STOI DNR Update-January 2023

/in

Preservation Program

Meetings:

  • Meeting with Jack Nesbit on Fishing information.
  • Arts Committee Meeting-Mistequa hotel
  • Two Rivers land slide meeting-Zoom
  • Cayuse Cove Microsoft teams meeting
  • Lake Roosevelt Project Specific Programmatic Agreement meeting
  • WA DNR Wetlands meeting
  • SnxwMene Island (Spokane-Riverfront Park)- with planning department
  • Spokane Land acknowledgment with MAC & Gena Peone-Zoom

Collections Update:

Educational outreach efforts have continued into the new year, including consultation with a kindergarten teacher at Wellpinit Elementary School in a continued effort to explore possibilities for adapting current and developing new programming geared towards younger age groups. Collections staff will also be participating in a cultural presentation at the Pauline Flett Middle School before the end of the month. In preparation for the opening of the Mistequa Hotel, collections staff will be assisting in a photography session to incorporate cultural resources into the hotel’s interior design. The long-term goal for collections staff to label or re-label artifacts with laser-printed labels is underway, with the aim to improve legibility, object-record association and tracking, and accessibility of the collection.

 

Anadromous Program

In January 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 continued bi-weekly monitoring of juvenile chinook in net pens in Lake Roosevelt. Prep work for spring monitoring and construction of equipment is ongoing.

 

Fisheries Program

The month of January fisheries has been focused on equipment preparation and maintenance and continuing the fish health assessments of net pen fish.  Safety and equipment training is ongoing for new staff and those in need of renewals. We continue our participation in regional and national processes and workgroups. Several grant proposals have been awarded and contracts are being finalized.

 

Hatchery Program

Fish production consisting of:

  • 13,800 rainbow trout adults
  • 40,000 rainbow trout juveniles
  • 985,000 rainbow trout fry

Completed:

  • Monthly EPA National Pollution Discharge Monitoring Report
  • Final 2024 BPA Pisces Scope of Work Status Report

Attended:

  • Annual Lake Roosevelt Coordination Meeting

Other:

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

 

Spokane Tribal Park Rangers

Thanks to the Roads department for plowing and opening up access to our campgrounds and boat launches. Rangers have checked tribal fishermen and non-tribal permits for fishing have been sold.  Balcombs landing and Cornelius are accessible and have been good fishing for bank anglers.

A few hunters are still active in the pursuit of predators but have had little success to report. Firewood cutters are still gathering anything within a hundred yards of a plowed road.

One Ranger did spend two days participating in the Aerial big game survey in the middle of the month.  One patrol vehicle has been at Wendel for over a month waiting for warranty work to fix the 4×4 system. Equpiment have been ordered and a new vehicle will be placed into service soon.  Also Working on getting a new engine for the Duckworth jet boat.

Rangers are actively searching for training for the next couple months. One ranger is working to be rescheduled for Wildland fire investigation that was cancelled due to Covid.

 

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 5 Forest Practices Applications 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), the Instream Scientific Advisory Group (ISAG), the Cooperative Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research Committee (CMER), and the Washington State Forest Practices Board. Participation involved representation in meetings as well as review of AMP documents, including the study design for the Eastside Timber Habitat Evaluation Project (ETHEP). This study will investigate ecological frameworks for applying riparian harvest rules in eastern Washington to achieve forest health, riparian function, and historical disturbance regime objectives.

 

Wildlife Mitigation

Big Game aerial surveys were conducted on the reservation. Species included in the survey were Elk, Moose, Feral Horses, Whitetail deer, and Mule deer. Wildlife staff also sent off all samples collected throughout 2022 and sent them to WADDL (Washington Disease Detection Lab). Samples were collected to monitor for Chronic Wasting Disease as part of a USDA/APHIS grant. The wildlife program continues to monitor collared animals on the reservation throughout the winter months.

 

Wildlife Program

During the month of January, the program has been building Clover Traps, the program has developed a plan for spring cover crop plantings, the project map for an upcoming fencing project on Wellpinit Mountain has been finalized. The program has sourced out fruit trees that will be planted in the spring. All maintenance on equipment in preparation for spring has been completed.

 

Range & Range Ecologist Program

During January 2023, the Range Program worked off season duties such as data entry and analysis for habitat and vegetation surveys; uploaded GPS data related to noxious weed location and various weed treatment trials conducted in 2022; and continued shop inventory and organization. We submitted a funding proposal for noxious weed management projects. We also continued planning projects for the Spring, Summer, and Fall of the upcoming field season, with a focus on range and habitat health.

 

Forestry Administration

  • Completed Silviculture contract to provide training to Forester and Tech staff and provided per-sale services.
  • Prepared sale documents for tribal and allotted timber sales.
  • invoiced for the volume and stumpage for active sales.
  • Researching and reviewing GPS handhelds for programs
  • Continued development of updated cutting agreement
  • Continued development of updated Forest History

 

Timber Sales

  • Firebreak sale is getting closer to completion. Mark McCrea crew is still out there. Progress is slow but steady.
  • Frost Pocket: Redbones are making good progress. Roads were getting pretty soft, but recent freeze should help for a while. Rajewski crew is finally up and going again. They have been broke down for about a month. Will probably not finish their area before break up. Swiger crew has finished their area and will be starting on Mima Mound soon, if contract is approved and signed.  Pioneer left to finish a sale off the reservation. Don’t know when they will be returning to finish cut to length units.
  • Allotment 2021: One small homesite left to be done. Del Brown apparently decided he does not want his logged right now due to concerns with his calfs.
  • Mima Mound: Held pre-log plan meeting with Forestry, Roads representative, and Enterprise TSO on Tuesday 1/24. Log plan meeting with Enterprise and Frank Swiger took place on Thursday 1/26. I was unable to attend due to illness. Ray and Benny represented Timber Sales. Andrew and Conner represented Pre-Sales.

 

Forest Development

  • 26 active PCT contracts, Kieffer West, Kalesten, Butterfly and Testfire. Access limited due to snow coverage, progress rate reduced.
  • Pursuing training opportunities for staff
  • Making arrangement for upcoming Regional Forest Development meeting, discussing FD activities with some collaboration with Fuels Programs. 2/13 – 2/17 Travel status.
  • Registered all staff for the upcoming IETIC, & Inland Empire Reforestation Council conference 3/7-3/8. We will be on travel status.
  • Awarded 3 year Nursery contract to Pacific Regeneration Technologies (PRT). We are in the process of completing contract agreement, and working with CSKT to get our seed shipped over.
  • Scheduling upcoming site visit to CSKT Nursery as early as next week to monitor seedling progress, gather information for 2023 planting season, and doing a follow up on our seed stock status.
  • Dodge 3500 plow truck is down due to transmission issues. Scheduled diagnostic appointment on Monday 1/30.
  • Fire physicals scheduled 1/30 for all those who will be assisting with fire duties for the 2023 season.
  • GIS work ongoing in collaboration with Ted, scheduled meeting 1/31
  • GIS work ongoing in collaboration with Ted, scheduled meeting 1/31

 

Presales

Work continues for the presales crew marking the Crow Hop Project Area.

  • Foresters are finishing up updating CFI plot information and should finish early next week.
  • Rail Creek Prescriptions almost complete, should be able to get these signed off next week.
  • Hog Farm FOR (Forest Officers Report) has been completed and awaiting signatures, and a draft contract, prospectus and maps have been completed.
  • Pre Log Plan meeting 1/24 and Log Plan Meeting 1/26 happened this week for the Mima Mound Project Area.
  • Worked to create a new corner feature class that updated several domains.
  • Worked on posting a forester job that was posted on 1/24. Send job announcement to several colleges and job boards.
  • Ongoing vehicle maintenance

 

Fire Management Program

  • 1-23 GIS meeting at fire management and working on Acuity international to get the fire physicals for all red card holders.
  • Robert started one of his last college fire classes.
  • 1-24 still working with Acuity with some of the program fixes.
  • 1-25 EMG meeting and working on Acuity and started working on updating the Agency Guide to critical incident management.
  • 1-26 Acuity International sent me a fix to some of the problems to start sending out more physicals.

 

Fuels Program

  • Finalized Rx burn plan for Elk Drop
  • Drafting budget mod for 4414-1197
  • Gathering GIS point data for past wildfires
  • Attended Udall Institute webinar on environmental conflict resolution in Indian Country
  • Several staff completed online aviation safety training.
  • 2 staff members attending terrestrial laser scanning training this week.
  • 1 staff member attending L-280 Fire Leadership training this week.
  • Ongoing equipment/vehicle maintenance and upgrades

 

GIS Program

  • Finish transfer of orthoimagery data to Airway Heights’ geodatabase
  • Troubleshoot Airway Heights computer that will install but not run ArcGIS Pro software.
  • Plan out demo day for GIS units from Frontier Precision
  • Meet with fire and fuels to discuss GIS plan with the upcoming new fire management plan.
  • Meet with forestry to discuss roads layer changes/updates and corners layer management.
  • Meet with realty to demonstrate how to use ArcGIS Pro’s version of PageMap.
  • Create several realty allotment maps as lack of orthoimagery solution is not quite ready.
  • Create orthoimagery file for realty to use with PageMap
  • Aid fish & water with historical fire map
  • Research best projections for reservation
  • Meet with Melodi Wynne (STN) about food sovereignty maps and GIS applications that are needed for food forest project.
  • Recreation of historical map of Spokane reservation claim for BJK
  • Follow up with NW management about Lidar products and timeline
  • Distribute data for BIA realty contractor per STOI Public Works request.

 

Air Quality

  • Radon Action Month (January) stated. Radon poster contest began and runs through the MARCH 10th for Submission Deadline on poster entry.
  • NTAA Calls (Mobile Sources, EC Monthly Call, NTAA/EPA Air Policy), WOOD SMOKE WORK GROUP
  • Fire Fighting Training – RX310 Introduction to Fire Effects NW 2023 January 23 – 27, 2023
  • Help with National Tribal Forum on Air Quality 2023
  • Check in with EPA Project Officer on program progress. Quarter 1

https://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/northwest-radon-poster-contest

or Scan QR Code

 

Realty Program

  • In TAAMS completed the Tribe’s Airway Heights FTT 155.33 acre, LDEV through the GIS Strike Team and the Acting Superintendent completed the CIP (1). We have now moved onto Preparing the Preliminary Title Opinion and Preparing Notice of Application. We are working with the Tribe’s Contractor Acorn Environmental (Bibiana) and the Tribe’s Legal Dept. in obtaining additional information for the letters and requesting the Tribe to look at their Commitment of Title and having some of the information on their Schedule B, Part II Exceptions and Special Exceptions be omitted from the Commitment of Title and then have them prepare a Resolution addressing the items as to whether they are accepting them or will have them removed prior to the Final Opinion of Title.
  • Had one response to the Tribe’s HIP Home Letter so far.
  • Working on a land exchange and possibly a survey regarding this land exchange.
  • Will be requesting 15-20 timber cruises for land exchanges.
  • Will be submitting a land exchange to the IRMP ID Team for review/comments.
  • Letters were sent out to individuals who still owed their $120.00 Home Site Lease payments for 2022.
  • Sent in 2 Home Site Lease requests through the IRMP ID Team for review/comment.