Two Junk Vehicles Removed From River Bank Thanks To Quileute Tribe

FORKS (Dec. 20, 2005) – Two cars creating potential hazards for fish and their habitat were pulled from the Bogachiel River near Forks Monday. The Quileute Tribe paid the $1,000 cost to remove them.

Bogachiel River valley resident Chiggers Stokes alerted the tribe to the location of the cars. State and county agencies assisted with moving the process forward quickly. “One vehicle probably still had some…

Quileute Tribe Counts Little Known Sockeye Population At Lake Pleasant
Lower Elwha Completes Another Phase Of Restoring Pysht River For Fish

PYSHT (Dec. 19, 2005) — In the 1950s, state fisheries crews bulldozed Olympic Peninsula rivers clear of vital salmon habitat by removing fallen trees and logjams in the mistaken belief it would improve passage. Repairing that legacy of fish habitat damage on the Pysht River near Joyce is the aim of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.

“We have found there was a state work group called…

SAPPHO (Dec. 20,2005) — An icy December wind rips across Lake Pleasant near Forks as Quileute fisheries technicians Rueben Flores and Jeremy Payne launch a small boat to conduct the tribe’s annual sockeye salmon spawning survey.

Motoring slowly around the mile-long lake’s shoreline, Flores and Payne pause to count the scarlet-blushed sockeye at each spawning location.

The tribe has conducted the surveys each winter for the…

Yesterday Billy Frank Jr. joined Gov. Christine Gregoire and other dignitaries to announce the Puget Sound Partnership.

The Tacoma News Tribune:

Billy Frank Jr., a Nisqually Indian who is chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, is among Gregoire’s Puget Sound Partnership appointees. In echoing Gregoire’s call for attention to the Sound’s needs, he compared it to the nest of a pair of eagles

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NEAH BAY (Dec. 1, 2005)– For Makah whaling crew member Andy Noel, the hanging of the skeleton of the gray whale harvested in 1999 in the Makah Cultural and Research Center is a beginning, not an end.

“It’s great to have our bones here. But we need more bones to add to them,” said Noel during the installation Nov. 28. “We need our whale bone graveyard…

TVW will broadcast a hearing of the State Senate Committee on Natural Resources regarding state/tribal co-management at 8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 5. (Will be posted here).

The tribal panel will be comprised of Mike Grayum of NWIFC, Dave Sones of Makah, David Troutt of Nisqually and Terry Williams of Tulalip. The state panel is to be comprised of Jeff Koenings and Phil Anderson of…

Billy Franks’s column on Vine Deloria Jr. was picked up by a couple newspapers:

Tacoma News Tribune: Indian-rights activist inspired changes in laws, perception
Indian Country Today: The vision of Vine Deloria Jr.

From today’s Kitsap Sun:

Salmon managers allowed Suquamish Tribe fishers to set their nets in Chico Bay on Monday, but their low catch suggests that relatively few chum salmon remain in saltwater, the tribe’s harvest manager said.

Jay Zischke said it is not likely that commercial fishing will be opened again.

Despite the low number of chum salmon in Chico Bay, Zischke said he is

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