UPDATE: According to PGE, in addition to the 134 adult steelhead discussed below, 33 more adult steelhead were also released into Lake Billy Chinook this past season. These are excess hatchery broodstock, not fish that were captured as smolts in the fish capture facility and transported down river. So, the total number of adult steelhead released into Lake Billy Chinook was 167.

Attempts to reintroduce summer steelhead into the Upper Deschutes Basin above the Pelton Round Butte hydroelectric project on the Deschutes River have been ongoing for over a decade. This past season saw 134 returning steelhead adults moved up into Lake Billy Chinook, the largest number so far, where they will hopefully naturally spawn. 134 adult fish is a disappointing number, but it is an increase from last year and much better than most years. Perhaps the fisheries managers at Portland General Electric are having some success adapting their management strategies. Improved ocean conditions certainly helped as well.

The 2023-2024 Deschutes summer steelhead season ended April 30. While steelhead can start appearing in the lowermost sections of the Deschutes River in June, most don’t arrive at the uppermost stretches until winter with stragglers arriving as late as April. According to Portland General Electric, the final reintroduction count for this past season is 134 steelhead. These are fish that were either released as smolts or naturally spawned above LBC, out migrated via the fish capture facility, and returned as adults, most likely after spending two years in the ocean.

In comparison, the 2022-2023 season saw 130 returning adults, the 2021-2022 season saw 46 adult returns, the total for the season prior to that was 52, and there were 57 the season before that. These are fish captured in the fish trap on the Deschutes near the re-regulating dam. Last year saw 33 wild fish captured in the trap, all of which were released back into the river. Note that this is not the full count of all wild steelhead in the Deschutes last season, only the ones that made it up to the dam. There were also 451 hatchery fish captured in the trap.

Of the 134, 132 were reared in a hatchery and released as smolts in either the Crooked River or Middle Deschutes River or one of their tributaries. Unfortunately, only two returning adults were naturally spawned.

Clearly, the return of only 134 adult steelhead from the Upper Deschutes Basin is disappointing. On the other hand, the return of wild adults in the river has been plummeting for years. Of course, low returns is not an issue specifically with the Deschutes River. There has been a lot of misinformation and outright disinformation from various special interests on this topic, but there is overwhelming scientific consensus on the causes.

Most anadromous fish, not just steelhead, throughout the entire Columbia Basin and much of the West Coast up into Canada are in peril.  The reasons are clear.  A warming ocean is disrupting the food web that anadromous fish rely on.  Record heat and low flows warm rivers beyond what can be tolerated by cold water fish. Dams, agriculture, and other developments have degraded, blocked, and otherwise eliminated spawning and rearing habitat.  Genetically inferior hatchery fish compete and breed with wild fish reducing wild fish robustness.  Harvest occurs at unsustainable levels.  Waters are polluted from agricultural, municipal, and industrial sources. 

This is a massive problem that is well beyond the capacity of PGE to fix. I am appreciative of the fact that their license requires them to attempt to reintroduce anadromous fish into the Upper Basin and that they continue to use the best available science to adapt their efforts.