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C2 Northwest | NORTHWEST | SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2019 2 R reach the Lower Yakima,” said Bill Bosch, data manag- er with the Yakama Nation Fisheries. “When you don’t have a lot of water, it spreads out and gets real slow. It doesn’t look real good.” Tribal, state and federal fishery biologists are closely tracking the returns of adult salmon from ocean feeding grounds and how well they are making their way up- stream through the Colum- bia River to reach spawning areas. Biologists say that warm ocean water in years past reduced the survival rate of the spring chinook that are returning this year. As of May 9, only 30,118 spring chinook had made their way past Bonneville Dam. The run is expected to fall short of the already low forecast of 99,300 spring chinook, which was only half of the average number that have returned during the past decade. tions make it easier for farmers to use alternative sources of water such as wells, and also to expedite the process for temporarily transferring water rights from one user to another. Challenges for salmon May is a critical season for salmon, with young fish spawned in the wild or reared in hatcheries starting to make their way to ocean feeding grounds. Strong, cool flows of water help push the fish downstream. With a lighter snowpack, there is less of that water in some drainag- es. Less water can mean slower flows and warmer temperatures, which can reduce survival rates of young salmon that may be more vulnerable to predators. “We don’t have as much water as we thought we might have. It could get pretty dicey when they water-rights holders would get about 25 percent less water than in a year with a bountiful snowpack. That forecast will be revised in June, and the amount of water could fall significantly if warm, dry weather contin- ues through May. “There will be restric- tions,” said Scott Revell, manager of the Roza Irriga- tion District, which operates a canal and smaller laterals that deliver water to junior water-rights holders in the heart of the Yakima farm belt. Revell said the district’s priority is to keep irrigation water flowing at least until mid-September, and hope- fully until the end of Octo- ber. That would prove much more difficult if a warmMay causes the Bureau of Recla- mation to cut back junior water-rights holders by another 10 to 15 percent, he said. Inslee’s drought declara- 10 feet off the ground) from trees near their homes. The outlook for the sum- mer months is for an above- average risk for larger fires in the Pacific Northwest. This increased risk extends to British Columbia, where huge fires that raged last year sent smoke into the Puget Sound region and other parts of Washington. “British Columbia is antici- pating a busy fire season this summer,” Saltenberger said. Farmers on edge The hot weather is putting farmers on edge in the Yaki- ma Valley, one of the state’s most bountiful farming areas with crops that include apples, pears, cherries, wine grapes and hops. Many Yakima farmers hold junior water rights. That means they will get reduced amounts in times of shortages. In an early May forecast, the Bureau of Rec- lamation predicted junior Small fuels (branches and other wood up to 3 inches in diameter) already have a lowmoisture content in lowland areas and are primed to burn, according to John Saltenberger, fire weather programmanager at the Northwest Interagen- cy Coordination Center. Already, as of May 6, there have been reports in Wash- ington of 239 outdoor fires, ranging from false alarms to smoldering campfires to woodland blazes, and that’s the highest number in the past decade, according to Janet Pearce of the Depart- ment of Natural Resources. These fires collectively burned 570 acres. To prepare for summer, state officials are urging west-side — as well as east- side — homeowners to re- move low-lying limbs (up to < Snowpack FROM B1 right in front of her as she lay on her own deathbed. Could she hear?We had no idea. But if she could, she may have noticed we weren’t obsessing as much over her vital signs anymore. It was just dad andme there the night she died. Here’s another thing they don’t prepare you for — you go from clutching your mom’s hand like your life depends on it to turning her body over to a stranger, a death delivery man, who wheels her off into the night with all the ceremony of distributing a package. Then you go out to the empty parking lot at one in the morning and…do what? The question could fill the rest of your days. What I did, despite the late hour, is go sit at the computer and in 30 minutes bang out a 700- word inkling of my mother’s story, which ran inmy hometown Ohio newspaper. That thing I thought I couldn’t write ended up pouring out with sweet relief. Here’s how it began: “HelenWestneat was a lifelong teacher and librarian who taught thousands of students in schools from elementary age to college how to find just the right information. “But she is recalled as well for something decidedly less academic: giggling.” My favorite part was a story frommy dad, about how she hunted the “spring ephemeral” wildflowers like a bounty hunter. Spring ephemeral: That phrase, with the promise in the first word and the fleeting in the second, says it all. “She had in her head the blooming schedules of a whole host of wildflowers,” he said. “Hepatica in the earliest spring, then blue bells, then the trillium came out. She pursued these flowers to all corners of the Glen. It was her way of coming alive after the winter.” The writer Joan Didion said we tell ourselves stories in order to live. I always felt this line was overwrought. But now that I’m facingMother’s Day as a newmember of a vast tribe, the motherless daughters and sons, it feels like the truest sentence ever written. The obituary, from the Latin root “obitus,” for death, seems misnamed. It should be called a “vituary.” My mom’s turned out to be a life raft — for me. Leavingmy dad in his home, now alone, was harder even than watchingmy momdie. I check in on him, and he says he’s been consumed with planning her memorial. It’s a chance now for him to tell her story. “I can’t remember being this busy,” he said the other day. They don’t tell you this either, but that’s the whole life-affirming point. Danny Westneat’s column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464- 2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com < Westneat FROM B1 By RYAN BLETHEN Seattle Times staff reporter Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill this week to direct money to tribal health-care systems and create a council focused on improving health outcomes for members of the 29 tribes in the state. “I think it is one of themost prom- ising pieces of legislation I’ve seen on the state level,” said Aren Sparck, Government Affairs Officer for the Seattle IndianHealth Board. Sparck worked on the bill, which has been a couple of legislative sessions in themaking andwon the governor’s signature Tuesday. The program is expected to dis- tribute $3million to $5million in the first year, and that number could grow in future years. Through Medicaid, the federal government matches money that states invest in Native American health care. The new law creates a Governor’s IndianHealth Advisory Council that includes a representative from every tribe in the state, CEOs of the state’s two Urban IndianHealth Boards, legislators fromboth parties and someone from the governor’s office. It’s important that the council involve a wide range of people who canmake improvements to health care as well as the people affected by those decisions, Sparck said. The lawdirects the council to drawup an IndianHealth Improve- ment Advisory Plan. The bill, whichwas called the Washington IndianHealth Improve- ment Act, passed both houses of the Legislature unanimously. It was sponsored by Sen. JohnMcCoy, D-Tulalip, and Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Dungeness. This dual approach— leverag- ingMedicaidmatching dollars and bringing together all parties that play a role in Native Americans’ health— could be used to help indigenous peoples across the nation, said Vicki Lowe, executive director of the American IndianHealth Commis- sion. “The level of trust and participa- tion by all parties involved brings a lot of hope for the future health of Native communities inWashing- ton,” Lowe said in a news release. “We are providing amodel that we hope to see replicated throughout the country.” The first dollars for the program are expected to be set aside by No- vember, but it isn’t yet clear when themoney will be distributed, Sparck said. New law aims to improve tribal health care in state find anything unusual. But one day in July 2017, he and his brother-in-law pulled up the heavy-duty, 200-foot longline they’d stretched across the lake bottom after baiting 14 hooks with salm- on heads. A big 4-inch, stainless-steel snap was gone, along with the thick, nylon-braided cord holding the hook. Another metal snap was bent. One nylon cord was “sawed” in two, a second hook missing. “The cord was abraded in two spots,” Stigar said. “It had been cut with animal’s teeth.” A 38-pound anchor set on the lake bottom to hold the longline was dragged some 50 yards, based on GPSmea- surements when it was dropped intomore than 100 feet of water, he said. The line was “tangled into a messy ball.” He doesn’t believe the damage was the work of the seals — the ones he’s seen are too small — and the line was too deep for a boat to hit it. “At that point, I decided I don’t want to catch the thing anymore, because there’s truly something here,” Stigar said. “And if it is a sleeper shark, it may be the oldest living creature on the plan- et.” Sean Brennan, a University of Washington researcher who studies the lake’s seals, said he wouldn’t rule out a “clever, determined” seal as the culprit. They eat salmon and one reportedly weighed nearly 200 pounds. “I don’t know,” he said. “These seals are really strong swimmers, and they definite- ly have sharp teeth.” In 1959, Sports Afield magazine reported that something had ripped away tackle as a group fished for the animal, snapping a stain- less-steel cable “like it was thread” and snatching moose-meat bait. But why haven’t carcasses of odd creatures turned up dead along the lake?Why aren’t there any known pic- tures of the animal? In 1980, the Anchorage Daily News offered $100,000 over five months for tangible evidence, and scientific veri- fication, that a creature un- known to science lived in Iliamna. The award would be worthmore than $300,000 today. Nobody won. Robbin La Vine, an An- chorage anthropologist, said she and a colleague got a good look at an odd creature in summer 2008 as their water taxi flew low over the lake on a clear, calmday. It looked like a grayish fish maybe 15 feet in length, with a long head, prominent tail and fins on its side, swim- ming in shallowwater. “It was kind of twisting, like stirring up the sandy bottom,” she said. “At first I thought it was two seals twisting, but then I realized it was one animal. It was defi- nitely more fishlike than whalelike.” TimLa Porte, owner of Iliamna Air Taxi, vividly remembers seeing it in July 1977 as he and passengers banked near the lake’s sur- face. The group spotted something very fishlike for a few seconds, maybe 15 feet long based on the size of a nearby skiff. “It arched its back and hit the water, which was glassy calm, and this wake radiated out from the great big splash,” he said. “We saw a great, big tail going side- ways, back and forth, going down.” “I don’t believe it’s a whale, and it didn’t act like the seals we’ve seen for years, so who knows,” he said. Wright said this June he plans to lower what will be the first deep-water video camera used to find the ani- mal, part of an $8,000 sys- temhe purchased. Stigar has volunteered to operate it. Wright says he’ll collect water samples in search of DNA. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have of- fered to help identify sleeper sharks or other known ani- mals that might be in Iliam- na, Wright said. “If we see a new species, that would be pretty fascinat- ing,” Wright said. “And if I find a sleeper shark, that’s worth the effort too. There will be plenty of questions about why they’re there and how do they make a living.” B I L L R O T H / A N C HO R A G E D A I L Y N EWS V I A T H E A S S O C I A T E D P R E S S Mark Stigar, who owns a summer house in Iliamna, Alaska, offered to help find the pur- ported creature in Iliamna Lake — then something in the water tore up his fishing gear. By ALEX DEMARBAN Anchorage Daily News ANCHORAGE—The mys- terious animal that people say they see in Iliamna Lake is dark, longer than 15 feet, with a long head and tail and distinct fins. It isn’t a whale or a seal, and it often vanish- es quickly. Fishermen have tried hooking it. The Anchorage Daily News once offered $100,000 for proof of its existence. But so far, nobody has photographed the crea- ture some call the Iliamna Lake monster. Palmer resident Bruce Wright, a former marine ecologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, hopes to solve the riddle once and for all this summer. He plans to sink an under- water video camera to the bottomof the sprawling and sparsely populated South- west Alaska lake that’s the largest and one of the deep- est in the state. People call Iliamna Lake an inland sea. It’s 80miles long, with a rare population of freshwater harbor seals that scientists believe moved in from the ocean long ago, and an old legend that something large lives in its 1,000-foot depths. The TV series “River Mon- sters” featured it in 2010, piquingWright’s curiosity and sparking his personal quest to find the animal. He was skeptical until two years ago, when a friend who put out baited hooks to catch the creature reported that some- thing very big had shredded his fishing gear. “This could lead to an exciting new discovery,” said Wright, senior scientist with a regional Aleut tribal orga- nization. Residents from lakeside villages say these are no imaginary tales. The obser- vations over the years are often consistent, of huge aquatic creatures, often sharklike in appearance. “It’s just part of life out here,” said Gary Nielsen, owner of the general store in Kokhanok and a longtime fisherman. “A lot of old-tim- ers refuse to travel on the lake because of it.” Two years ago, he and other village residents saw what looked like a group of creatures swimming on the surface for a few seconds. They were about a mile away when he spotted them through binoculars. The longest was very large, may- be 65 feet long, he said. Oth- ers were slightly smaller. “They were gigantic” but didn’t appear to be whales, he said. “I have no idea what we saw.” There could be plausible explanations for some sight- ings, said Forrest Bowers, a biologist with the state’s commercial fisheries divi- sion. Beluga whales following salmon up the Kvichak River from the Pacific Ocean, he said. Or maybe it’s the seals, appearing extra-large be- cause of visual distortions. Then again, who knows. “It’s a big lake,” he said. “And there are likely things we don’t know about big lakes like that.” Wright believes the ani- mals are large sleeper sharks that can grow 20 feet long and far outlive humans — like their better-studied cousins, Greenland sharks, the planet’s longest-living vertebrate that can remain alive more than 300 years. They’re somehow visiting or living in the freshwater lake. Some believe it’s sturgeon. Those can grow 20 feet long. “There’s definitely some- thing down there,” and it’s big, saidMark Stigar, a re- tired colonel and former chief aviation officer for the Alaska Army National Guard until 2003. Stigar, who owns a sum- mer house in Iliamna, of- fered five years ago to help Wright find the animal —by occasionally fishing for it. Stigar didn’t think he’d What lurks in depths of Alaska lake? MYST ER I OUS S I GHT I NGS | A former marine ecologist plans to drop a video camera underwater to find out.