PGE fish scientists are tracking the whereabouts of the first adult salmon released into Lake Billy Chinook. The fish are implanted with tags that send out an identifying radio signal. A map shows the locations of the fish released this summer in the upper Deschutes, Crooked and Metolius rivers.

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I have received several inquiries this week about why the lower Deschutes River near where it enters the Columbia River is so warm this early in the summer. Many anglers know that temperatures on the Deschutes below the Pelton Round Butte Project are now being managed to reflect what they would be if the dams were not here. That is still the case.

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The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation recently announced a one-year strategy for upstream passage of up to 50 percent of the returning adult salmon and steelhead that were naturally-reared in historic habitats above Round Butte Dam and passed downstream through the new fish facility.

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There are just a few weeks left in 2011, so here’s a year-end wrap up on downstream fish passage.

We had some exciting and historic milestones this year when fry planted upstream of Pelton Round Butte returned as adults. Read more on that topic below. But the big story of 2011 is yearling sockeye salmon.

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The selective water withdrawal facility is now in its second year of operation, and we’re getting questions about how we’re managing water temperatures in the Lower Deschutes.

What’s PGE’s role in managing water temperatures in the lower Deschutes?

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There he was, a Chinook salmon with a history that involved me, a 30-year dream and 16 years of hard work by a host of people. The fish looked much like the others swimming in the shaded concrete pond below Round Butte Dam, but this one was special. Like the others caught in the Pelton Fish Trap this May, it was beautiful, about 12 pounds, bright and shiny, strong and thick from two years gorging itself in the rich Pacific. The difference was that this one was missing part of the small bone along the right side of its mouth.

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With the salmon fly hatch on the Lower Deschutes River in full swing and many anglers pursuing trout that rise to the big bugs, I am getting frequent calls about the high flows. Anglers are somewhat used to flows higher than normal during wet years, but this year is exceptional.

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PGE and the Confederated Tribes of Warms Springs are putting logs on the banks of the lower Deschutes River to create better fish habitat. Crews pick up logs longer than 10 feet that float into Lake Billy Chinook and transport them to the lower Deschutes.

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“Bag-o’-rocks!” Rick hollered, as he braced waist deep in the swift current of the Deschutes River. “Got it!” Brian answered on the walkie-talkie as he operated a surveyor’s transit. Rick set a bag filled with rocks on the bottom of the river to mark the point, waded back to shore and scrambled up the bank through the poison oak and wild rose thorns, keeping an eye out for rattlesnakes.

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We may have inadvertently created some confusion about what our lower Deschutes River temperature management program is attempting to achieve. I, like others, have referred to the program as returning the temperature cycle for the river back to what it was before Round Butte Dam’s construction in 1964. Technically, this is a misstatement of the standard we are trying to achieve. In both water quality certificates granted by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Tribal Water and Soils, the standard we’re required to meet is to discharge temperatures at or below “Natural Thermal Potential.”

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