Columbiana's Friends of the Similkameen River

09/23/2025

That’s what you can do with your community.

Stream music here: https://brettmcfarlandmusic.com/Watch Undammed Documentary now: https://youtu.be/PoZKMtqK8u4?si=Oy1PcU0S_TcoeqGtRestoration: https://youtu...

07/03/2024

In memory of the endearing loon family murdered on June 21st, Ginger and Daniel Poleschook sent us these pictures they took of of how this family of loons care for each other before they were shot. The Poleschook have been collecting data and banding loons on our lakes for 30+ years and knew this family personally. Captions: Both parents offering fish fry to one of their chicks and parent offering an invertebrate (insect) to another chick.

07/01/2024

The senseless slaughter of the common loon family (2 parents and 2 chicks) on Beaver Lake in Okanogan County on June 21st is horrifying, shocking, hateful, and loathsome that this troubled, human lowlife exists in our communities.

Please consider helping us to arrest and prosecute who are responsible by contributing to the reward poster attached that the Law Enforcement arm of the Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife and Biodiversity Research Institute studying the loons on our lakes approve. Please post it in your communities and send to your FaceBook and Instagram contacts.The funds are being administered by Columbiana, a 501(c)(3) non-profit bioregional education project in the Intermountain West located in Chesaw WA.

Thank you for your humanity!

06/27/2024

Senseless Shootings Claim the Lives of an Entire Common Loon Family at Beaver Lake, Washington

by Daniel Poleschook, Jr. and Virginia R. Poleschook
Field Scientists, Biodiversity Research Institute

June 25, 2024

An entire family of four Common Loons was shot at Beaver Lake (48.850, -118.971) in Okanogan County in remote
northeastern Washington late Friday, June 21, 2024. Carcasses of the two territorial adults and one chick of the
season were recovered, while searching for the second chick continues. The shootings occurred from the former
Beaver Lake Campground on the southeastern end of the lake. Witnesses from the campground at northwestern
end off the lake reported hearing shots fired from that direction.
Common Loons are one of the most adored and admired wildlife species in North America. Disposing of Common
Loons takes away joy from those that enjoy watching wildlife. A 2022 Washington survey of recreation activities
reported, 6.2 million people watched wildlife, 1.2 million fished, and 0.3 million hunted.
The adult male that was shot had been the territorial male at Beaver Lake for 11 seasons since 2013 and had
fathered 14 young during that period. He was banded as #0689-09467 by biologists and field scientists from
Biodiversity Research Institute, who were assisted by biologists from the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife, and the United States Forest Service on July 23, 2023. This was only the second season for the territorial
female who had produced two chicks in 2023 and also in 2024.
The Common Loon (Gavia immer) is listed as a “State Sensitive” species in Washington and is protected in the
United States as a migratory, non-game species by state and federal laws. There are presently only 12 nesting
pairs of Common Loons this year in northeastern Washington, and an unknown, but fewer number of nesting pairs
west of the Cascade Mountains. The present low population of nesting Common Loon pairs in Washington has
been increasing very slowly from four pairs in 1995, when research, providing recommendations and conservation
measures, and compiling records for the species began by the authors, to the current approximately 20 nesting
pairs.
Common Loons reproduce very slowly and are sensitive to nesting disturbances. Their breeding population has
been extirpated from northern California, Oregon, and Idaho, while small populations persist in Montana and
Washington in the Northwest on the southwestern limit of their breeding range in North America.
The authors have maintained a list of more than 120 known Common Loon mortalities in Washington since 1995.
There have been five known shooting mortality incidents during that era, involving five adult Common Loons and
three chicks. There is a $2000.00 fine for shooting a Common Loon in Washington, stated as: Fish and Wildlife
Code RCW 77.15.130. The total fine in this incident will be $8,000.00. Reward money successfully led to
apprehension and prosecution on one of those previous cases.
A growing amount of reward money is also being offered in this case for the recent mass shootings of the Beaver
Lake Common Loon family. Contributions can be in the form of money order or personal check to Columbiana, a
501c3 non-profit agency, 2055 Chesaw Rd., Oroville, WA 98844, 509-560-0742. We thank you, kindly, for your
contributions, and your devotion to Common Loons.
Daniel Poleschook, Jr., and Virginia R. Poleschook
Conducting Common Loon Research in our 30 th season
Field Scientists, Biodiversity Research Institute
[email protected], [email protected]
509-939-2748, 509-939-9699

Help me spread the word about Columbiana. Together we can make a difference.

06/10/2024

You are invited to the 2024 Salmon Calling Ceremony on the Similkameen River below the falls on June 24th at 9:30 am with luncheon afterwards at Oroville Veterans Memorial Park on south end of Lake Osoyoos.

12/02/2023

An old story that keeps repeating itself for Indigenous communities—broken promises.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

09/03/2023

Similkameen Sunday is coming up September 17th. There will be a silent auction, Salmon Dinner, music and several panel discussions. One on Stewardship of the land as practiced by native peoples and the second panel will discuss Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a widespread problem across the country. Come and support Columbiana and native peoples at this Similkameen Sunday Event. Held at the CCC of Tonasket, 411 Western Ave., Sunday, September 17th from 3-7pm

05/25/2022

Tonight at the CCC in Tonasket. Zoom available.

10/13/2021

At its November 19, 2018 meeting, the Okanogan PUD (OkPUD) Commissioners voted unanimously on a staff recommendation to stop pursuing electrification of Enloe Dam based upon the significantly high cost of the power produced.

After surrendering their Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) license to re-electrify Enloe Dam in 2019, the OkPUD chose to leave the dam in the river. The Washington Department of Ecology (WADOE)has assumed responsibility for dam safety, which required the OkPUD to conduct a safety analysis. To date, the cost to conduct the safety inspection is exceeding $8 million, in addition to the $16 million spent in the past decades pursuing electrification. Although the OkPUD adamantly states they are committed to the safety and best interest to the ratepayers of Okanogan County, whis maintaining a nearly century old structure which generates no revenue in the best interest of the ratepayers?

There are clear alternatives available to the OkPUD to retaining the obsolete and potential hazardous structure in the Similkameen River, which, for lack of a better term, has been a money sink since 1959. The OkPUD could participate in efforts by State and Federal agencies, Tribes and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) to remove the dam and the sediment that has accumulated behind the structure. To date, the OkPUD has shown no interest in pursuing a cooperative venture to remove the defunct Enloe Dam and establish a free flowing river.

The OkPUD has stated their concerns about the liability for removal and treatment of the sediments that have accumulated in the reservoir above the dam. To evaluate the risk and determine the chemistry of the sediment behind the dam the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) sampled the surface at 72 sites and depths at 12 cores. Due to funding constraints 35 surface samples and 6 core samples were analyzed for 51 trace elements. Similar to previous sediment surveys, certain trace elements, such as arsenic (As) and copper (Cu) were detected at elevated levels. The USGS analyzed sediment samples in bulk and less than 63 mm grain size. The samples of elevated levels of trace elements may be attributed to grain size that is the high percentage of fine silt and clay increase the concentration of trace elements by a factor of 1.5 to 6.3 higher than in coarse grain sediment. All core samples were conducted in the lowermost 1/3 of the 1.6 mile impoundment. Consequently, to characterize the sediment chemistry throughout the reservoir, WADOE is pursuing additional sediment sampling which may begin as early as the fall of 2021.

Tribal governments of the Upper and Lower Similkameen Indian Bands (USIB, LSIB) in British Columbia and the Colville Confederated Tribes (CCT), in Washington, are united in their desire to have the Enloe Dam removed. Respectively these tribal governments have signed resolutions supporting the restoration of the Similkameen River as a free-flowing international river. To accomplish this, the sediment and Enloe Dam must be removed.

The Similkameen River could potentially provide significant recovery potential for native steelhead that volitionally ascend the Coyote Falls partial barrier. To better understand this potential and to garner support for removal, NGOs have secured funding for both the USIB and LSIB to evaluate habitat for summer steelhead, currently listed as threatened. Based upon the quantity and quality of habitat upriver of the dam an estimate of juvenile summer steelhead will be generated from a model developed by National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration – Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Now that the potential benefits of dam removal on native steelhead recovery are becoming clearer, there is growing support from State and Federal agencies, Provincial government, Tribes and NGOs for dam removal and river restoration. Preliminary estimates of the cost for removal and remediation in the range of $50 million seems attainable through existing avenues of mitigation funding

The OkPUD seems to be sending mixed messages about continuing to own Enloe Dam. On the one hand, they lament the burden and liability associated with owning Enloe dam, and on the other had they seem unable to move forward to relinquish ownership and cooperatively pursue an orderly and cost-effective removal that would limit the very liabilities they seem so concerned with.

As ratepayers and citizens of our public utility, we need to demand our PUD commissioners to discontinue spending ratepayer dollars on Enloe Dam. Their financial liabilities and poor decisions translate into higher electric rates for all of us.

The solution is simple, if the PUD can actively work with willing agencies from both the U.S. and Canada, the Tribes and NGOs in ridding us of this costly, non-functional structure.

There are federal and state financing that could potential reduce the cost share of the removal for the PUD.

It’s not a matter of if the dam will be removed, but when. The longer the dam remains the more it will cost to maintain and eventually remove. Why wait?

Write or call the Okanogan PUD commissioners and ask them to work with agencies, Indigenous caretakers, and NGOs to remove sediment and Enloe Dam!

Scott Vejraska, 509.429.2176, [email protected]
Jerry Asmussen, 509.486.1962, [email protected]
Bill Colyar,509.923.9233, [email protected]