News Blog for PGE's Deschutes River Fish Passage Project http://www.deschutespassage.com/news Restoring fish runs above PGE's Deschutes River dams Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:57:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en Crews study gravel movement on lower Deschutes http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=71 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=71#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:54:34 +0000 Bob Spateholts http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=71 Crews study gravel movement on lower Deschutes “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.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=71 Additional cool water to be released in August http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=69 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=69#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:21:30 +0000 Don Ratliff http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=69 Deschutes Today the Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality and Warm Springs Tribal Water Control Board, in response to an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife request, instructed PGE to increase the amount of cool water to be released down the Deschutes River through the remainder of August.

Read the rest of this entry.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=69 Understanding temperature issues http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=68 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=68#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:23:28 +0000 Don Ratliff http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=68 Don Ratliff, PGE senior biologist 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.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=68 More cold water added to Deschutes mix http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=67 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=67#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:39:32 +0000 Don Ratliff http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=67 Don Ratliff, PGE senior biologist 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.

Read the rest of this entry.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=67 Trout Creek rehabilitation turns “canal” into steelhead-friendly stream http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=66 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=66#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:29:29 +0000 Bob Spateholts http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=66 Trout Creek after restoration 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.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=66 Management of Lower Deschutes water temperatures has begun http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=65 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=65#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:51:15 +0000 Don Ratliff http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=65 Don Ratliff, PGE senior biologist 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.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=65 Rice-sized computer chips help track success of fish passage http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=63 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=63#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:14:42 +0000 Don Ratliff http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=63 Rice-sized computer chips help track success of fish passage 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.

Read the rest of this entry.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=63 Fish are arriving big time http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=61 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=61#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:48:15 +0000 Don Ratliff http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=61 Don Ratliff, PGE senior biologist 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.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=61 We’re passing fish! http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=60 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=60#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:59:32 +0000 Don Ratliff http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=60 This yearling spring Chinook is one of hundreds that have passed through the new fish passage system. It all seems surreal. I’ve been a biologist at the Pelton Round Butte Project since 1971. That was only a few years after we learned that the original downstream fish passage system was unworkable because fish couldn’t find the outlet. The fact that we have completed the new selective water withdrawal intake and downstream fish facility at Round Butte Dam – and are passing salmon smolts downstream – is amazing!

Read the rest of this entry.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=60 Underwater tower completed Dec. 3; first fish passing through http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=59 http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=59#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:05:48 +0000 Richard Myhre http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?p=59
The first major migration of fish is not expected until February, but dozens of juvenile fish have already followed currents created by the tower and have been transported downstream by PGE biologists.The tower is now undergoing testing, which is expected to continue until mid-January. Read the rest of this entry.]]> http://www.deschutespassage.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=59