iy ORD Mh ae RO Be, : 5 i ® t “, B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 2, 2005 MARGARET SPEIRS" : Snake. _ROB BROWN - Snake salmon | here i is no. question that the Columbia was the world’s greatest salmon river. Half of the river’s almost unimaginably abundant runs retumed to its largest tributary, the When Meriwether Lewis, his buddy Billy Clark, and their entourage reached it'some 200 years ago, ‘the Snake saw annual returns of something like 1 5 million spring and summer chinook salmon. Add robust runs. of Snake-bound sockeye, coho and steelhead and you. get an appreciation of the staggering number of fish that entered the Colum- bia’s mouth on the coast of. southern Washington, then fought their way 500 miles upstream to Lewis- ton, Idaho and, in the case of the fish bound for the arid brush lands of the Upper Salmon River Basin, no fewer than 900 miles, climbing 7,000 feet during * the course of their journey. ’ To accomplish this prodigious migration, the salmon bound for the Snake emerged from the evo- lutionary filter with exceptional amounts of energy. * powered by levels of oil and fat higher than other _ salmon. : Because of this and their fine conditioning, the Snake River salmon, in particular chinook, were an_ essential food source revered by native Americans _ and, later, a favourite target of commercial fishers ‘ who could sell-them for five times as much as salm- on bound for the Columbia’s lower reaches. _ "The arduous annual migration of Snake River ~-salmon is dwarfed by the rigours of the trek the species had to undergo to reach this point in their evolutionary journey. The fossil record suggests that the ancestors of today’s Pacific salmon emerged from the primor- dial soups some 10 to 15 million years ago. The formative Pacific Coast was a volatile, plastic place - replete with cataclysmic disruptions - that attend mountain building and river down cutting. Over a span stretching millions of years, the salmon endured river damming landslides. Vol-— . canic eruptions on the scale of the one that buried Washington’s Toutle River when Mount St. Helens ’ blew its top forced the salmon into new pathways. Mountain building engendered a continuous process of habitat destruction and re-creation. In- dividual populations were snuffed out when cut off from the habitat that sustained them, but the salmon aggregate survived thanks to its ability to adapt and _recolonize. The salmon we see today are the prod- ucts of approximately 10 million years of this de- manding evolutionary process. Genetic analysis suggests that today’ s salmon are the evolutionary product of three distinct lines that appeared about two million years ago: one that spawned steelhead, coho, and chinook, one from which pinks and chums are descended and another ~ that evolved into sockeye. Eighteen thousand years ago, a time geologists call the end of the Wisconsin Ice Age, sheets of ice advanced and retreated like glacial tides, ultimately plugging an area where the Clark Fork River runs today, creating a huge lake later named Missoula. Lake Missoula flooded once every 55 years over 2,000 years. The erosive power of these inunda-_ tions carved the Columbia River Gorge and created the so-called scablands that cover over a large area in southeastern Washington extending from Spo- kane to Tri Cities, Throughout this geologic chaos the salmon per- ‘sisted by evolving differing survival. strategies: pinks and chums came to use the lower reaches of: mainstems and larger tributaries; coho took to the headwaters where they sought the succour of small _ _ headwater streams; spring chinook adapted to the cool headwaters too, while their summer run cous- ins adapted to the deeper flows of the lower rivers: sockeye evolved a success strategy that uses lakes. Skeena salmon have the same diverse. life histo- ries because the salmon that survived that last ice _ age refugia of the Columbia River Basin used those ‘same strategies to repopulate rivers from southern California to the northern tip of Alaska. The latest struggle facing the salmon: of the Snake, and, in the final reckoning, the health of,all ’ Columbia salmon, is a rise in water temperatures that further exacerbates the stress of their long up- hill migration and the downstream migration of their offspring, journeys already made dramatically more difficult by the construction of hydroelectric dams. - - The fate of the Snake salmon rests on the resolu- tion of a debate to breach four lower Snake dams in Washington State, an initiative that the majority of Fisheries scientists favour. ‘The debate is a thorny one because the loss of enough power to slake the needs of a city the size of Seattle will necessitate an alternate source or sources of generation, like nuclear power. The salmon of the Snake are now facing their greatest challenge. HAILEY HENDRY’S EYES light up when she talks about skating. " The talented 10- -year-old i is completely focused on her fa- vourite sport, decked out in a skating dress with her hair up in a bun as she prepares for practice at the Terrace Arena Oct. 26. Talented, indeed. Last season, the young athlete won eight medals ~ five TERRACE STANDARD. gold, two silver and one bronze — at the Kla How Ya compe- - tition here, She brought home gold for her skills routine and -took a fifth place in the freeskate at regionals. .And at the BC Winter games, she scored silver for her program, which included an Axel jump that she landed suc- cessfully after completing her first Axel jump the day before - leaving for the event. But winning medals isn’t why Hendry skates. She wanted ‘to try the sport after seeing skaters on TV and falling in love with their “pretty dresses.” She names former skating club member Kelsey Minhinnick, who’s now acoach, as her skating hero. _ “She’s a good skater,” Hendry says, adding she wants to be like her idol for that reason. Her favourite parts of skating are the dresses, jumps and dance. The junior level skater also enjoys performing as a mem- ber of the synchronized team, and says the highlight is doing intersections, where the line of skaters passes each other. Her goal this year is to land her double Salchow and dou- ble toe loop jumps and qualify for Starskate provincials. When not skating, Hendry plays lacrosse, which keeps her in shape during the off-season, and takes dance lessons, which improve her skating posture. ‘Hendry hopes to one day compete at Starskate Nationals, the Olympics and perform in ice shows. Then she'd like to become a judge because it would “kind of be fun to watch the other skaters.” Hendry, who has been skating for five years, moves into her fourth season with coach Jennifer Kuehne this year. “She’s very dedicated,” says Kuehne, adding that Hendry is one of the club’s top junior level skaters. “Hailey’s a very competitive personality and when she’s in a competition she usually shines in all areas.’ However, with no competition in sight, Hendry can forget skills she’s already learned. - Kuehne says Hendry forgot how to do an Axel until last , week; its resurgence was likely due to the impending com- _ petition in Vanderhoof last weekend. Hendry will skate in the Caribco North Central Regionals in Fort St. John for her first-time at the end of January and could qualify for provincials in all three disciplines: freeskat- ing, skills and interpretive... “T think she has a good chance,” ‘Kuehne says of Hendry’ $ chances of qualifying. Kuehne credits her family’s strong athleticism as a trait that makes Hendry a good skater. Dad Trevor played upper level hockey and her aunt Michelle plays on the Canadian Women’s Basketball Team. And younger sister Jorden is a - Starskater too. WILD ANIMALS are coming! Wild animals are Kuehne believes Hendry could attend Starskate nationals one day because she’s so well rounded. Coming up, Hendry will skate at Cariboots ‘n’ Blades, the Northern BC Games and the Kla How Ya competition. She hopes to bring back medals from all these events. NEIRIR ACE WH ee ARCHERS Pree ory Ww|ert oe age ty 638-7283 5 Hf Pa! ye fat es : Al ut oe 8086 “ “paregpentt ws ” Pn ! . | Tt bes SOMETHING > . : Se HAILEY HENDRY demonstrates the final pose of one of her routines at the Terrace Arena Oct. 26. The young skater, who began the sport at age 5, spends as much time as possible on the ice. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO ACK SCOTT TRENT blends in among some of the foam animal altargets owned by the Terrace Whiskey-jack Archers i in the temporary clubhouse on River Drive. The club owns enough targets that future earnings from competitions can be put into a fund to purchase a building and land. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO Archers aim toward building clubhouse By MARGARET SPEIRS coming! And the Whiskey-jack Archers are ready for them. The club's indoor 3-D shoot takes aim-at the Copperside Stables Nov. 12 and 13. Archers will tackle two rounds of the 30 target ~ The club has recently moved to a new club- house on River Drive, which they hope to use un- til the spring. . Scott Trent, club member and traditional bow archer, says the main push of the indoor shoot is to raise money to keep the clubhouse heated and the electricity running through the winter. The archers’ goal is to build.a clubhouse on ‘mal targets that it doesn’t need to borrow any and © can put money toward its goal. Trent says Whiskey-jack membership is hold- ing steady probably because potential archers want to see if the club will survive before joining He says the club “isn't going to die: if anything we're growing.” The Whiskey Jacks haven’ t defined a schedule range the first day and one round the second day. Unlimited, bowhunters, barebows, recurve and traditional, or long bow, archers are welcome and spectators and would-be archers are invited to watch. their own land with an outdoor archery shoot set up in the forest. Money raised from the outdoor 3-D shoot last May helped the club buy new targets. The club now has enough of its own foam ani- for this season but plan to host their second annual outdoor 3-D shoot next May, Scott says. The current clubhouse will be open for target practice from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday throughout the winter.