The Everett Herald covered a welcoming ceremony for the Stillaguamish Tribe's new buffalo herd:

"This isn't to replace our elk, our deer, our fish," said Shawn Yanity, chairman of the Stillaguamish Indian Tribe. Bison aren't native to Western Washington. "This is to celebrate traditional foods."

The tribe also hopes the buffalo meat will help them combat diabetes – a disease that has higher rates among Indians than most demographic groups.

More than 15 percent of the adult tribal members who get medical services through Indian Health Services suffer from diabetes, according to the National Institutes of Health. Experts say tribal members are more susceptible to the disease because their ancestors were abruptly severed from traditional food sources such as fish and wild game when they were moved to reservations.

Posted at 12:13 PM

The Aberdeen Daily World has an article about the closure of the Chehalis River system to chinook fishing.

The closure of the sport fishery for spring and summer Chinook salmon on the entire Chehalis River and its tributaries was announced Tuesday by the state Department of Fish & Wildlife.

The season had been scheduled to open today and run through July 31.

“It’s quite unusual,” said Bill Freymond, Fish & Wildlife’s regional fish manager. “It’s not like we’ve had gangbusters of harvestable spring Chinook, but we’ve always been able to have a season.”

The Quinault Indian Nation, which co-manages the river’s salmon, won’t be gill-netting for spring Chinook either, said Ed Johnstone, Quinault fisheries policy representative.

Posted at 4:14 PM

The Olympian ran a story this morning on the Squaxin Island Tribe's request to protect salmon in the Johns Creek watershed:

The Squaxin Island tribe, concerned about salmon in the Johns Creek watershed near Shelton, has asked the state to halt drilling of new wells in the area.

The tribe filed a petition with the state Department of Ecology, saying wells are drawing water that normally would flow into the creek during summer.

"If summer flows were just at the minimum required, we would see 20 percent more spawning habitat available for summer chum salmon," John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the tribe, said in a statement.

More information, including the petition itself, is available here.

Posted at 3:42 PM