7/22/17 end of people of the big river field trip and had to get up early to check traps, pack, check inventory, breakfast/lunch making, and final blogs. Its half way done, but still a long travel time, I predict that its going to be about 8 or 9 when we get to the valley. its my mothers birthday weekend, so I am kind of impatient today. either way today shall be fun, we shall make it fun. no pictures today. I was charging my phone, so I couldn't get one of the 17 geese by the water this morning. Also, this morning there was a stupid prank, someone put honey on the steering wheels of at least two cars. not like just a touch, but an amount that was too heavy and went all over the seat and floor. it was a disappointment.
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7/21/17 Another early day, we had to travel to Pullman to meet with Landan Charlo at Kamiak County Park. I met him during my internship, we talked about education and goals over liquid nitrogen ice cream. He told us about his research as a graduate student. He is studying the pileated woodpecker for a company in Snohomish County. Since this research is just starting and is going to continue for another 10 years, Landan is just learning how the woodpecker is considered a keystone species. Since this woodpecker is the largest one of its' species, it is easy for it to chop into the trees and make niches for other animals. The problem with this woodpecker is the fact that it needs more old growth forest to chop into, and the forest that the company wants the woodpecker to be in is young and uniform. Meaning that the woodpecker would be absent there. he took us to the spots were he got some pictures and signs of the woodpeckers' presentence. After meeting with Landan, we went to th
7/20/17 we went to the Cour D' alene Casino to meet Quanah and Dave Matheson. they talked to us about the relationships between the people and the environment. Along with pollution issues within the developing indian countries across the land. dams affecting food, fires burning up the reservation, air pollution, oil spills, coal transportation, and floods/droughts. everything reflects back to climate change, mitigating the affects of it, and dealing with cultural value loss. after talking to the father and son, we went back to camp. Pedro (nickname: Pedg, Pedgy) taught us about trapping of rodents and how they can be a good indicator of how well the other animals are doing. Just like macroinvertabrates can be a good indicator of how safe the water is at a given time. we made traps out of 5 gallon buckets, pcv pipe, wire, sticks and bait. the rodents would go to eat the bait and the pvc pipe would start spinning once the rodent would go the bait placed in the center into the bucket
7/19/2017 woke up early to catch up on the blog, but ended up taking about 30 minutes to write and 3 hours for others. it was a long, boring, and unproductive wait. we left Wellpinit at about high-noon to travel to Walmart in Spokane to stock up on food, and stuff. We was there for about 2 hours, and had to find Wi-Fi to upload someone's abstract. we then traveled to Cour D'Alene to Lake Cour D'Alene. we was greeted with a feast, it was a new experience since I have never been here with no knowledge of their culture. The feast had fish that was cooked on a stick over the fire, it was delicious. there was elk that was cooked in the ground for 3 days as a whole leg. it seemed a little dry but still really good, never had anything like it. then they had cous, which is a bitter root, and they also made moss into a pudding, it was a weird consistency yet addicting. after dinner, there was a family that made their first canoe, so there was a blessing and song for it. the song wa
7/18/17 today we went to the Spokane Tribal Fishery, Anderson Farm, and Roosevelt Lake. It was an crazy fun day. The fishery is not as large as the Yakama fisheries because treaty agreements were agreed upon here at a later time. The fishery program has 1000s of smolt growing in a single tank with more than 20 tanks. Although return rates are sort of low due to the dams. At Anderson Farm, they work for the wildlife program, both of these programs are about mitigation of the affects of climate change on the wildlife. Wildlife program does not really focus on the wildlife itself, but the enivironment they live in. The project they had going on was putting in fences for crops that are for the wildlife in the winter. They grow crops from spring to spring for the wildlife, such as corn. They told us that about 2 years ago, that 47 percent of the reservation was caught in a wild fire, that explains why when we were cruising, there was little amount of animals around. Only seen some deer and
7/17/17 Yesterday's lazy day called for a lazy morning. Ended up skipping over breakfast. Brian Crossley, the water & fish program manager came to the camp to lead us out to Tshimakamin River. Where we suited up to go electro-fish to DNA scan rainbow trout and pit tag. we learned about salmon pathways to and from the ocean from the Spokane Reservation. This reservation is way different than Yakama in terms of culture, land ownership, treaty terms, ceded land, fishing/hunting inequality habit, and its more into the hills. Their river does not flow all the time, so fish were not a part of the culture until restoration projects came along while working with the dams close by. once we got into the river it, we ended up giving the smallest person in the group had the electroshocker on and it got wet, and said "turn off and let dry". So we thought it was going to be a short trip but all it took was a quick reset. This happened often throughout the river. it was slippery, r
Today, woke up about 9-ish. sunday, the day of rest. woke up hungry, so instead of being lazy and waiting for breakfast, I had to help out. I cooked the bacon, that was about it. then even had 2nd breakfast with cristy and taylor, we had an blt. got so full, had to nap. but then at the part, there was another geocaching test. I had enough sweets when I woke up. I got that hook up on brownies from Brenda. they were amazing. then we went swimming at lake, I forgot and didn't hear the name again. it was an alright spot, the swimming area was smallish, dirty, and in my opinion, over crowded. but it was fun. that was about the day. now the sun is setting and am ready for sleep. P.s forgot to get a picture for today :(
day 6: this morning we went to the hills close by to check out the huckleberries. they are green and tiny yet, they will not be ready for months still. we learned about the variety of huckleberry, there are at least 3 that we learned; a red tiny sweet huckleberry, regular ones, and ones that are sticky with extra sweetness. after this inspecting the berries, we went to a lake to eat lunch and swim for a bit. took awhile for anyone to hop in. seemed like everyone was preoccupied by feeding the ducks bread, even though bread is unhealthy for them. it was about 3 when it was time to head down the hills. we got to camp for a quick pitstop before going to do the powwow infused yoga. i wasnt sure how it was going to be but to the surpise of it being motivative, fun, and a very well planned work out. but to pay for a class might be out of the question. i might have to suggest to student life or HUNAC to pick up yoga classes for the school. then for dinner, we had a feast with traditional food
day 5: we went to the governce center to learn about traditional ways, foods, and culture. i was really tired and felt like this topic was like the back of my hand. the yakama and umatilla ways are very similar. loss culture in umatilla had called on the wanapums from priest rapids to help guide culture back into the reservation. its crazy on how much people know my family from there. Micheal buck is my cousin and his family was the ones to help bring culture back to umtilla. its amazing on how natives from across the lands help each other. then we went to a greenhouse where native plants were being made to restore the natural landscape. i wasnt able to stay the whole time due to aises applications due. the greenhouse smelt of fresh sage. it was such a beautiful smell that i havent smelt forever
day 4: today we traveled from the national forest to pendleton to meet with a representitive of the cultural ways in Umatilla. she welcomed us into her yard, which had a nice fire pit with plenty of seats around it for everyone. they went over all the activities they do on their property, including glass working, powwow infused yoga classes, and gardening. we left late so arrived pretty late. the house shared their traditional knowledge of foods. we all ended up staying up until midnight talking about traditions, goals, and educational values. w we also stopped at a museum with lots of stuff on native people and rescue animals.
I Woke up at about 7 to cold cereal on a cold morning. It was good though. We ate, got together to play a game where we had to go to outer space and name a thing that starts with our name, it was like the type of game to get to know each others names... I guess, wasn't good at it. then rushed to clean up after making our lunches and gather gear together. We went to meet up with tom walker at soda creek. Here, we discussed stream restoration. Our class was split into two groups since there was 2 different career options to experience. Tom had 2 different for the class to do; remove damaged fences that protected willows planted along the creek, and gather fallen trees to place in the creek to allow it to meander the meadow. All I was able to do for the morning was remove the fences. It was a crazy work out to wiggle the posts out and using a screwdriver to undo the ties while there was pylers and cutters. It was no easy task but it was fun in its own way. There was so many geese the
Woke up at like 6-8 ish. Some crews had to get more early to getting breakfast ready. I was in the lucky one, I wasn't assigned a morning chore. Went to the bathroom. Its a stank outhouse, but that's the usual as in a restroom in the middle of a national forest. I think I got an alright amount sleep on the trip to our destination, lava lake. We got to lava lake about 1030 ish. Meet up with the lead ranger, jim. He went over his duty in the park, and educational background. He then introduced amy, sarah, Simon, katie, Jeff, and Cassidy. Their occupations range from deputy director, motorized recreation, civil engineer, children's forest director, fire ecology, and speclist respectively. After we got to hear about the work they do and their origins stories, which are interesting to contemplate on such as a career in the field. We went up to lava crater. It was a nice view going up, even though it was like a 7 minute ride. It was bare due to the recent lava activity (within th
First one: arrived at the school at about 8 in the morning. We got our personal gear together and waited for everyone to get there. Once everyone got there. We then got gear that was provided by the unversity. Once everyone has their gear together and the vans were evenly distributed with people, and food. We was off to biggs, Oregon. We got gas, and had a delay with a vehicle's trailer. The trailer floors insulation was falling off. Got it dealt with and got on the road to bend. after driving since 12 til about 6 at night. Once at bend. We got our tents set up, crewed up and got dinner cooking. After dinner. We got ready for bed after discussing what the game plan was for the next day. G'night. provided by the unversity. Once everyone has their gear together and the vans were evenly distributed with people, and food. We was off to biggs, Oregon. We got gas, and had a delay with a vehicle's trailer. The trailer floors insulation was falling off. Got it dealt with and got o