— Jeff Yanke, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
In 2018 the fi rst adult
coho in almost four decades
returned to the Lostine. That
year’s run totaled fewer than
200 coho, Yankee said.
In 2019 the return dwin-
dled to fewer than 50 adults.
But Yanke said that
despite that disappointing
result, he and other biolo-
gists had reason to be hopeful
about the future.
Climate models are fore-
casting a shift to a wetter,
cooler pattern in the North-
west, a trend that typically
results in “upwelling” of cold,
nutrient-rich water moving
toward the surface of the
Pacifi c off the Oregon Coast,
he said.
Coho, chinook and other
anadromous fi sh tend to
thrive in those conditions.
Based on coho numbers in
the Columbia and Snake riv-
ers this year, that seems to
be happening, Yanke said.
The number of coho
salmon counted at Bonn-
eville Dam — this includes
several runs in addition to
the Lostine River fi sh — are
well above the 10-year aver-
age, according to ODFW.
Some of those coho are
tagged fi sh from the Lostine
River run, and using those
results, biologists estimate
that as many as 3,000 adult
coho will pass Lower Granite
Dam on the Snake, the last
dam before the fi sh reach the
Grande Ronde River.
It was that projection that
prompted ODFW to approve
O REGON L OTTERY
MEGABUCKS, Sept. 28
5 — 17 — 19 — 27 — 37 — 47
Next jackpot: $2.5 million
POWERBALL, Sept. 26
11 — 21 — 27 — 36 — 62 PB 24
Next jackpot: $34 million
MEGA MILLIONS, Sept. 29
14 — 39 — 43 — 44 — 67
Mega
19
Next jackpot: $41 million
WIN FOR LIFE, Sept. 28
21 — 26 — 41 — 60
PICK 4, Sept. 29
• 1 p.m.: 6 — 6 — 3 — 1
• 4 p.m.: 2 — 6 — 9 — 8
• 7 p.m.: 6 — 5 — 1 — 0
• 10 p.m.: 6 — 1 — 8 — 1
LUCKY LINES, Sept. 29
4-8-11-13-20-21-25-31
Next jackpot: $21,000
S ENIOR M ENUS
■ FRIDAY: Chicken-fried chicken, potatoes and gravy,
broccoli-blend vegetables, roll, cottage cheese with fruit,
cheesecake
■ MONDAY (Oct. 5): Hearty beef stew, caulifl ower,
cornbread, fruit cup, lemon bar
■ TUESDAY (Oct. 6): Boneless chicken breast with cream
gravy, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, bread,
coleslaw, peach crisp
■ WEDNESDAY (Oct. 7): Pork roast, parslied red potatoes,
green beans, roll, pea-and-onion salad, tapioca
■ THURSDAY (Oct. 8): Parmesan chicken, rice pilaf, corn,
bread, green salad, cinnamon roll
Lunches at the Senior Center, 2810 Cedar St., 11:30 a.m. to
12:30 p.m.; $4.50 donation (60 and older), $6.75, under 60.
Meals must be picked up; there is no dining on site.
C ONTACT THE H ERALD
1668 Resort St.
Open Monday through Friday
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Telephone: 541-523-3673
Fax: 541-833-6414
Publisher
Karrine Brogoitti
kbrogoitti@lagrandeobserver.
com
Jayson Jacoby, editor
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Advertising email
ads@bakercityherald.com
Classifi ed email
classified@bakercityherald.com
Circulation email
circ@bakercityherald.com
ISSN-8756-6419
Serving Baker County since 1870
Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays except Christmas Day by the
Baker Publishing Co., a part of EO Media
Group, at 1668 Resort St. (P.O. Box 807),
Baker City, OR 97814.
Subscription rates per month are:
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Postmaster: Send address changes to
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City, OR 97814.
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Copyright © 2020
Baker City
angler hopes
to land a coho
the fi rst coho fi shing season
on the river since 1980.
“We knew that things
were changing in the Pacifi c
Ocean, and it’s always nice
to see that that materializes
in actual numbers of fi sh,”
Yanke said.
The future of the coho run
lies not in the Grande Ronde
itself, however, but farther
upstream in the Lostine
River.
Yanke said the ultimate
goal of the 5-year pilot proj-
ect that the Nez Perce and
ODFW started in 2017 is to
have coho spawn in the up-
per Lostine and, potentially,
other Wallowa County water-
ways, including the Wallowa
River, where the salmon
spawned in the past.
He said biologists have
found smolts in the Lostine
the past 2 years, which sug-
gests some of the adult coho
that returned in 2018 and
2019 spawned successfully.
Yanke said biologists will
count adult coho that return
to the fi sh weir near Los-
tine, then allow those fi sh
to continue upstream. Coho
usually spawn in November,
he said.
Another objective is to
have enough adult coho
return to the Lostine River
weir each fall — at least 500
fi sh — to serve as the brood-
stock for the run.
Those fi sh would be arti-
fi cially spawned to produce
the half a million or so
smolts that biologists release
Dylan Isaacson has
hooked quite a few fi sh
but he’s never landed a
salmon.
The Baker City angler
hopes to fi ll that gap in
his resumé this fall by
landing a coho in the
lower Grande Ronde
River in Wallowa County.
Isaacson, who grew
up in Baker City, said he
fl y-fi shed that reach of
the Grande Ronde with
his dad, Tom.
But Dylan said he
hasn’t fi shed for salmon
or steelhead, which
return in relatively small
numbers to several
rivers in Northeastern
Oregon.
— Jayson Jacoby
each spring, usually between
early March and early May,
in the Lostine River to per-
petuate the population.
Since the reintroduction
pilot project started, adult
coho have been trapped near
Bonneville Dam, with the
coho smolts then reared in
the Cascade Hatchery near
the dam before being trucked
to the Lostine for release,
Yanke said.
He said biologists would
prefer to raise smolts that
are the offspring of coho that
made the entire arduous
journey from the ocean to the
Lostine. Salmon that return
to the Lostine are “locally
adapted fi sh,” Yanke said.
O BITUARY
Helen Gates
Baker High School in 1956
and went on to become a be-
Helen R. Gates, 82, of
loved wife and friend to many
Baker City, died on Sept. 20, in her community. Helen
2020, at Saint Alphonsus
married Clay Loren Gates on
Medical Center in Baker City. June 29, 1972; Clay passed
At her request, cremation away in 2004. She completed
was held and private inurn- fl ight attendant training and
ment took place on Sept. 23
worked as a waitress and a
at Mount Hope Cemetery.
homemaker.
Helen was born on Jan.
Her favorite pastimes were
7, 1938, at Lancing County,
reading, music, taking care of
Tennessee, to Ora Dean
stray animals (feeding them
(Garrett) and Pearly Clifford for years), and taking care
Hacker. She graduated from of her family, and she found
Baker City, 1938-2020
N EWS OF R ECORD
DEATHS
Robert T. ‘Bob’ Gilkison: 90,
of Baker City, died Sept. 4, 2020,
at Settler’s Park in Baker City. His
graveside service will take place
Saturday, Oct. 17, at 1 p.m. at the
Haines Cemetery. Contributions
in memory of Mr. Gilkison may
be made to the Eastern Oregon
Museum in Haines through
Coles Tribute Center, 1950 Place
St., Baker City, OR 97814. To light
a candle in his memory, go to
www.colestributecenter.com
Douglas A. Warrington: 76,
of Baker City, died Sept. 27, 2020,
at his home. At his request, there
will be no services. Contributions
in his memory may be directed
to the Rocky Mountain Elk
Foundation through Coles Tribute
Center, 1950 Place St., Baker City,
OR 97814. To light a candle in his
memory, go to www.colestrib-
utecenter.com
POLICE LOG
Baker City Police
Arrests, citations
SECOND-DEGREE CHILD
NEGLECT (Baker County Circuit
Court warrant): Robert Stanley
Olp, 36, of Baker City, 3:44 p.m.
Tuesday, at the police depart-
ment; cited and released.
FAILURE TO APPEAR (two
Baker County Circuit Court war-
rants): Austin Mikel Coble, 42, of
Baker City, 3:08 p.m. Tuesday, in
the 500 block of Campbell Street;
cited and released.
POSSESSION OF METH-
AMPHETAMINE (Baker County
Circuit Court warrant): Stacey
Lee Bork, 31, 1690 Indiana Ave.,
3:05 p.m. Monday in the 1700
block of Main Street; cited and
released.
Baker County Sheriff’s
Offi ce
Arrests, citations
STRANGULATION (Baker
County Circuit Court warrant):
Zachery Ryan Chayse Smith, 25,
transient, 1:38 p.m. Monday at
the Courthouse; jailed; Smith
also was cited on charges of un-
authorized use of a vehicle and
possession of a stolen vehicle
in connection with a Sept. 4
incident in Baker County.
great joy in making her
nieces and nephews laugh.
Helen helped anyone who
needed her help and any ani-
mal she could; she believed
that people should help one
another and all creations.
Helen strived to make the
world a better place through
fond and funny memories.
She will be greatly missed.
Helen is survived by her
brother, Tom (Toby) Hacker
of Haines; her sister, Susie
Perrine of Baker City; her
nieces, Audra Perrine and
Myka Spriet of Baker City,
and Brandy Bennett of
Molalla; her nephews, Kyle
Hacker of Wallowa County,
Terry Perrine of Gaston,
Tony Vasquez of Albany, Tom
Maliwauki of Pendleton,
and Brice Hacker of Blue
Springs, Missouri.
She was preceded in
death by her husband, Clay
Gates; her parents, Clifford
and Opal Dean Hacker; a
nephew, Darrell Hacker; and
her brother-in-law, Louis
Perrine.
Those wishing to make
memorial contributions can
direct them to the ASPCA,
through Coles Tribute
Center, 1950 Place St. Baker
City, OR 97814.
To light a candle or to
leave a condolence for
Helen’s family, go to www.
colestributecenter.com
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