Andrea Taylor from the Public Information Department interviews Dylan Gorman, Hunting & Fishing Biologist II, with Natural Resources
Links
Website: Natural Resources | Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Contact Information
Dylan Gorman
DylanG@ctsi.nsn.us
541-444-8273
Transcript
Andy
Hello everyone. My name is Andrea Taylor and I’, the Public Relations officer for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and today I have Dylan Gorman in Natural resources. Dylan, How are you?
Dylan
I’m doing great, Andrea. Thanks for having me.
Andy
All right, Dylan, tell us about yourself a little bit.
Dylan
Yeah. So, thanks for the introduction. I was recently hired in January as the hunting and fishing biologist for the, or, within the natural resource department. And, a little bit about my background and kind of my qualifications to, to work and deal with hunting and fishing issues for the tribe is, I grew up in a family where fishing was incredibly important. Pretty much every weekend, you know, because my dad worked full time. But every weekend we fished. And, growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, we went out in the ocean and fished for salmon. So, we did a lot of salmon and halibut, tuna, rockfish lingcod. And I was just enamored and fell in love with fishing from a really young age. So, I always said I wanted to grow up and and fish for a living. And I was very fortunate that I got to go to college at Oregon State, get a fisheries and wildlife degree, and after college, instead of, I did some biological work working for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. But, really, what I fell into was working as a fishing guide. And so, I guided up in Alaska, in the Bristol Bay region for about five years. And then moved back full time to the Corvallis area, Oregon, and started a guiding business here locally, fishing the Alsea the Siletz, the Yaquina rivers, some of the rivers in the valley to the Santiam. I did that for about 8 or 9 years. So, I had about, because there was a little overlap between guiding in Alaska and here, about a ten-year guide career and love that got to fish a ton. Also, during that time really got into, bird hunting and big game hunting and, kind of near the end of that guiding process, I went back and got a master’s degree at Oregon State in, fishery science. And so, I graduated in December, and I was very fortunate to, to get this job here, where I get to work on all the issues that I not only have firsthand experience with working as a fishing guide, but also, you know, having that, education in fishery science and, and master’s degree in fishery science. So that’s a little bit about my background. And I just cannot stress enough how much I love to be on the water and fish and be out in the woods hunting. That’s really my my passion and has been from a really young age.
Andy
What’s your favorite mode of fishing?
Dylan
My favorite mode of fishing.
Andy
Are you like a like an inner tube guy? Kayak guy? Boating guy?
Dylan
Yeah well, I definitely, probably have, you know, a little bit of a problem with boats and that I have several of them and there’s lots of different styles. I, I love the diversity of taking the drift boat out and the powerboat, but if I really had to pick one, I really love being in a powerboat out on the ocean, trolling for salmon. That’s what I grew up doing as a kid. And, and there’s just something that for me, I have a lot of fun doing that. But, you know, I love all the different kinds of fishing you get to do. Even rowing down the river, like on the Siletz and floating from Moonshine to Twin bridges and fishing for steelhead and so but yeah, the powerboat in the ocean getting a nice, big, tasty salmon.
Andy
That’s your favorite.
Dylan
That’s my favorite.
Andy
All right. All right. So, let’s get to know you a little bit. What? Besides fishing, do you have any other hobbies?
Dylan
Really, I don’t. I love to fish. I love to hunt. I have a beautiful, great wife at home. And so, we do spend a lot of time together, and she has, like, a garden. And we have some, couple. I wouldn’t really call them farm animals, but just a couple animals. Goats, chickens, dogs, cat. So, we spend a lot of time together, kind of hanging out with them. Most of my free time and most of my hobbies are associated with fishing and hunting and then processing fish and game. So.
Andy
All right.
Dylan
Yeah.
Andy
Do you have any favorite book or favorite type of book that you tend to lean more when you’re reading or are you not a book guy?
Dylan
Yeah, I’m actually, I really enjoy reading. And since taking this job here with the tribe, I’ve read several books about, the Siletz tribal history and then some other different, kind of not historical books, but maybe more legal type books about hunting and fishing rights of other tribes in the northwest. And so, I love historical type books.
And probably my favorite, if I had to pick a genre, is those kind of explorer books in the early 1800s through the through the end of the 1800s, Arctic explorations, things like Shackleton, in fact, I just read a really good one called The Terror, and it’s like a sci fi type book, but based on a real, Arctic exploration. And that that was a really good read. So.
Andy
Great.
Dylan
Yeah.
Andy
Do you have any other awesome things about yourself that you want to share with our listeners?
Dylan
You know, a big thing that’s coming up for me is, me and my wife are actually having a baby in August, so, yeah, we’re going to have a baby boy. That’s probably the biggest exciting thing that’s awesome going on for me.
Andy
It’s a very important time in life. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s not. That is amazing.
Dylan
Yeah. And so, and then being a fishing guide for so long I’m like already thinking about like, okay, how am I going to be guiding this kid into, you know, liking fishing? Or maybe they don’t and that’s fine too. But you know, you obviously think about it.
Andy
And so I tried really hard. My oldest, he likes going to the river. He likes throwing a magnet in there.
Dylan
Oh. Magnet fishing.
Andy
Yeah. But he’s not big into fishing. He’s he doesn’t want to kill the fish. He doesn’t want to touch the fish. He’s not. He’s just not that kind of kid. My youngest is like, let’s cut it open and use its guts for bait.
Dylan
I feel like you see those two kinds of like, styles of kids where it’s like, either they really want to get down into the nitty gritty, the dirt and then others are like, yeah, I don’t really want to mess with the fish. So.
Andy
I know. It’s funny.
Dylan
or like, baiting a hook, you know, like touching a worm or something like that. But, like, I don’t really want to touch the bait. And other kids are like, okay, you’ve… touching the bait too much.
Andy
My oldest once freed the worms for me. We were up at Moonshine. We had some worms. We found them in the yard under potters and plants and whatever else we brought them out with us. And then we looked down, and he was putting them in the river.
Dylan
Like. Like, letting them go. Yeah, like drowning the worms, unfortunately.
Andy
Setting them free. I was like, thank you, son. This fishing trip is over.
Dylan
Yep. So, there’s, like, this funny story, you know, just to kind of showcase some of, like, how serious my family is on fishing, but, like, it’s like a known story in my family. My grandfather he fished so much as a kid that my great grandmother would never check his pockets because he’d have worms and crickets and everything shoved in there. So, any time she’d be pulling his pockets out to clean his jeans, they would just bait would fall all over the place. So.
Andy
Dried up worms.
Dylan
Yeah, worms. And, maybe some crawdads and anything else he could get for bait. So.
Andy
Yeah. Love that. All right, well, let’s dive into our questions. You already talked about your background and what led you to, you know, become our tribal hunt and fish biologist. But, what are your goals here in your role?
Dylan
Yeah. So that’s a great question. And I have probably, more goals then I could sit here and lay out, but I think the, the main, overarching goal or kind of the guiding goal that I have is to just improve access to fishing and hunting for Tribal Members. And there’s many different ways to do that. You know, if you kind of look at that as like the larger mission or a larger goal, and then off of that, off of that, you know, I think a big thing is educating and talking about, tribal fishing and hunting rights, which went through a big change with the MOA agreement. They came out of the consent decree that was thrown away and then, engaging and, the community, you know, all ages, youth, adults and elders and teaching different, fishing and hunting workshops and classes or having events that, they kind of teach fishing or hunting. And then also just making sure people have their tags and licenses and, and that all of that material is available to them so that they can go out and recreate, so that’s kind of the larger goal that I have. Improve and increase access to hunting and, and, and improve the knowledge that’s available to people. And that’s kind of what, what guides me and a lot of the stuff that I’m doing or a lot of the events or tasks that I’m taking on as a hunting, the hunting and fishing biologist.
Andy
So I like your goals.
Dylan
Yeah.
Andy
So you had brought up the MOA and, let’s talk about that. What a, memorandum of agreement is what a MOA is. Give us some information.
Dylan
Yeah. So, I had to do a lot of educating myself on, you know, what, exactly is a MOA? I spent several. I’ve read through the Siletz and ODFW and MOA several times, and I’m constantly learning new stuff. So, it’s not that it’s super long, but there’s just lots of detail and kind of jargon written into it. So, I would encourage all tribal members. The MOA is on the CTSI Natural Resources web page. You can download it and read it. I would encourage all tribal members to read it, but I’m also more than happy to share information, at least that I’ve learned from it with tribal members. If you come into our office or, you know, like we’re talking on this podcast right now. One of the big things with the MOA is that when the consent decree was recently thrown out, the MOA is kind of this new agreement between ODFW and the Siletz tribe, where ODFW is just recognizing tribal sovereignty and tribal rights to hunt and fish. And a part of those rights is that they can issue their own hunting and fishing tags and licenses, shellfish licenses and shellfish gathering permits. And that’s a big part of, of my job. And then also Lisa, Paul in Natural Resources that were issuing a lot of tags to tribal members. So, I would say that’s probably the biggest takeaway from that MOA. Another part about the that MOA is that it acknowledges the Siletz tribe as kind of co or as co-managers in the region. And so, this geographic scope of the MOA is several different, what we call wildlife management zones. The Trask Stott mountain, which is where we’re at right now here and the Siletz tribal office, the Alsea and the Siuslaw. And within those zones, which is a pretty large area, but it’s reflective of the historic coast reservation, that the Siletz can co-manage the resources, the fish and wildlife habitat, in that in that zone with only with, partner agency ODFW. And so, I think that that’s a very important recognition of, of tribal sovereignty because the Siletz people, at least from my readings historically, have managed fish and game populations for time immemorial. So, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be doing it now and getting that recognition from ODFW.
Andy
We used to have, a radio show here and Bud would come in and he would talk about, Indian law and responsibly hunting and fishing and how that all came about, you know, and he was like, well, we had limits. We had limits on our own selves. You know, back before, you know, termination back before you know, this, you know, contact with, with, you know, colonization, etc.. And, I thought that was really interesting to learn that from him. It was really cool.
Dylan
Yeah. And, you know me, I’m, I’m not a tribal member. So, a lot of that I’ve been learning over the last, several months in this position, you know, I just think it’s, a really big step in the right direction from the state and ODFW.
Andy
Yeah. All right, so how do we get in MOA? What is the process for that? I mean, it’s not just, a spit and a handshake. Correct.
Dylan
No, although the MOA is technically not a legally it’s not a legal treaty. But it is just a very high-level recognition between two governments. And I wasn’t a part of any of the, the negotiations with the MOA or the workings of it. So, I guess I can’t speak to, to how it was negotiated, but I think it just really came about from, from the state realizing that this consent decree wasn’t, wasn’t appropriate, and it just wasn’t giving the tribe its sovereign rights that they are, that they have. And so, you know, in addressing that, they got to this MOA. And so, the MOA is really interesting too, because we do meet our natural resource department. We do meet with ODF and kind of just we can make updates to it. We can change things. And that’s through this annual meeting process that, that we have with them, where we’re kind of and internally, you know, we might see things that we need to change here in the natural resource department, to better manage things. And so, in this meeting, we bring those up and discuss those changes. And, and then there, just kind of adapted within that MOA. So.
Andy
Alright.
Dylan
Yeah.
Andy
So how does this, and other MOA’s that Natural Resources has, impact our membership?
Dylan
Yeah. So, the biggest impact from this is that tribal members have a right to hunting license, fishing license, shellfish gathering permit or shellfish license and a gathering permit, and that they can exercise those rights separate from the state of Oregon. Right. So, these are sovereign rights through CTSI. And they can come in. They can get all of those tags and licenses during the appropriate seasons that that the natural resource department has set and there are no fees. So, you can come in down to the natural resource office. You can see me or Lisa or sometimes the, natural resource director Angela. You can get your, like, right now, the tags we’re offering, combined angling. So, salmon, steelhead tag, shellfish tag, bear and cougar tags. And you can get all of those. And it’s no charge. No cost at your own. That’s, as a tribal member, that would be your sovereign right to get those. So.
Andy
Great. Yeah. So, everyone should get their get their selves down to the natural resources department, start hunting and fishing and again, growing that participation and engagement.
Dylan
Yeah, you really should. In fact, there’s many tribal members, that I’ve engaged with that are still kind of learning about this process and, are still kind of figuring out, hey, what tags can I get? What are the seasons that CTSI has? And then when based on those seasons, can you come in and get a tag? But I can also guarantee you, if you stop in, in person or you call Lisa or me at our desk line, we can explain all of this and even more detail than we can here. And, and make sure you’re sorted out and you have the, the tags you want. So.
Andy
So are there any specific rules or regulations associated with those tags?
Dylan
Yeah, actually kind of dipping back a little bit talking about that historical resource management that’s kind of tied to the Siletz people, the natural resource committee that meets once a month. And the natural resource director put a lot of, put a lot of thought and input into how, hunting and fishing is managed. And that’s reflective into the seasons and the limits. And so, you know, all the tags are very thoughtfully set out and what the seasons are and what the limits are. For example, salmon and steelhead right now, we do follow, at least for rod and reel fishing, the same limit as ODFW. So two fish per day. If you’re fishing here on the river like the Siletz, for winter or summer steelhead, you can only keep a hatchery steelhead. You have to let the wild steelhead go. And, for bear, like we have a bear season, black bear season. And actually, we have more conservative limits than the state of Oregon. So, we only allow, per tribal member harvest of one bear per year. In contrast to the state which has, you can actually get potentially up to three bear tags, through the state. And I guess one other thing too that’s worth mentioning is that that’s just unique is that these tags, you know, let’s say you come down to the natural resource department and I write you out a black bear tag, through CTSI. That tag has no bearing on anything that you or somebody who’s a tribal member may want to go do and get through the state. You know, you’re still allowed to go get a tag through ODFW, or you cannot, you know, you could opt not to you could just have your Siletz tribal tag. Okay. So, there’s no, it’s a completely separate thing.
Andy
It’s not like using two coupons.
Dylan
Exactly. You know. Yeah. So, they’re totally separate. They’re not, not related in any way.
Andy
Alright. That’s good to know. So, can you provide me some details about some upcoming hunting and fishing season?
Dylan
Yeah. So, I know I mentioned briefly some of the tags that we’re currently offering. And there there’s a lot of tribal members that are really interested in getting out and bear hunting and cougar hunting, you know, that predator type hunting. But the big seasons that are coming up, are also the most popular. And that’s going to be elk and deer. And so, there’s actually several different tags that are available for elk and deer. And then also when those tags are issued, it’s just different for say than say cougar and bear. And so we’re going to start issuing our elk and deer tags July 1st. And I do expect it to be a little bit of a madhouse, because I know people are really excited. I get questions all the time about when people when you can come in and get your elk and, and, deer tag. In fact, somebody was just asking me right before I came up here. So July 1st is when we’re going to start issuing those. And then for our elk and deer seasons, the season will open August 1st. And then that is what I consider the, the general season. Right? So, the general season for elk and deer and it’s going to run August 1st through the end of December, December 31st. Those general tags every tribal member has a right to, general season. Elk and deer tag. There’s different variations kind of within the season. And we’ll have those dates posted come July 1st. You know, the first part of the season for elk. Like, you can harvest, spike or a cow, but you can’t harvest a bull elk. And then there’s a period of time where it’s bow hunting only. And then at the end of the season, again, you can actually you can’t harvest a spike or a cow. You can only harvest a bull. So there is some variation within the season. But that general season just kind of a really long time time frame to allow people to get out and and have a good, reasonable chance at success.
Andy
So follow our Siletz news for some of those posting dates. Get on the website. I know it is on the Natural resources tab in the website because I looked at them last year. Is it going to be anywhere else?
Dylan
Yeah. So we’re going to have all of that breakdown post on our Natural resource web page. It’s not posted now. And that’s kind of a, technical thing because we will discuss those seasons with ODFW and so while they’re more or less set, they’re not completely, official. So once those are totally official, they’ll be posted on our website. Okay. Again, you can always call or stop in and we can discuss them. And then I am also hopeful that they’re going to be posted on our Facebook page. Both the natural resources page and then the, the main CTSI page.
Andy
So and so for the tags is they’re going to be age limits as well. Is it going to be some kind of like you were talking about rolling out, you know, certain types of elk and deer that you want to get? Is there going to be a certain ages too?
Dylan
Yeah. And so currently right now the way that we have the age breakdown is that if you’re over 18, then you don’t have to have a hunter safety, which just in line with ODFW’s policy, as well. So they have, they have the same thing. So we’ve just adapted.
Andy
Sometimes rules are there because that’s just the smart thing to do.
Dylan
Yeah. And then so 12 to 18, you’re obviously still have a right to a tag, but you do have to have a hunter safety card. And currently right now we don’t have an internal hunter safety program, although not, you know, spill the beans too much. That is something that we’re actively working towards.
Andy
Oh, nice. Yeah. Offer those classes to our tribal youth.
Dylan
Exactly.
Andy
Yeah. Oh, that’s awesome.
Dylan
And so that. And that way it can be done, in-house instead of having people, you know, maybe look for a hunter safety class online or traveling to Newport or Corvallis to take one. That it would be something that that would be available here. So yeah. And that again is still in the works.
Andy
In the works not set in stone yet.
Dylan
No. Yeah. Not probably not for this season would be kinda.
Andy
It’s it’s a spitball right now. Okay. I’ll take it though. That’s really awesome.
Dylan
Yeah. And so that’s something that’s really exciting that we’ve been slowly working towards.
Andy
All right. And so then let’s get into some activity’s you guys are doing. I know that you have started a few activities and, why what are you doing? I heard you’re having fun?
Dylan
Yeah. And, kind of just these activities and events that we’re putting on some of them have been done in the past. Some of them are kind of new, but they all aligned with that earlier goal. I told you to just engage people and make access to fishing and hunting, easier. So, this spring, as we came into the, you know, March end of winter time frame, we had a couple different events. A lot of times spring people think of trout fishing. And in the past we have done, some youth fishing events and trout stocking. So, this spring in suit, we followed and we had a trout stocking at the Dundas pond behind the USDA. So, we had about 2 hundred, and 2 hundred, and 250 fish trout stocked in there. And while that wasn’t necessarily an event, it was kind of just like, hey, it’s the opener, right?
So, the pond stocked. That pond is open for all kids, within the community, tribal and non-tribal, 12 and under. And there’s a two fish limit. So, there were fish in there. There were some use on that first day. It was stocked and open. That went out there even though the weather was pretty bad, you know, that.
Andy
It was not fun.
Dylan
Yeah. Sideways rain and so kids, there were some kids out there fishing and, in fact, one, one, youth that was out there who was a tribal member, caught his limit. And I showed him how to process and filet his fish, and he took them home. And, I guess I didn’t follow up with, but I hope he ate them.
So they were fileted out real nice.
Andy
If he was young enough, he did not let his parents get home for more than five minutes without insisting it be cooked.
Dylan
Yeah. And I was like, you know, I was talking with the mom. I was like, you know, when I eat these, I like to wrap them in bacon and fry them in the skillet. And, that’s kind of my preferred way to do trout.
Andy
It’s not the best.
Dylan
Yeah. So that that was kind of like our first, event that we did. And then jumping in the following week, we had a really big event that I, I, took part in from the kind of the fishing standpoint, but really was spearheaded by Katy Holland out of the Portland area office. And she had received a grant from Portland Metro to do this youth fishing event. It was all tribal youth, mostly from the Portland area and Eugene area offices or, sorry, Salem area offices. Not Eugene. And that event, they decided they wanted to provide a real, you know, kind of outdoors experience, not in a pond. So, we were actually at a Portland Metro property on the SAndy
River, and we partnered with, a local tackle shop up there, Fisherman’s Marine. And they made custom tackle boxes for all the kids that were really cool. They were custom put together for, you know, the kind of fishing they’re going to do in that area. It wasn’t just, something you’d order off of Amazon that was generic. Right? So, and they were really good quality. So, they put together these fishing boxes, rod and reel combo. So, each kid got a tackle box, rod and reel combo and then we actually had another tribal member who’s a fishing or we had a tribal member who’s a fishing guide and also a certified Oregon angler. And I’m just going to say his name, Todd Logan, who is out there. And, so he kind of led that class, and I was there as, as back up. And we split the kids into groups, older and younger. They all learned how to cast, how to rig up gear. And then we actually went down to the river and fished. So, it’s just, in my opinion, a phenomenal event. And we did catch fish. We didn’t catch any salmon or steelhead, but we got a couple nice, sucker fish, which was cool.
Andy
Very awesome.
Dylan
Yeah. So that was a great event. And then, just I think about a week over the last 2 to 3 weeks, we had, two events locally here. Again, we did another, community fishing event. So, for tribal and non-tribal members, where we had youth adults and some, some elders out there at the Dundas pond, which we got stocked again, all the kids got fishing rods to take home. And then actually on the final day culminated in we had a big, call it a salmon cook, but, we actually did steelhead and then, some trout, and we had the culinary chef from the high school, Patrick, come out and teach a lot of the kids how to, you know, we taught them how to filet their fish, and he taught them how to cook them. So it’s pretty cool. Full circle.
Andy
That’s very awesome. And then they got to eat their reward then.
Dylan
They did get to eat, their trout. Yeah, yeah. And we had, you know, fixin’s on the side and everything. So, and that was that was again in that event, you know, natural resources, we helped facilitate a lot of the fishing, getting the licenses for everybody, getting trout stocked, being there and representing the department, teaching kids how to fish and how to filet fish. But really, Ronnie Logan and Todd Logan were kind of the main drivers, and spearheaded that event, and, they just did a phenomenal job, you know, so we’re really fortunate that we could work with multiple departments and collaborate and have these really successful, cool events. And I think we had over 30 youth, that went both days.
Andy
Oh, good turnout then.
Dylan
Yeah, really good turnout for that.
Andy
Good. Will Dundas Pond continue to get stocked for the year or is that is this kind of, like a one time, twice time thing?
Dylan
Yeah, that’s actually a really good question. And the reason that we aim to do these trout events in the spring is the water quality for trout. As we get into the summer and early fall.
Andy
Right because it’s a pond, it’s not running water and it’s not a giant body of water.
Dylan
Exactly. Well, well, deteriorating. Those fish probably aren’t going to survive. So we try and stock a number of fish where we know, hey, there’s going to be enough for kids to catch, but where most of them are going to get caught out because they’re probably not going to survive this summer.
Andy
Okay.
Dylan
And unfortunately, it just wouldn’t be.
Andy
It’s not deep enough for them either. If we think about it, we’re going to get, you know, 75, 80 degrees and it’s not deep enough for them to make their way down to stay cool.
Dylan
Yeah. So yeah, I don’t think it would be, you know, ethical to stock fish there even though we, we could in the summertime because they’re just. Yeah. Probably not going to make it in.
Andy
Yeah.
Dylan
and yeah. So that’s kind of what’s going on.
Andy
Just being responsible in our natural resources.
Dylan
Yeah. Responsible stewards of the resource. So, and those fishers, there are still fish in that pond and the water quality is still decent. And so, I would encourage if anybody’s listening and it’s May 9th, you know, if you’re hearing this and it’s not too late into July, you can still probably go down there and catch a couple trout.
Andy
Good to know.
Dylan
Well, yeah, there was one other event. Yeah. But there was one other event that we did, where we did go out and do some clamming and again, we had some really good tides. I personally, even though I have done, some clamming in the past, I’ve never excelled at cooking them properly. So, I’ve kind of stayed away because I don’t want to harvest things that I’m not able to, to prepare properly. So, I have learned some new techniques, and, they turn out a little better. But we did do a little clamming event. We had really good tides. And, you know, just looking forward in the future, if people are interested in going out and, say, participating in a clamming event or participating in, a fishing event or even just showing up to a fishing event and having a good time, please don’t hesitate. Come down to natural resources. Reach out to us by the phone. Especially with the clamming event, people were really interested. But when it comes to waking up at five for six in the morning to go. So, we didn’t have the turnout we hoped for. But I am but we’re hopeful that as we keep doing these, more people are going to. At least for clamming. You know.
Andy
I’m good for waking up. I’m good for going out there. I’ve tried clamming a few times. It was like three hours of digging and three clams. I can cook them. Apparently, I just don’t know how to find them yet. And, just kind of don’t ever want to do that again.
Dylan
It is. It can be a lot of work, you know, and then, you know, not only you’re digging, but you’re like, getting down there in the sand. And, you know, I think I had sand behind my ears and sand in my nose and, you know. Yeah.
Andy
It’s everywhere, and I’m okay with that part. I just want to take more than that home.
Dylan
Yeah. The work, the juice has to be worth the squeeze.
Andy
Yes.
Dylan
Right, so you know, and I think that’s what’s cool about these events that we have where we’re going out because, you know, we have people coming out with us that have clammed and they’re really good and they know and understand how to do it. And so maybe if you’re unsure and you don’t know the best way to clam, you’re going to learn and be taught and, be given the skills to go out and feel success or to be successful and feel confident to do it on your own.
Andy
Yeah.
Dylan
Yeah.
Andy
So will you guys be participating in Culture Camp this year?
Dylan
Yes we will. Natural Resources always has a good, strong showing at culture camp, and we’re planning on doing a lot of our similar activities that we do. And then we’re looking to add on a couple this year. The big one that we that Natural Resources has always done is the, the youth fishing event. So we actually are going to be getting fish stocked at the hatchery on Rock Creek, the tribal hatchery up there in the earth pond. So, getting fish put in there and feeding them and then actually that that pond has a lot of just natural bug life in it as well. So, there’s plenty of natural food available for them. But we’ll also be feeding them with, you know, the, the classic trout pellets just to keep them nice and healthy. And we’ll be bringing youth up there. And our plan this year is to have kind of a little bit of a workshop before the fishing. So, where kids that are coming up, hey, they’re going to learn a little bit about the ethical and kind of the, I would say just the, the ethics behind fishing. Right. So, like, hey, why would we maybe release a fish if we’re going to keep a fish, we’re going to make sure that we eat it. And we’re also going to keep as much as we want to eat. And when we do keep it, this is how we’re going to going to take care of it. And, and, humanely dispatch it and then filet it or gut it, depending on how we want to process it. And then we’re also planning on doing some smoking, some fish smoking with, with the youth, and obviously fishing, catching fish.
Andy
So why they got to catch them to smoke them.
Dylan
They got to catch them. Yeah.
Andy
Is that going to be in the same adventure or will you have some pre-filleted and everything fish that you’re just going to bring to the smokehouse and then have them join you at smokehouse?
Dylan
I think what we’re actually going to do is we’re going to be doing, the smoking on a separate day. So, the kids are going to catch fish, and then we’re going to kind of just keep them on ice and a cooler. And then the following day do some smoking. And we may or may not do the smoking at the smokehouse here. We have several little chief smokers like, the aluminum or metal boxed ones. We might use those. We’re still kind of figuring that out just because it might be easier with smaller batches and with a bunch of kids running around just to do it that way. You know, the main I think the main thing is just kind of introducing people to it, you know?
Andy
Okay. So, what do the kids do? Say it’s the first day of culture camp and they hit you guys at the 11:00 fishing. And then they’re going to be at culture camp all day. Do you have somewhere for them to store their fish.
Dylan
So we do have coolers.
Andy
Perfect.
Dylan
Yeah, we will have them iced. We will have the ability to keep fish on ice because yeah, you don’t want to be. I mean, we know how the weather can be here in July. Yeah. You know, don’t want to be running back to camp with your fish in a bag that doesn’t have ice. And that would it be, you know, the respectful thing to do to something you’re harvesting. So yeah, we’re going to definitely be taking that into consideration. And then, you know, kind of building on that some of the other events we’re looking at doing, it just so happens that there’s a really good clamming tide at the end of the week. So, Thursday and Friday of Culture camp.
Andy
Culture camp is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Dylan
So Thursday then.
Andy
Okay.
Dylan
Yeah. But you know, you can still personally go clamming after culture camp. Hey, maybe you learn some new skills.
Andy
With your tribal tags.
Dylan
Yeah, yeah. So, that Thursday we’re looking at, at doing a clamming event. It is going to be a morning thing. So, we’re kind of playing that one by ear, probably earlier in the week to see how many people sign up. But even if we just get a couple people that sign up, you know, we’re still going to go and it should be really, really good tide for getting out there and clamming. And there’s several different spots that you can clam at. In our last event, we actually took the natural resources boat and went to a, I’m not going to say just a secret clam spot. And it was, you know, we were able to do pretty well. So. There is a potential to, to go to several different spots based on maybe how many people we have signed up.
Andy
Okay.
Dylan
Yeah. The one. Oh, and then there’s one other event or one other. I wouldn’t say event, but a workshop where knocking around doing, is a summer steelhead workshop. And one thing that I know and I’ve participated in this fishery a lot, I actually used to work for Fish and Wildlife running the trap up in the gorge. And so, I’ve been up in the gorge and fished many, many times. But looking at offering a workshop. So hey, if people are interested in going summer steelhead fishing, maybe it’s not at Culture Camp, it’s at a later date or a later time that they’re going to have the skills and knowledge from this little workshop that they could feel comfortable going up there and, and having, chance success and catching a summer steelhead, which in my opinion, is probably one of the best eating fish that we could get on the river, you know, summer steelhead and spring chinook. A little bit of a toss-up between the two. But and that’s a relatively readily accessible fishery for people. And that’s one of the fisheries that when I talk and engage with, with tribal members that come in to the natural resource office that they know about, that people love to go up there and catch summer steelhead. They love getting the summer steelhead to throw on the barbecue. And so that’s something we’ve discussed internally that that we think could be really,
Andy
Fun.
Dylan
Fun. Yeah, and enjoyable.
Andy
Sometimes fun is okay.
Dylan
Yeah. I think, you know, sometimes is, in natural resource, you know, all of us have kind of science type background. So, we, we all enjoy having fun, but sometimes we think about it maybe too analytically too sciencey.
Andy
So let’s talk about the fish hatchery then the we have our tribal fish hatchery. I don’t know how many people know that or don’t know that, but we do have one. And how important is that for us?
Dylan
Yeah. So, I mean, there’s many different viewpoints and I’m sure there’s many different tribal viewpoints. I can’t speak exactly on those because I’m not a tribal member. But I think, you know, being able to produce your own fish definitely has a big part of the tribal sovereignty and tribal rights to manage natural resources. But then also just from a kind of a cool standpoint is that, yeah, the tribe does have its own hatchery. It’s located in a beautiful spot on upper Rock Creek. There’s deer, elk, turkeys that we’ve had that have been going through there. So, it’s just a great spot. And at that hatchery we’re producing or I shouldn’t say producing, but we’re rearing about 5000 to 6000 winter steelhead smolts. That we then release back out into Rock Creek. Those fish, even though they were raised in the hatchery there, go out into the ocean. They travel all the way up, maybe to the, Gulf of Alaska. Some of these steelhead actually go out all the way over towards Japan. So they have a huge area that they move around in the ocean, and then they return all the way back to the mouth of the Siletz river here, right where Mo’s is, you know, Kernville and some all the way back up, up through the river, up Rock Creek and return to that hatchery. So, it’s pretty cool if you think about it. In terms of that. Right? Just the journey they take, where it started and where it ends. And then for those steelhead, actually they can it’s not the best for those fish that were raised in the hatchery to spawn out in the wild. So, we do like to see them harvested and caught by anglers. But cool to see them come back to the hatchery there. And this year, we actually had one of the biggest reporting returns of the tribally raised hatchery fish since they since they’ve been doing it, which I think they’ve been releasing winter steelhead there for 5 to 7 years. I’m not directly related with the hatchery work, you know, I get to do cool stuff like talk about it here on the podcast, but I’m not engaged with, with raising the fish. I, I do get to talk about it, you know, not only with tribal members but with other fisheries types, fishery groups and fishing, fishing associations around and that was a big part of this winter. And our reporting is that we got many local anglers to call in and report that they were catching our fish, which is really useful data for managing those fish, because we know, hey, they’re actually coming back and people are catching them, which is the main goal.
Andy
How do people know?
Dylan
So we have posters and signs and pamphlets posted up and down at the different boat launches on the river. We did a little bit of a push in giving talks to angler groups this year to get the word out. And then there also was some social media posting, which I don’t think was us directly. I think it just kind of occurred naturally. You know, where people saw the pamphlets and saw the stuff or heard a talk, and we’re just talking about it on social media.
Andy
And so that’s how they knew it was a Siletz tribal hatchery fish?
Dylan
Well, and then when you catch a fish, you can actually look and for lack of a better term, the cheek, the side of the fish, there’s a bone called a maxillary. And it’s just above the gill plate. And that maxillary on the left side of the fish is clipped off. So, if you catch a fish and that little, you know, cheek area and you see the, the maxillary clip, then you know that that was, raised at the, at the tribal hatchery. And one of our biologists made that clip by hand. So, they were handling those fish very gently and very carefully clipped that maxillary.
Andy
Well, it’s kind of like, you know, when I watch that, that, Jacob Knowles, I think on TikTok, and he does the, he punches the tail of the lobster. He’s like, oh, this is an egg laying lobster. And he’ll punch it, they don’t feel it. But that’s how you know that this one is an egg layer. So, I think in my mind I equate a very similarly to that is it doesn’t hurt the animal or the fish. But that’s how you mark it.
Dylan
Exactly. Yeah. And it’s, you know, that’s not going to cause any hardships for them, you know. And the same thing is true with, those, those same fish. There’s actually a small fin on the back called the adipose fin. And anybody that fishes a lot, knows this that, that fin is clipped off on a hatchery fish. And again, it doesn’t hurt the fish doesn’t affect their ability to survive when they’re released. Just a way for us to mark it.
Andy
Right. And that’s how, you know, to when the season comes around, if you’re catching a hatchery or a, a wild one, because sometimes you can’t keep the wild ones.
Dylan
Yep.
Andy
So.
Dylan
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So that’s a really cool thing in kind of in line with your last comment, there, actually keeping hatchery versus wild. And another just thing that we have going on at the hatchery is that, tribal member Brandon Larrabee got a grant last year and built this really beautiful cedar shack.
Andy
Oh, yes, he did. Yeah, yeah. And there’s a wood stove in it too.
Dylan
and there’s a wood stove. Again, I wasn’t I wasn’t part of building it. I’m just talking about all the cool stuff that natural resource department and, and others, you know, he got a grant, but Brandon Larrabee, even though he is kind of a scientist by nature, isn’t employed by natural resources, but, you know, he built that awesome shack up there. And the reason that shack is there is that at Rock Creek, there is a small falls, and that’s, one of the cultural fishing sites that CTSI has. So, there are several I have been to several of not all of them, but several of them. And I think the Rock Creek one, maybe it’s not the best fishing. It’s definitely the best. Just overall, easy to get to. You have this great shack that you can duck into and stay warm and, and it the reason I thought of this was that at those cultural sites, under a cultural salmon tag, you can harvest either hatchery or wild fish.
Andy
Right. Oh, that’s good to know. Cool. So how can our tribal members get more involved in the hatchery? Are you guys do you need help or are you seeking volunteers? Is it just you need people to come out and hang out?
Dylan
Yeah. So, you know, tribal members can go up there. I think that a lot of the times when when the biologists that are up there are actively working and engaged in work, they probably don’t want people stopping in and on all the time, just at random, because they might be dealing with, very sensitive life stages of salmon. Like right now. We have all of our small eggs up there, and they’re smaller than the size of your pinky nail. Right. So, they’re doing really kind of high-level work caretaking for those fish. But at Culture Camp coming up, which we’re going to be doing several activities, including the fishing and some of our workshops at the hatchery. We do need some volunteers. Okay. And so, if people want to get involved and maybe even just kind of start learning more about what’s going on at the hatchery and then have that lead to potential further volunteer opportunities. That would be a great, a great time to get a foot in the door.
Andy
And they would contact Lisa for that.
Dylan
They would contact me.
Andy
Okay.
Dylan
And I’m sure that you wouldn’t mind adding my phone number or some sort of tag line to contact me at that, right.
Andy
Yeah. I’ll add I’ll put your email and I’ll put your, phone number, your direct line in there, and then people can just give you a holler, or they can call the front desk and ask for you.
Dylan
They can ask for Dylan. Yeah, but if anybody’s interested in volunteering and then also, not directly related with the hatchery, but in a lot of the other events and workshops we have, like, for example, those Dundas pond events that we did or going up and doing that fishing event on the Sandy River or clamming events, if people are interested in helping out or volunteering, we would love help.
Andy
Okay.
Dylan
And they’re really fun events like, I was out there when we were doing our clamming event, and I just couldn’t believe I was just so grateful that, you know, this is my job and I get to share this experience and be there to help facilitate stuff like that. And so, it’s a really good time. It’s a lot of fun. We have a lot of just great people that you get to volunteer and be around and work with. And then also a lot of I mean, shoot, we’re out there taking our, the natural resource sled running around on the Yaquina bay. That’s pretty cool. You know, like, so you get do you get to ride around in some cool equipment.
Andy
I think, going into events like that as an as a person who’s just watching the event and taking pictures for it, for the paper. It is really fun to see the, the differing things that people take away from it. So, there’s the, the elders that come and then they like tell all the best stories, all their best stories, how it used to be, we used to fish and the salmon would be huge or, you know, things like that. But then I also enjoy the kids who have never caught anything, and they’re just screaming with excitement. It’s awesome.
Dylan
Yeah, I love that too. You know. And especially like this, this event that we did with, Todd and Ronnie, at Dundas Pond, you know, it was a two-day event. And so, we got kids the first day they’re showing up, they’re like, oh, I don’t really want to fish. I’m not interested. And then, you know, the second day they’re like, oh yeah, I’m so ready to get out fishing. And by the end of it they’re like, oh, I can’t wait to go fishing again, you know? And so that’s kind of pretty cool to see.
Andy
Yeah. So, in the interest of time, we have, one more question. We can we can cover which, I’m going to do the general, you know, broad is there anything I missed that you think that our tribe members or our listeners should know?
Dylan
Man, there’s so much information out there. And, you know, honestly, to me, for me being new at the position and a lot of this stuff being new because the MOA is so new, there’s lots of things that even internally we’re learning about natural resources. Right. And so, I think the biggest thing that, that I would stress to all tribal members is just try and get as much knowledge about this MOA agreement and what your rights are and, and your ability to access those rights. And, and just take advantage of it, you know, because there’s really some great opportunities under a lot of the tags. And, you know, whether you’re here local in Siletz. And then I guess maybe one thing that I didn’t really touch on, I kind of mentioned it briefly, even if you’re not local and you’re listening to this, maybe you live in the valley or you live up north or down south a little bit. Our tags, the tags that CTSI issues. You can use those tags up in the Trask unit all the way down on the Siuslaw unit. There’re areas where these units, like the Alsea actually goes pretty far into the Willamette Valley. One thing when we were doing the Portland area event is we kind of learned that that Trask unit actually goes very close to Portland, you know, really close to Forest Grove. And so, there’s lots of areas that you might not think are local right here to Siletz you can utilize your character, see tags and licenses.
Andy
So they are only good for certain regions. What probably the original reservation boundaries or is it more so the 11 county service areas?
Dylan
Well, and that’s a really good point. In some other tribes, when they were negotiating their MOA with ODFW we went more for the county approach. I actually really like the way CTSI went for it in their MOA was that they went for wildlife management units, which are larger. And I think when they’re combined are maybe a little more reflective of the historic coast reservation. And then also it just it’s more intuitive, like if you’re already doing a lot of hunting and you are maybe familiar with ODFW system, it’s it is a little it just it more intuitive I guess. So yeah. It just makes more sense. And I think it also gives it gave tribal members a larger area to potentially hunt as opposed to going by, you know, counties.
Andy
Alright.
Dylan
Yeah. Sorry. That kind of went off track.
Andy
No that was information. And that’s what I asked. What did I miss? What do I need to know? And that’s in that’s useful to our listeners into our membership as well. You know what the boundaries are.
Dylan
Yeah.
Andy
Alright. So, you have already said that you haven’t been here very long. So my final question that I ask everybody is what is your favorite tribal event? But I feel like maybe you haven’t been exposed to all of that.
Dylan
Yeah. I mean, I’m really looking forward to Culture Camp, although I think Culture Camp is going to be a little bit of a whirlwind because we’re trying to do a lot of events. The, you know, the powwow. I haven’t been there, haven’t been to it. I’ve heard a lot about it. I’ve heard about it, you know, because I lived, I’ve lived in the area in Philomath, Corvallis for about 15 plus years. So, I have heard about it. And I’m just really excited to, to go.
Andy
Okay.
Dylan
Get some food at Bristo’s. Hang out. So. Yeah.
Andy
All right, well, I am excited to see you at these events. And, in the future, you know, events, you know, your family. I’m hoping you bring your daughter and expose her to the tribes of your Okay. Right. You did say son. Bring your son and expose him to the tribes of Oregon and and, you know, original, you know, Indian country.
Dylan
Son. Actually, son. Yeah. I ‘m looking forward to it.
Andy
Awesome.
Dylan
All right. Thanks for having me so much.
Andy
Thank you.