“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.

Read the rest of this entry.

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.” Read the rest of this entry.

This spring, I had the great fortune to watch native summer steelhead spawning on a gravel bar in Trout Creek, a tributary of the Deschutes River. The scene was at Trout Creek Ranch, a 3,000-acre property purchased by Portland General Electric in 1999 for fish and wildlife habitat mitigation.

Read the rest of this entry.

July 1 marked the beginning of a new era of managing temperatures on the lower Deschutes. Hydro operators adjusted some controls on the new Round Butte Selective Water Withdrawal Tower (SWW) and the lower Deschutes River grew cooler. They had begun mixing the cold, deep water in Lake Billy Chinook with warmer water on the surface.

Read the rest of this entry.

We have now captured over 100,000 fish at the new downstream fish facility at Round Butte Dam. The numbers of salmon smolts (juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean) entering the new fish facilities increased dramatically during March and April, with several days when more than 7,000 salmon and steelhead were caught. The fish passage crew worked overtime to get them sorted, marked, transported to the lower Deschutes River and released safely to continue their journey to the Pacific.

Read the rest of this entry.

During summer and fall 2009 and 2010, PGE, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Ochoco National Forest will invest about $35,000 to protect the fragile habitat around the Lower Whychus Creek Crossing. The creek, which runs near Sisters and joins the Deschutes River about 10 miles south of Lake Billy Chinook, is popular destination for campers and day trippers.

Read the rest of this entry.

I received a comment on the blog last week from Bob MacRostie, the retired manager of the Deschutes Valley Water District that supplies drinking water to the Culver-Madras area. He wished us success but was was wondering just how effective this project was likely to be at restoring fish runs above the dams.

We are also hoping for the best with new Selective Water Withdrawal Project. Before the original Pelton Round Butte Project was constructed, there were runs totaling hundreds… Read the rest of this entry »

As we assess the effectiveness of the new fish passage system, we will need to know how many steelhead and spring Chinook smolts successfully pass through Lake Billy Chinook and the fish collection facility. To do this, we will be operating several downstream-migrant fish traps in the tributaries to Lake Billy Chinook to capture and tag these smolts. continue reading…

A key milestone for the restoration of fish runs above Lake Billy Chinook took place Feb. 26 and 27, when 150,000 Spring Chinook fry were released into the upper Metolius River. These young fish will be the first to use the new Deschutes passage system. In spring 2009, when they’re ready to migrate downstream, the project will be completed and the fish will be safely transported around the dams. PGE fish biologist Don Ratliff took part in the release and provided this first-hand report. continue reading…