Tribe receives grant to conduct wildlife inventory

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde was one of only three Tribes nationally to receive a three-year Administration for Native Americans environmental grant that will allow the Tribe to perform a fish and deer inventory on Tribal lands.

The grant will award the Tribe $215,451 in the first year, $103,828 in the second year and $94,488 in the third year.

“This is an extremely competitive and difficult grant to get,” said Tribal Fish and Wildlife Program Manager Kelly Dirksen. “We are one of only three in the nation to get it. Winning this grant is an extraordinary achievement on the part of Planning and Grants Manager Kim Rogers. I am very grateful for Kim’s work and the opportunities he has provided for us.”

According to the grant’s project summary, the Tribe will perform Coho, steelhead and Pacific lamprey counts to establish harvest limits in the first year; do the same counts in the second year and “set only a conservative harvest limit and provide limited fishing licenses based on the counts”; and do the same counts in the third year to set a regular harvest limit under Tribal regulatory authority and provide fishing licenses based on the counts.

The grant also will help the Tribe perform a black-tailed deer inventory by funding the purchase of lab equipment to develop the capacity to process 750 samples and submit them to a contracted lab to determine individual deer through DNA identification for use in setting harvest limits.

In the second and third years, the Tribe will continue to collect and process 750 deer samples with the goal of setting regular harvest limits at the end of the last year.

“Oregon State University Lab currently performs this analysis and the final step would be far too expensive to equip for, but the Tribe can by project end create the ability to lower costs by over 90 percent and enable the Tribe to regularly issue licenses and hunts,” the summary says.

There are approximately 750 licensed Tribal hunters and fishers. “With sufficient local supply they would be served as would Tribal family members and Elders,” the summary states. “There has been a constant demand for deer as a food source and demand for salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey far exceeds accessible supplies.”