It’s been two years since I last wrote about ODFW’s work monitoring the health of the Upper Deschutes near Wickiup Reservoir, so it’s time for an update. You can read the report below, at a minimum I encourage you to look at the summary. As expected, fish counts continue to improve in the high reaches with winter flows at 100 cfs rather than the 20 cfs it frequently experienced. Brown trout are the primary beneficiaries although redband counts also increased. While good news, 100 cfs wintertime flows still leave many spawning areas dewatered. Other issues are low availability of rearing habitat, macroinvertebrate abundance, and high water temperatures in some areas. Hopefully, things will continue to get better when the flows are increased from 100 cfs to 300 cfs as called for in the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan.