You’ve probably never heard of this, but the Bend ODFW office has a Mitigation & Enhancement Coordinator who is charged with assessing various biological functions in the Upper Deschutes River (including some of the Middle Deschutes and the reservoirs). Here is the recently released annual report. It is 67 pages, but a pretty quick, easy, and worthwhile read. From my perspective, there are some interesting highlights. While the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan is designed to improve habitat for the Oregon Spotted Frog, there should be benefits to resident fish as well, and this does appear to be occurring.

• Triploid (sterilized) adipose clipped Cranebows continued to be stocked in Crane Prairie. In a follow up email exchange with ODFW I was told that almost 100,000 fingerlings were stocked this month (June).
• The number of large redband and brown trout present immediately below Wickiup Reservoir was lower in 2023 while the number of smaller fish increased significantly. My speculation is that with more water in Wickiup last year fewer large fish escaped the unscreened reservoir looking for better habitat. Also, with more water in the river during the winter, conditions improved enough for increased natural rearing. In my follow up email exchange that speculation was deemed “plausible”. This is good news.
• The bad news is that in this section of the river the aquatic macroinvertebrate population, the primary food source for trout, remains depressed. That population grows significantly in the Middle Deschutes. Hopefully improved flows in the winter will lead to increased macroinvertebrates soon. If not, the viability of resident trout populations in the upper most reaches will continue to be limited.
• The report also had a concerning discussion of the fish ladder at North Canal Dam. Only three tagged fish moved up the ladder in 2023. In my follow up email exchange ODFW countered that they believe the ladder is functioning as intended. The issue is that there was only a single time when fish were tagged, it was a few years ago, and those fish are “aging out of the system”.

All in all, this is a positive report and I am optimistic that resident trout populations in the Upper Deschutes will increase as flows improve as required by the HCP.