As I posted last August, every five years the US Depart of Agriculture conducts a “Census of Agriculture“, which they claim is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches. “Even small plots of land – whether rural or urban – count if $1,000 or more of such products were raised and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year. The Census of Agriculture, taken only once every five years, looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures.” Last week the 2022 census was released and it once again clearly shows that while there is some important local commercial agriculture, most Central Oregon irrigators are not farmers as defined by the USDA. Given the fact that approximately 86% of all local water is used by irrigators, understanding where water is going is important for all of us.

ODFW is the only state agency that actively solicits public input when developing its budget. That process for the 2025-2027 biennium is now underway. I have been attending these meetings for many years. They have been illuminating and frustrating. If you want to understand how ODFW works, I encourage you to watch the video of the first public budget meeting which occurred last week, review the listed materials, and perhaps submit written comments. The good news is that a perennially underfunded agency has seen its budget grow recently and they have been able to undertake some good projects. Of course, much more needs to be done with a potentially smaller future budget. Side bar: For years, I have been an ODFW volunteer in a variety of ways and think they could improve in many areas, but am saddened by how often I hear department criticism that is mostly uniformed. Watching this video is a great way to start to understand how they make decisions.

You probably saw a lot of press in December about the Biden administration making an agreement with the “six sovereigns” that creates “a path” toward removing the Lower Snake River dams and hopefully restoring anadromous fish populations which are near extirpation. Here’s an example. While widely framed as a major step forward, I am disappointed in the agreement. It does not contain a commitment to remove the dams, which is the fundamental requirement for restoring anadromous fish populations. It increases hatchery production of anadromous fish, further weakening the genetic integrity of wild stocks. That being said, American Rivers is hosting an interesting series on Zoom that discusses the agreement and acknowledges its shortcomings. The agreement may only represent “a sliver of opportunity”, but the negotiators believe it is the best that can be done now. The recording of the first talk is worth watching. I remain disappointed, but understand the desire to make some sort of progress.

I’ve stopped writing much about the Snake River dams as there are so many other good sources of information regarding them. Of course, science and the courts have been clear for decades that the dams will cause anadromous fish in the Snake River Basin to be extirpated and no longer provide any real economic benefit. Politicians, agencies like the Bureau of Reclamation, the uniformed, and those who profit from the dams simply ignore the truth. Today, the Bulletin ran a good column on the topic from local resident and aquatic ecologist Dr. Jerry Freilich. Last Friday the Association of NW Steelheaders sent out their February Newsletter with a great article on the topic that addresses the half truths and lies being said by so many. I’ve reproduced that article below, it’s worth a quick read.

Fresh steelhead for Christmas Eve dinner anyone? I spent the past 2 days on the Lower Deschutes. It was cold but I have warm clothes and only saw one other boat both days. What’s a little ice on your rod, reel, and line? Just put it all back in the water. It’s really nice to have the day stretch pretty much to yourself. The first day was productive for multiple hookups and species, the next day was subfreezing in the morning and very slow. That’s fishing. Some of you might notice that’s a 6wt single hand rod and a small trout fly in the steelhead’s mouth. After mastering them, I have mostly stopped using 2 hand rods. They really are overkill if you are an experienced angler and I like the thrill and challenge of using lighter gear. Over the past year I have landed many steelhead and even chinook on various rivers using my 6wt single hand rod. It’s more sporting and a great feeling of accomplishment. I hope you have good fishing in 2024!

I arranged a tour of the hatchery operations at Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery for Central Oregon Flyfishers earlier this week. In my 8 years on the ODFW Restoration & Enhancement board I toured many hatcheries and this tour was the most interesting. They were in the middle of “propagating” fish and I saw something new to me. Like many, I have mixed feelings about hatcheries. Clearly, intermixing wild and hatchery fish is a bad thing. On the other hand, if we want to fish lakes where trout do not naturally occur then they must be stocked with hatchery fish. I know I enjoy fishing those lakes.

As I detailed last August in “Who uses all the water?“, the majority of irrigators in Central Oregon are hobby farmers having less than $10,000 a year in revenue (not profit) and often losing money on operations. As I wrote in that post, “Real agriculture is important, but our local economy is diverse and primarily driven by people attracted to Central Oregon for the outdoor lifestyle.  Shouldn’t water use support our current economy and rules governing its use be forward looking?  Why should taxpayers provide massive support for hobbies?  Perhaps most important, we are facing a climate crisis and can no longer afford the waste.  It’s time for fundamental change.”

Last February Central Oregon LandWatch, the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance, and Central Oregon Community College surveyed Central Oregon Irrigation District patrons. The results of that survey were published on September 28. It’s a short and interesting article and I encourage you to read it. Earlier this month I asked COLW to see the raw data from the survey and was struck by the answers to two questions which reinforced my position.

ODFW issued a press release today announcing a $27.6M (!) “claim of recovery” against the Winchester Water Control District (WWCD) and their contractors, “one of the largest damages claims for illegal killing of wildlife that has been filed in the state”. I have no idea how this will wind its way through the courts, but based on what I have read, it’s an amount that will be next to impossible for WWCD to pay. Perhaps a settlement can be reached that includes dam removal. Keep your fingers crossed. Use the search bar above and enter Winchester Dam to learn more.

Almost 3 years ago, a coalition of groups filed suit to require repairs to the failing fish ladder on Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River. The Native Fish Society has been doing an excellent job posting about this topic and the pathetic and potentially illegal actions taken by the dam owners. You can learn much more about this on the NFS news page. I am far from an expert on this topic, but it does appear shocking how state agencies like ODFW are not taking action to safeguard wild anadromous fish on the North Umpqua. NFS is now asking people to speak up at the ODFW Commission meeting in Bend on September 15. Learn more here and sign their petition, but attending the meeting is far more powerful.

A benefit showing of the 50 minute film, “Dammed to Extinction“, will occur on September 14th, 7 pm, at the Sisters Movie House. “The Columbia River basin was once home to the world’s most productive chinook salmon runs. Now, they are blocked from reaching their home waters by dozens of dams along the Columbia, Snake, and other rivers in the watershed. Along the Pacific Northwest coast, pods of orcas have hunted chinook salmon. Yet wild chinook salmon here are increasingly scarce. The orcas are going hungry; their numbers dwindling along with their primary source of food. Extinction looms for both species. Following the film showing, we’ll be joined by Filmmaker Steven Hawley and other special guests to discuss the issues with the Lower Snake River dams and the hopes for a future of thriving salmon runs.”

It’s not always a popular position, but I am a big fan of using the legal system to advance environmental causes. The judiciary is one of the branches of government and if the legislative and executive branches won’t protect our environment then we need to use the legal system. This seems simple and obvious to me.

Advocates for the West does exactly this at no cost to environmental groups who need help. They have had amazing success. They will be in Bend at Worthy Brewing next Tuesday, August 22nd, from 5:30 to 7:30. I’ll be there to hear the latest from their attorneys on legal battles to protect public lands, water, fish, and wildlife in Oregon. And drink a free beer too!

This afternoon I bought a quarter of a cow raised a few miles from where I live. Of course, I asked about the seller’s operation. He has a few cows but does not make a profit, he hopes to break even at some point, but the cows are simply a hobby at this point. He has 17 acres of COID water rights, but some of it is for extremely rocky land. COID has told him he needs to water it all or lose some of his rights, so he is going to do it. He is on a lateral where he and his fellow patrons have their gates open all the time, constantly filling their ponds, and run their wheel lines pretty much nonstop. He has old, leaky wheel lines and can’t afford to fix them. Even the less rocky land where he has wheel lines is not good enough to raise hay, whatever grows is what the cows eat, and he supplements with hay he buys. To be clear, I have no problem with people pursuing their hobbies and look forward to eating this locally raised beef, but clearly this is problematic. Unfortunately, this is not an unusual story.

Here’s an update on high lakes tui chub removal, also given by Tim Porter, ODFW Assistant Fish Biologist, at last week’s Central Oregon Flyfishers meeting. As you probably know, ODFW works with OSU-Cascades, Lava Lake Resort, Paulina Lake Resort, and East Lake Resort to net invasive species which dramatically degrade the trout and kokanee fishing if left unchecked. Tui chub removal in the high lakes has been ongoing since 2010 except for a few years for monitoring or due to COVID (2020).  Stocking the lakes with trout strains that may eat chub was ineffective while trapping has had good results.  Thousands of pounds of chub are removed annually.  Evidence of its effectiveness comes from angler reports and improved trout condition factors. Below is the presentation, it’s self-explanatory.

While there has been much to write about over the past month, I have been taking a break from posting to fish and recharge my batteries. (Last week’s Deschutes Fisheries Workshop had some really good presentations that I will be diving into soon.) An article in today’s Bulletin, however, has to be commented on. “After a promising spring, drought again stalking Central Oregon farmers“, had some good content but also omitted important elements. As readers of this blog know, I have said all along that the recent winter was not as good as many had been portraying it (e.g., calling it “promising”) and that the drought was not close to being over. Clearly, this impacts more than irrigators, which once again was the only aspect covered by the Bulletin.

This morning I attended the Oregon Department of Forestry Board of Forestry meeting in Sisters.  Since 2019 the BOF has been working on the Western Oregon State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan.  This plan is in draft form and is scheduled for adoption in November of this year.  While the HCP was not on the agenda, a large crowd of opponents and supporters attended to voice their opinion during the public comment period.  I had planned on giving comments as well, but after 2.5 hours I had not been called and most of the points I wanted to raise had already been made multiple times.  This HCP should be of interest to all Oregon anglers, I’ll give a summary of why below.  What was most interesting to me, however, was the clear divide between the camps.  We all know the rancor that is gripping our state and nation.  Some of the explanations I have read about these divisions have to do with “elites” and the “working class”.  This seemed to be exactly the issue today.

The State of Oregon is working on a revision to the Integrated Water Resources Strategy and is looking for public comment. Please take the survey before June 15. I have been highly critical of past versions of the IWRS, and based on the questions in the survey remain so. Once again, fish and wildlife are secondary concerns at best. This is not surprising given that the lead agency is the Oregon Water Resources Department which has a long history of serving agriculture, municipalities, and industry while ignoring input from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. I will say that OWRD seems to be getting better but they have a very long way to go to effectively balance consumptive use with environmental needs.

If you are a fellow steelhead junkie, last night’s presentation by ODFW was excellent. You can see a recording by visiting their “Steelhead management in Columbia & Snake river basins” webpage. There was a ton of good information in the hour long talk, but here’s very brief summary. ODFW is currently working with forecasted returns for the upcoming season, which are lower than last year’s returns, but will watch actual returns and update regulations as needed. The current plan is to open the Deschutes for steelhead fishing on May 1 but to close it on August 15, prior to most fish getting above Sherars Falls. This is the opposite of what happened last year when the river was closed but opened on August 15 when actual returns exceeded the forecast. The John Day river is most likely to remain closed for a third straight year. Further east, the Grande Ronde and Imnaha rivers are projected to be open, although fish counts will be very low and they expect correspondingly low angling effort.

ODFW will host a webinar discussing the upcoming summer steelhead season on April 18. “For 2023, anglers should anticipate summer steelhead fishing restrictions and closures in the mainstem Columbia River and tributaries similar to previous years—including broad area and time closures, one-steelhead bag limits when open, and thermal angling sanctuaries near Oregon tributary mouths upstream of Bonneville Dam.” Get more information here.

I only fish Lake Billy Chinook for a few weeks in the early spring for bull trout but really enjoy the time. Today was beautiful and it ended up being shirtsleeves weather. To top it off, I was able to get three bull trout in a morning of fishing. A great day. I went alone so did not have anyone to take any photos, but here is one from three days ago when a couple of friends were in the boat. We live in fishing paradise.

I have good news if you fish local high lakes. At the ODFW Restoration & Enhancement board meeting this last Thursday and Friday we funded a bunch of good projects including tui chub removal this summer and next in local high lakes and Diamond Lake. No, ODFW does not consider this a high enough priority project to entirely fund themselves. Brown bullhead catfish reduction in Crane Prairie is also going to happen, but this is being dictated by the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. Cat fish eat endangered frogs. BTW, if you know how to catch a brown bullhead on a fly, please let me know.

A couple more good opinion pieces have appeared in the Bulletin. Jerry Freilich’s excellent column, “Perfect Balance ad was out of balance“, was published on February 15. It was a thorough dismantling of the disinformation contained in the recent half page advertisement from a group of irrigators calling themselves “Perfect Balance”. Today Tod Heisler had a column titled “Water distribution is based on fiction“. Tod summarized one of the topics that many of us have talked about for years, but which needs frequent repeating: we are in a period of water scarcity, the water we have has been over appropriated, and it needs to be reallocated. I agree 100% but also know that there is no political will to do this and the legal challenges would be played out over decades. My solution is to charge for water which will force many hobby farmers to give up their rights and allow real agriculture continued and improved access.

The Bulletin recently had an article and an editorial on a topic I have been writing about for a very long time. I first had an opinion column in the paper about how property taxes can encourage water waste about 6 years ago. It took the paper a while to fact check what I wrote, like most everyone they had not previously heard about this issue, but they did publish it. I wish I kept a copy of that column, but here’s a quick summary, followed by a discussion of the pros and cons of the bill recently introduced in the Oregon State Legislature intended to fix the problem. As always, the devil is in the details.

A few days ago the Bend Bulletin ran a story on a recently approved piping project in the North Unit Irrigation District. Like most stories about water and fish in the paper it could have been greatly improved with a more complete discussion of the issue*. Make no mistake, I am a proponent of canal piping, but the manner in which it occurs and its cost benefit are important. As I detailed in this post from last August, I opposed this piping project during the public comment period. Many others did as well and in response NUID made some small concessions in their application, but this project remains a massive public subsidy mostly for private benefit.