KWSO News for 11/21/19

The Warm Springs Cannabis Enterprise awaited the October 31st release of details for the 2018 farm bill that lays out the regulations for reservation Hemp grows.  Hemp project manager Laurie Danzuka says the Tribes turned in their plan to the USDA on November 1st and are waiting for approval which should come within a 60 day period. Laurie Danzuka – “When the 2018 farm bill got finalized in December of 2018, it paved the way for us to continue down that direction. Unfortunately, USDA did not have regulations set up to regulate the hemp operations since the tribe does not follow state law we follow federal. It was still a risk to the board and to the tribe and the enterprise to go in to this, so…it once again got delayed. So we were able to have a grow in 2019, so now we’re looking at 2020.” The Cannabis Enterprise is under the Umbrella of Warm Springs Ventures which is the Warm Springs Tribes’ Economic Development arm

Warm Springs Indian Health Service has a new Director.  His name is Hyllis (Hill’us) Dauphinais (Doo’fan’ā),   He is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, from North Dakota.   Most recently worked in Phoenix at an adult Primary Care clinic that achieved Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) recognition this summer.  A Community meet and greet is being planned for the near future, stay tuned.

Jurors in Oregon have found in favor of 14 counties and their $1 billion lawsuit against the state over revenue from logging on state lands. Leah Olson, who works with the Linn County court in Albany, confirmed the verdict delivered Wednesday was in favor of the counties. The counties had claimed breach of contract, saying the state did not harvest enough timber over two decades, depriving the counties of revenue. There was no immediate reaction from the state, whose attorneys had said the counties wanted to allow clear-cutting of forests and don’t care about endangered species.

Experts say trail cameras have captured new images of the only wolves known to live in Oregon’s northern Cascades. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the cameras, which operate as part of a collaboration between Defenders of Wildlife and Cascadia Wild, caught pictures of the adult canids, believed to be the breeding pair of the White River Pack. The pictures were taken last month near the Warm Springs Reservation on Mount Hood’s eastern flank. Oregon is home to at least 137 wolves, according to the most recent count, but most are clustered in the state’s northeast corner. In 2017, two wolves were seen in southern Wasco County and, by the next year, they had given birth to a litter of pups. It was the first established pack in the northern Cascades since wolves had been extirpated from the state in the mid-20th century. In 2019, the pack added six more pups. With three yearlings, six pups and the breeding pair, the pack is now estimated to number 11 wolves.

In Sports: NBA Action the Portland Trailblazers are traveling in to Milwaukie to take on the Bucks, tip off at 5pm. In Local Sports: The Warm Springs K-8 Boys basketball is hosting Crook County, game time is 3:30pm.