- Small area closed off. A small section of Lake Billy Chinook directly in front of Round Butte dam is now permanently closed off to boating and fishing. This is primarily a safety issue—both for anglers and fish.
- Upstream fishing opportunities. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Confederated Tribes, with help from PGE and other groups and volunteers, have released salmon and steelhead fry numbering in the millions. It is too early to tell when upsteam fishing will begin. But the hope is that there will be an additional 226 stream miles accessible to salmon and steelhead, and that eventually a portion of that will be open to angling.
Visit PGE’s corporate Web site for more Deschutes River fishing information, including:
For similar information on the Clackamas, Willamette and Sandy rivers, visit the Protecting Fish section on the PGE Web site.
Round Butte fish hatchery
When the Pelton Round Butte hydro project was completed in 1964, it provided downstream and upstream passage for steelhead and salmon. However, unforeseen changes in the currents of Lake Billy Chinook made it impossible for the fish to find the downstream facility. In 1968, the fish passage facilities were abandoned and a fish hatchery was built instead.
The Round Butte fish hatchery, located
at the base of Round Butte dam, is run by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and funded by PGE. It produces about 240,000 spring Chinook salmon and 160,000 steelhead every year. Fisheries personnel capture adult returning salmon and steelhead below the dams and transport them to the fish hatchery. There the eggs are removed and incubated on screen trays. Once the eggs hatch and the fry are big enough, they are transferred to small tanks and then to larger areas that more closely resemble natural conditions. The smolts (juvenile fish ready to migrate to the ocean) are released during the spring. After a few years in the ocean, the adult fish return to the river and the cycle begins again.
Restored fish passage
An underwater tower above Pelton Round Butte, completed in December 2009, now provides downstream passage for Chinook salmon and steelhead. Both salmon and steelhead fry have been released upstream of the dams. See our steelhead fry release video. Young fish migrating to the Pacific Ocean are collected at the fish passage facility and transported them below the dams. When these salmon and steelhead return to the Deschutes to spawn, they will be captured and released above the dams.
Ultimately the goal is to allow the fish to migrate up and down past the dams with as little human intervention as possible. For now, capturing the fish on their upstream journey provides several benefits:
- Improved health of the fish population – Nearly a quarter of the upstream steelhead are strays from other rivers and could introduce disease. By separating the fish below the dams, we ensure only native fish are released upstream.
- Better monitoring – By capturing, counting and tagging the fish, we can better gauge the health and success of the salmon and steelhead populations as they return to their traditional spawning grounds.
A delicate balance
Chinook salmon and steelhead are not the only fish on the Deschutes that need careful monitoring. The bull trout is a threatened species, and Lake Billy Chinook is one of the few places where it has thrived. Bull trout feed on kokanee, the landlocked version of sockeye salmon. Fisheries personnel are closely monitoring both species to help maintain a healthy balance between the two.
Return of sockeye salmon?
It may be possible to actually re-establish a run of sockeye salmon in the Deschutes River by transporting a number of kokanee downstream of the dams. They are the same species of fish—the kokanee are simply the landlocked version of the sockeye salmon. If the transported kokanee reach the ocean and return, they are then considered sockeye salmon. If successful, this would be the first run of sockeye salmon in Oregon since the 1970s. |
