Three different fish species released as fry into the Upper Deschutes tributaries above Pelton Round Butte have now returned as adults – a historic milestone for the fish passage project. Altogether, more than 30 Chinook salmon, sockeye salmon and steelhead that were reared upstream and passed through the Selective Water Withdrawal fish passage facility have returned in 2011 after a round-trip journey to the Pacific Ocean. See our News section for details.

In 2011, more than 225,000 sockeye, 30,000 Chinook and 10,000 steelhead smolts passed through the fish passage facility. These young fish have been released into the Deschutes River to continue their migration to the Pacific.

The sockeye are offspring of kokanee, the land-locked sockeye salmon that are abundant in Lake Billy Chinook. About 50,000 sockeye smolts were passed downstream in 2010, the first full year of the facility’s operation. Read more about the sockeye migration.