KWSO News 8/22/19

An agency district meeting has been set for this coming Monday, August 26th. Items to be discussed are the 2020 enterprise revenue forecast, Kahneeta, transfer stations, the hemp project, as well as any other items. The meeting is on Monday at the agency longhouse. Dinner is at 5:30 and the meeting begins at 6.

Tribal fire management practices has essentially been outlawed over 100 years ago. But the Karuk tribe is looking to change that. Jefferson Public Radio’s Roman Battaglia reports.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California fishermen are reporting one of the best salmon fishing seasons in years, thanks to heavy rain and snow that ended the state’s historic drought. It’s a sharp reversal for chinook salmon, also known as king salmon. The iconic fish helps sustain many Pacific Coast fishing communities. A marine scientist with California’s fish and wildlife agency says commercial catches have so far surpassed official preseason forecasts by roughly 50%. The salmon rebound comes after three years of extremely low catches resulting from poor ocean conditions and California’s five-year drought.

At Columbia Hills State Park on Tuesday, more than 200 people gathered near the Columbia River to celebrate and share important history, the Yakima Herald reported. A River Walk commemorated the 50th anniversary of Sohappy v. Smith in July 1969, a landmark tribal fishing case also known as the Belloni decision. US District court Judg3e Robert Belloni, a federal judge in Oregon, found that citizens of the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes had a legal right to fish in the waters where their ancestors caught fish. The decision also limited state efforts to regulate tribal fishing. The event was organized by  the Yakama Nation Cultural Resources and the Yakama Nation Wak’ishwi Program.