Wednesday’s rain was too much for CTUIR fisheries

MISSION – Rain caused flooding problems throughout eastern Umatilla County Wednesday. While it did relieve the dry spell, it wasn’t welcome by Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Fisheries Manager Jerimiah Bonifer.

“When Ma Nature comes in with a fury, there’s not much that we can do,” he said. “Unfortunately, these high-flow events are really hard on our infrastructure. They can be really hard on fish too.”

Bonifer said the best way to deal with big storms as far as fish are concerned is to expand flood plains. He said that instead of a firehose of water rushing down creeks, streams, and rivers, more flood plains allow the water to spread out and enter the ground.

“Unfortunately a lot of the things we’ve done with these river systems is we’ve straightened them and constrained them, and so there’s just no room for these rivers to spread out and dissipate some of that energy,” he said.

Editor’s note: Jerimiah Bonifer was a guest on the KUMA Coffee Hour Thursday. You can listen to the podcast at Coffee Hour Podcast clips – Omny.fm.

File photo of Jerimiah Bonifer

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Elkhorn Media Group