KWSO News for Fri., Aug. 19, 2022

In Warm Springs, the 2022 Huckleberry trip is coming up on Monday August 29^th for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Any attending members must be signed up and complete a liability release form before attending the event. The bus will depart from the Warm Springs Community Center at 8:30am and is expected to arrive at Sahale Lodge at 9:30am, for anyone driving themselves, it is suggested that you meet at Sahale lodge in the main base area. The stadium chair lift rides begin at 10am and the shuttle to Hood River Meadows departs at 10am with the bus returning to the main base area around 11:30am. At 12pm they will have a pray and lunch, then the bus will return to Hood river meadows area for more berry picking. The bus will return from Hood River meadows to Sahale Lodge to meet with the rest of the group at 2:30pm and then the bus will depart from Sahale Lodge to return to Warm Springs at 3pm. Be Sure to bring a hat and wear good walking shoes. Sign up and turn in your liability release form at KWSO. For any questions contact Sue at 541-460-2255.

Yesterday a skateboard workshop was held at Elmer Quinn Park here in Warm Springs that was hosted by Papalaxsimisha. There were dozens of youth who showed up and created their own personal skateboard that they was unique to themselves. During the event, the Title VI parent advisory committee was present to talk with any community members who had questions for them regarding what they do within the Title VI committee. After the skateboard event they also held a BBQ for the attendees and were given a concert from Native Artists.

Due to the lack of community members utilizing it, the cooling shelter in Warm Springs will be closed. Walk ins during work hours will be given water and a snack and can sit in the hallway for a while but doors will be closed at 5pm.

Salmon and steelhead in the Interior Columbia Basin still face a lot of threats. That’s according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [Correspondent Courtney Flatt has more. “According to a five-year status review from NOAA [no-uh], seven Interior Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead runs will remain either threatened or endangered. Two salmon runs in Washington are among the most endangered on the West Coast: the Upper Columbia River spring-run chinook and Snake River sockeye. Both have high extinction risks. However, NOAA officials call current trends for threatened Snake River fall-run Chinook encouraging. Over the last five years, climate change, drought and high temperatures have affected salmon habitat in the Columbia and Snake River basins. Marine heat waves also caused trouble for salmon and steelhead in the ocean. NOAA officials say the increasing pressure of climate changes makes the situation more urgent, requiring more ambitious recovery actions, such as reducing water temperatures and restoring habitat. In 20-20, the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force recommended NOAA Fisheries set salmon recovery goals beyond simply removing fish from the Endangered Species List. Instead, the task force suggests aiming for a higher standard of healthy and harvestable fish populations.”

Federal officials announced on Thursday that water will be cut off to farmers in the Klamath Basin for the rest of the irrigation season. Jefferson Public Radio’s Erik Neumann reports. “The announcement from the federal Bureau of Reclamation was addressed to three irrigation districts in the farming communities along the Oregon-California border. It marks the end of available water that can be diverted from Upper Klamath Lake Paul Simmons is the director of the Klamath Water Users Association, a group that lobbies for farmers in the area. He says residents are frustrated because of mixed messages about how much water they’d get this year. Simmons: There’s been just quite a lot of changing of information and expectations created and changed that have made this extremely troubling and not well received. Simmons says the water allotment for 2022 was only about 20% of what farmers wanted. But a wet spring led to hopes that irrigation supplies would be extended. Water levels are maintained in Upper Klamath Lake to protect several species of endangered sucker fish. It’s also let out of the lake to flow downriver, to protect habitat for endangered salmon. I’m Erik Neumann reporting.”

Even as hundreds of people charged with crimes in Oregon remain deprived of legal representation, a commission tasked with fixing the problem fired the leader of the effort. The action Thursday by the Public Defense Services Commission capped an extraordinary week in which Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters took the unprecedented step of firing all the members of the commission. She then reinstated five of them while appointing four new members. The commission fired Stephen Singer, executive director of the Office of Public Defense Services. He said his ouster would make low-income people charged with a crime, who disproportionately are people of color, suffer the consequences.

KWSO Weather for Central Oregon:

• Mostly Sunny and Hot with a high near 98 degrees
• Tonight, Mostly clear with a low around 61
• Sunny tomorrow with a high near 97 degrees
• Sunny and hot on Sunday with a high near 100 degrees

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