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.

Last week, in consultation with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Warm Spring Tribal Natural Resources, PGE was granted flexibility to adjust the outflow schedule this year, if needed, to keep discharge temperatures below natural thermal potential.

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In April 2008, I wrote about tagging fish with tiny chips and placing downstream fish traps on rivers and streams feeding Lake Billy Chinook for future fish migration studies. Well, the future is now.

PGE’s Megan Hill and her fisheries studies crew have been extremely busy keeping the six downstream-migrant fish traps operating on the Metolius, Deschutes and Crooked rivers and tributary streams feeding Lake Billy Chinook.

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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.

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In February 2008, biologists and volunteer released approximately 150,000 spring Chinook fry into the upper MetoliusRiver Basin. (See March 17, 2008, blog entry). The fish were released in small groups along the shoreline, in quiet areas with hiding cover, where small salmon fry normally rear. 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 »

Megan Hill, our fish research lead biologist, has been studying the effect of feeding Chinook fry for a short period prior to their release. Do they grow faster? Do they have a better survival rate?
To find out, she and her assistants arranged for 10 days of extra feeding at Round Butte Hatchery for half of the spring Chinook that were planted in the upper Metolius Basin in late February 2008. The other half - about 75,000 fish - were released right from the incubators to begin feeding after release. 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…

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…