STOI DNR-Update December 2022

/in

Anadromous Program

In December the Anadromous Program continued policy and technical work. Participating in several policy processes including the Spokane River Lead Entity development, Columbia Basin Collaborative, Blocked Areas Anadromous Fish Working Group, and the Columbia River Treaty. Staff began bi-weekly monitoring of juvenile chinook in net pens in Lake Roosevelt and will continue monitoring and feeding in anticipation of continuing juvenile movement surveys in Spring ‘23.

 

Fisheries Program

The month of December has been focused on equipment preparation and maintenance and continuing the fish health assessments of net pen fish.  Staff began finalizing data entry and conducting quality assurance and quality control reviews. 2021 annual reports are being reviewed for final submissions. Several grant proposals have been prepared.

 

Spokane Tribal Hatchery Program

Fish production consisting of:

  • 13,800 rainbow trout adults
  • 40,000 rainbow trout juveniles
  • 85,000 rainbow trout fry
  • 900,000 rainbow trout eggs

Completed:

  • Application for 2023 Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Hatchery Cyclical Maintenance funding
  • BIA Annual Narrative Report
  • Bonneville Power Administration Intergovernmental Agreement for 2023 Operational and Maintenance funding
  • EPA discharge monitoring reporting requirements

Assisted snow plowing, ongoing operation and maintenance of fish hatchery facilities and grounds.

 

Water Resources Program

EPA 106 Report:

Draft 106 report was completed and sent to Brian Crossley for review.

Climate Adaptation Plan:

On December 6-8th Abt Associates along with DNR staff visited West End, Wellpinit, and Ford communities to conduct community meetings and provide information to tribal members about climate change. Attendance was low at the meetings due to inclement weather and poor road conditions. The climate adaptation survey has been closed and results are being reviewed.

Snow Survey:

Snow survey was completed on December 28th-29th. Results were reviewed and forwarded to Scott Pattee (NRCS) on January 3rd. Average snow depth and density are as follows:

West end lookout: 28 inches, 25%

Togo: 29 inches, 22%

Chamokane: 21 inches, 24%

 

Wildlife

In December the Wildlife Program has been primarily focused on organizing all the data and samples collected during the tribal elk, deer, and moose hunts. That includes summarizing this year’s data and comparing it to previous years, double checking all teeth and retropharyngeal lymph nodes are accurately labeled and accounted for. We also measured newly collected embryos and entered that data to find a wide range in breeding dates this year. Additionally, we are working with WADDL labs for them to analyze all lymph node samples for CWD and Matson’s Laboratory to do aging on tooth samples. Other preparation is occurring for winter aerial surveys typically done during either January or February. Wildlife techs attempted to check trail cameras to replace batteries, swap SD cards, and remove snow from in front of them. Other office work has included budget modifications, quarterly reports, and data management.  Wildlife Biologists continue to monitor animals equipped with GPS collars and monitor predators with trail camera data.

 

Mitigation

The Program aided in the removal of snow within the Reservation as well as worked on routine equipment maintenance. The program winterized our Westend field office and has been working on a forest health improvement project in the Cottonwood Creek WMA.

 

TFW-Timber, Fish & Wildlife

The timber, fish, and wildlife program continued work to monitor timber harvest activities on private and state lands within the Tribe’s Usual & Accustomed area. This included review of 22 Forest Practices Applications and 3 Water Type Modification requests in Stevens, Spokane, and Lincoln counties. This work helped to achieve adequate natural resource protections and compliance with state regulations. Additionally, the program continued its collaboration with the Washington Forest Practices Adaptive Management Program (AMP) through participation in the Scientific Advisory Group Eastside (SAGE) and the Instream Scientific Advisory Group (ISAG). Participation involved representation in meetings as well as review of AMP documents, including the study design for the Eastside Timber Habitat Evaluation Project. At the 2022 Carbon Friendly Forestry Conference, TFW employees gained new insights on ecological forestry topics such as community forestry, climate-smart wood supply chains, wildfire, carbon offsets, connections between forestry and water flows, state lands, and forest carbon science.

 

Air Quality

  • Completed Final Reports for Clean Air Act (CAA) 103 & State Indoor Radon Grant (SIRG).
  • General Air Quality Monitoring-Levels where good over the course of the month of December.
  • No Further Updates.

 

Forestry Administration

  • Currently updating silviculture contract services to provide training to Forester and Tech staff, and provided pre-sale services
  • Prepared sale documents for tribal and allotted timber sales
  • Invoiced for the volume and stumpage for active sales
  • Assisted contractor with building floor remodel; now completed.
  • Researching and reviewing GPS handhelds for programs
  • Submitted Position Descriptions with signatures

 

TIMBER SALES

  • Firebreak- harvesting completed. Purchaser planning to do final road maintenance this spring.
  • 2021 Allotment Sale- Pioneer has finished the wildlife area on Frost Pocket. Looking to extend the contract in order to complete the two remaining allotments. The Modification of Contract is awaiting approval.
  • Frost Pocket- All Enterprise Contractors are currently working on the timber sale. The sale is 75% completed.

 

FOREST DEVELOPMENT

  • PCT activity ongoing in Butterfly, Test Fire, Kieffer West and Kalesten.
    • 26 active contracts.
    • Anticipation of a Winter shutdown.
  • Vehicle and Equipment maintenance ongoing
  • Nursery Services RFB out, closes January 4, 2023.
  • Assisting with snow plowing as necessary.

 

PRESALES

  • Continued Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) measurement error checking. The next step is to pass the data on to the Branch of Forest Resources and Planning (BOFRP) to compile the data, before we can begin our next Inventory Analysis.
  • Continued training and familiarization with program duties/goals for new employee.
  • Timber marking is ongoing for the Guard Cabin Project Area and Crowhop Project Area.

 

FIRE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

                    

  • Continue working on getting a qualified IA dispatch.
  • Continue researching funding opportunities since funding for the Preparedness Program is getting less and less.
  • Continue reviewing training needs for staff and planning training for FY2023.
  • Performing Equipment Maintenance
  • Assisting with snow plowing as necessary.

 

FUELS

  • 28 active Forest Work Contracts, admin ongoing
    • Potential Admin Shutdown of Contracts for Winter
  • Ongoing Vehicle/equipment maintenance
  • Snow Plow Assistance
  • Elk Drop Rx Burn Plan draft finalized, technical review pending
  • Cut/delivered 1 load of firewood to Boys/Girls Club
  • Cut/delivered 1 load of firewood to Boys/Girls Club
  • Intertribal Timber Council calls
    • USDA/DOI Solicitors analysis of co-stewardship with tribes
    • BLM Information Bulletin for guidance on wildfire risk reduction through tribal partnerships
    • DOI working on tribal inclusion for firefighter retention pay
    • BIA BIL funding opportunities
    • BIA updating wildland firefighter standard PD’s for new job series (moving out of 401 series)
    • Udall Foundation update on 2023 Webinar Series on Tribal Inclusion and Equity
    • IFMAT IV update, draft review should be out in spring ’23

 

GIS 

  • ArcGIS Pro concurrent licenses are now available, please contact April Kaiser (april.kaiser@spokanetribe.com) to activate license
  • Transition from ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Pro underway
  • Continue Buffalo drive Gisd001’s GIS data folder backed up onto Fmgd001 every Sunday.
  • Researched GPS Field Handhelds for all Programs

 

Preservation

  • Meetings- Arts commission meeting for Mistequa hotel- 2 separate meetings 12-5 & 12-19
  • Stone hammer return to tribe- home owner found stone hammer at their house, wanted to return to tribe- 12-12
  • Lake Roosevelt Project specific programmatic agreement meeting & document review
  • BOR- meeting/ Two Rivers slide 12-14
  • Jack Nesbit presentation meeting- 12-28

Collections staff recently attended the 2022 National Tribal Leaders Climate Change Summit to increase our awareness and knowledge of climate change impacts on tribal cultural resources and better prepare to mitigate the associated risks. STIPP collections staff continues to work with Gonzaga University faculty members and other Spokane Tribal staff to plan and develop a future discovery garden at Wildhorse Park in Spokane, WA, and a corresponding informational website that visitors can link to via QR codes while walking the Children of the Sun Trail to learn more about the area’s environmental and sociocultural history, tribal history, ethnobotany, tribal traditional ecological knowledge, oral history, etc. Continued efforts to update the photographic record for each artifact within the collection are still underway and collections staff are preparing to begin a long-term project to label or re-label all artifacts using a laser-printed method for those that require the use of adhesives.