- Jeff P.
- This brown trout and smaller rainbow trout are just a few of the victims of our antiquated water management policies.
Countless fish now lay dead on the banks of the Upper Deschutes, stranded after the Water Resources Department reverted to extremely low winter flow rates earlier this week.
What’s perhaps even more depressing than the scores of wild trout, whitefish and sculpin that annually are left for dead, is that for nearly a century the state has allowed such mismanagement. Why? Because water allocations and release schedules at Wickiup Reservoir, put into place in the early part of the 20th century, have long favored farmers who demand water for irrigation. During the summer (warm months) the watermaster releases so much water that up to 1,800 cubic feet per second flows through Bend, enough to satiate the farmers and their fields. But come fall/winter (mid Oct.) the demand for irrigation is nill and the water coming out of Wikiup—the water that feeds the once mighty Deschutes River—is all but cutoff, leaving thousands of fish, quite literally, high and dry.
This year, though, the massive fish kill that followed the reduced winter flows was especially severe.
“We have policies that allow for this to exist,” lamented Tod Heisler, executive director of the Deschutes River Conservancy. “The state of Oregon has over-appropriated our water for 100 years,” he added, noting that water management is dominated by irrigation demands with little regard for the ecosystem. “We still suffer from that.”
Heisler pointed out that what happened this week is not abnormal and that in the 10 years that he’s been in Bend at least half of the winters have been marked by extremely low flows, a result of a hot spring and summer and a perceived need to store water in Wickiup.
At least one group, however, is seeking a change to how water in the high desert is managed (right now it’s based on 100-year-old policies) Heisler is part of the “Basin Study Work Group,” a broad consortium of conservationists, land owners, state employees and other stakeholders who are working toward a sensible solution—one that will appease farmers but also respect the river and its wildlife, as well as the burgeoning tourism industry that relies on a healthy river.
Still, a fix is a long way off. And, in the mean time, there seems to be no plan in place for damage control. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has done little more than suggest a temporary fishing ban. Some advocates are calling on the state agency to ask for an emergency water release to bring levels up to a more sustainable level. The fear is that when the temperatures drop and the shallow waters start to freeze, more fish may be left to die on the icy shoals.
“What happened there in the last 48 hours is a travesty,” wrote Jeff Perin, owner of the Fly Fisher’s Place in Sisters, in an email. “It will have impact on fish populations for years to come. In addition, the impact to recreation, fishing and tourist driven dollars to our area will be felt for a long time. It is all so sad.”
This article appears in Oct 17-23, 2013.
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I really appreciate this article making it in here. Hopefully something similar makes the print version. I was biking on the Deschutes River Trail near Meadow Camp this week and there were some areas with very strong odors of dead fish. You can see some large pools cut off from the main channel, and I was concerned about the stranding risk, but wrongly assumed I see, that biologists were involved in constraining the release fluctations to avoid such stranding. In California, where there’s substantial dam management of instream flows, there has been a lot of work to understand the rates of ramp up and draw down, and dangerous levels for specific rivers to avoid, to prevent this stranding.
Based on recreation, tourism, the associated spending and general economic impact, besides impact on decisions to live and work here, I’m quite sure those fish that died were much more economically valuable than whatever the irrigators needed those last acre-feet of water for, if Wickiup really can’t keep a higher baseflow.
I am outraged and find this situation unacceptable. We have campaigns – Stop the Drain, Save Tumalo Creek, and countless non-profits like Trout Unlimited, the Upper Deschutes River Coalition………and we still are ineffective in managing the Deschutes Watershed so as to stop killing fish. We pay and support the efforts at the fish hatcheries, just to experience this annual traumatic aquatic disaster?
Perhaps some strategically placed buckets of dead fish at he doorstep of some very influential folks , would result in constructive solutions……….
The river above Lava Island Falls is in a unique geologic landscape up to Benham Falls. There are many pools and channels on the east bank where, in the spring and summer, young fish can grow and large fish can hunt. These same nurturing waters becmoe a death trap when the water falls every summer.
One of the full time hazards to fish is on the East side of the river just above Lava Island’ It looks just like a side pool when the water is high, but when the river drops, it exposes a long channel, 4 feet deep and 15 feet wide,with a large whirlpool at the end where it apparently drops into a lava tube.
While the irrigators are an easy scapegoat, its foolish to think the river didn’t have sudden fluctuations before the dams went in. It’s one of the reasons dams are constructed. For your safety.
Certainly better management could alleviate the problems, but changing western water law is hard. The haves are afraid to let go of their winning hand and get a new deal. What’s the incentive? Their mistrust of enviromentalists is deep and they have nothing to gain by negotiating away their water..
They see an economy that they built with this water that makes millions of dollars every year.. Whether it’s the twenty-some golf courses that dot central Oregon or the crops that produce the Gilroy Garlic seed and many other valuable crops, the value of the water goes far beyond a few stranded fish. It’s their living. They need water like you need gas to get to work.
Let’s keep this in perspective.
Absolutely not acceptable!! This is a sign of the times and one more way, nature, is suffering at the hands of mankinds greed and ignorance!! Is there no other watersource to help these farmers ?? obviously this situation is not working!! Sick, just Sick….
I normally don’t troll, but some folks here have made several authoritative statements that are not true and this type of shoot-from-the-hip, wanna-be-water-wonk diatribe is why many people struggle to understand local water issues.
First, the Deschutes River above Bend did not historically see large fluctuations in flow… a combination of stable, year round inflows from springs and porous volcanic soils naturally attenuate flows in the upper river, creating a very stable system perfect for the blue ribbon trout fishery that it once was. The dams creating Wickiup and Crane Prairie Reservoirs are for irrigation (with the side benefit of recreation) – not flood control. The high summer flows and extremely low winter flows are caused solely by the very real needs of our local farmers.
In contrast, I appreciate TimB’s call to avoid the demonization of farmers. These water users have many incentives to engage in the process of improving water management patterns – and they are. There is a work group comprised of agricultural, urban, environmental, agency and industry representatives working to address this, and many other problems with the river. These things take hard work, an open mind and time. The rant & rave, hyperbolic environmental drivel expressed by some here is ineffective at best and compromises the outcomes for which they advocate. Now go put on your big boy pants please. There is work to be done.
Trivia Challenge: Who can name just one golf course that is irrigated with surface water from the mainstem Deschutes River (I only know of one, so someone educate me)?
HORRIFIC WATER MANAGMENT only caring about downstream IRRIGATION RIGHTS oh and the SPOTTED FROGS taking precedence over NATIVE BROWN TROUT.