The notes from the latest Prineville Reservoir status meeting were recently released. This is a monthly meeting between the Bureau of Reclamation, other agencies, irrigation districts, and the City of Prineville. The BoR has determined that they will be able to maintain at least 80 cfs between whenever irrigation flows out of Bowman Dam are turned off through October 14th. After that, minimum flows will be 100 cfs until the beginning of irrigation season on April 14, 2026. They cautioned that Prineville Reservoir is still over 60% full so flows could be much higher at times in the winter for flood control purposes depending on rain and snowpack.

This week ODFW is performing their annual fish sampling on the upper half of the wild and scenic section of the Crooked River below Bowman Dam (Big Bend to Cobble Rock). As usual, I helped out one day carrying buckets of fish and releasing them in various places after they had been measured and weighed. I’ll post the final report from ODFW once it has been completed sometime in August, but the biologist’s initial assessment is the fish population looks very similar to last year. Lots of whitefish and trout, some with reasonable size including a handful of redbands over 16″ yesterday, the day I volunteered. The other volunteer that day is a frequent angler on the Crooked and, like the first time I volunteered many years ago, was surprised by how many fish were in locations that he had never fished. Keeping reading for a video.

You are probably aware of the Deschutes Land Trusts’ Ochoco Preserve. It is a restoration project where Ochoco and McKay creeks meet the Crooked River. Flows in this section of the Crooked River are higher than below Bowman Dam during non-irrigation season due to tributary inflows. Here are some photos from DLT restoration specialist Jason Grant that he took yesterday when flows at the site were over 3,400 cfs. If you have visited the preserve you know that this is not how it normally looks. The good news is that the river can spread out at the preserve and do what rivers are supposed to do at high flows. Hopefully spawning steelhead have found their way to this project and even gone up McKay Creek.

UPDATE: This morning I thought woke up thinking about the written comment from BoR, “Moving into La Nina trends, which could mean a warmer and wetter winter for Central Oregon”, which I repeated in the post below. So, I looked to NOAA which stated that a La Nina typically makes Oregon cooler and wetter. Go figure. Regardless, the Crooked River should be high for some time.

ORIGINAL POST: You may have already seen this chart showing the recent increase in flows out of Prineville Reservoir into the Crooked River. I took a look after receiving the notes this morning from the monthly water operations call that occurred two days ago (Feb. 5). You should expect high flows for some time. The Ochocos are experiencing an above average snow year. As a result, while Prineville Reservoir is 57% full as of this morning, it does not have remaining storage capacity to accept what is anticipated to be a large amount of runoff (perhaps 300% of normal) when temperatures increase in the spring or from a rain on snow event. The notes also point out that a developing La Nina could bring warmer temperatures and precipitation as rain. As a result, outflows into the Crooked River could be high for “extended” periods, likely for months. This is bad news for fishing this winter but good news for summer fishing and good news for the record number of steelhead that are currently attempting to make their way up the Crooked River.

Below are the recently completed graphs from ODFW showing the results of their Crooked River electrofishing sampling of trout and whitefish last June. See this post from last year for some more context. ODFW will present these results, as well as discuss ongoing tui chub removal efforts in local lakes and their macroinvertebrate study of the Upper Deschutes at the Central Oregon Flyfisher’s meeting on September 18. All are welcome.

The Deschutes River Conservancy recently had their second “Raise the Deschutes” seminar of 2024, this one titled “A River Runs Through It: Collaborative Strategies for the Future of the Crooked River”.  It provided a brief history of agriculture and dam construction in Crook County, a hydrology overview, and the basics of how water is managed in the Lower Crooked River.  As you would expect, I have criticisms which begin with the opening remarks claiming that the dams on the Crooked River and Ochoco Creek provide benefits to fish.  Dams benefit fish in the Crooked Basin? Only if you want to promote invasive species. Clearly, dams benefit people while harming wild, native fish.  While actions may be taken to provide some water for fish, at the end of the day they lose.  The presentation made no mention of the lethally low or high flows that occur in the Crooked River.  The massive use of water by the data centers in Prineville was falsely characterized as being benign.  There was no discussion of planning for a drier, warmer future.  I understand that fish and wildlife will always lose the battle for water, but we should acknowledge this, not gloss over it.

The Bureau of Reclamation is pushing the release out of Bowman Dam to 2,000 cfs today. This is required for flood control, which is the primary purpose of the dam. Prineville Reservoir is now at 84% of capacity and they need to keep space for more inflows. This is problematic for fish as it will introduce potentially lethal gas bubble disease, particularly for fish over 12″. Gas bubble disease is caused by the turbulence from high flows released from the dam which supersaturates the water with atmospheric gases. The Crooked would have high flows prior to the dam being built, but the water could spread out in the canyon, not be forced through a small opening. The fish ladder at Opal Springs Dam has also been shut down due to high flows which is unfortunate as there are steelhead who now want to move from Lake Billy Chinook up into the river.

The Crooked below Bowman Dam is now at 664 cfs. The river coming into Prinveville Reservoir is at 4,200 cfs! The reservoir is over 70% full and capacity has to be reserved for more inflow this winter.

As I have recently been writing about, the Bureau of Reclamation has been warning of potentially needing to increase releases into the Crooked River from Prineville Reservoir in order to keep enough room in the reservoir to accommodate large inflows. Well, flows from snowmelt are happening now with the current rain on snow event. Above is the chart for the Crooked River coming into the reservoir. The releases from the dam have not been increased yet, but don’t be surprised if it happens.

The monthly Prineville Reservoir/Crooked River update meeting occurred on January 3rd and I received the notes yesterday. See this post from last month for background. The reservoir level continues to be above average for this time of year* and is approaching the flood rule curve, which would require additional releases into the Crooked River, but as of January 3rd there had been little recent precipitation. There was discussion about the potential to release water in a gradual manner to be less detrimental to fish along with discussion about the uncertainty of future weather and potential dry scenarios.

* The reservoir level is above average as most of the precipitation in the drainage this water year has been rain rather than snow, or snow that soon melted.

The Bureau of Reclamation hosts a monthly discussion for various stakeholders and agencies on the operation of Bowman Dam. The most recent meeting was on December 6 and I finally had the opportunity to read the notes. The bottom line is that anglers should be on the lookout for increased flows into the Crooked River, perhaps before the end of the month. Keep reading to understand why. The graph above is from the BoR and shows water measured in acre feet in Prineville Reservoir as of today.

I’m a few days late on this, but I just had the chance to read the notes from the October 4 monthly meeting where Prineville Reservoir and Crooked River management is discussed. The notes (released October 16) stated that a healthy water balance in Prineville Reservoir will allow for releases of 100 cfs, hopefully through the winter, and should start on October 16. Checking the gauges I see this has occurred. Let’s hope for a wet winter and sustained winter flows in the Crooked!

We all know that Prineville Reservoir filled this past winter and the Wild & Scenic section of the Crooked River below Bowman Dam has had good flows this spring and summer. Of course, this section of the river is rarely a problem during irrigation season. The river mostly suffers from low flows, sometimes lethally low, during storage season. Last week, the US Fish & Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service released their “final recommendation” for how to release the water stored in the reservoir for the remainder this year and through next winter. I’ll provide some discussion, but the bottom line is that if this plan is approved and implemented by the Bureau of Reclamation, reasonable amounts of water should be released into the Wild & Scenic section all winter. As usual, the problem on the Crooked River will be below that section.

Almost every year the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife electrofishes the Crooked River to estimate redband trout and whitefish abundance. Following the very low flows on the Crooked River last fall, the results of the survey this spring were eagerly anticipated. The numbers were better than feared but showed a decline.  Trout decreased by 20% from the prior year, mostly fish larger than 12″. Of course, larger fish are what anglers want to see. Additionally, the surviving larger fish had lower weights compared to the prior year indicating limited food availability.  Fish can move to find survivable habitat much more successfully than macroinvertebrates, so it makes sense. Whitefish declined by about 50%.  Plenty of anglers enjoy catching whitefish. Overall, the survey was bad news, but it could have been worse.

Today I helped with the first of four days of fish sampling on the Crooked River below Bowman Dam. The good news is that we captured some healthy redbands. As predicted, the numbers are definitely down from the past few years, maybe only a third as many, but there are fish in there. Extremely low flows and high temperature last fall, cold temperatures in the winter, and flows above the level that introduce gas bubble disease this spring made this an easy forecast. This 20.5″ fish was by far the largest, but had no adipose fin, so was almost certainly one that came down from Prineville Reservoir where hatchery fish are stocked. That is most likely going to be the case for most of the larger redbands in the river this year. Of course, it was only day one, so I look forward to the final results. The photo is of Tim Porter, ODFW Assistant Deschutes District Fish Biologist, who will present the findings of the survey and talk about other local fishery issues at the July 19th Central Oregon Flyfishers meeting.

Every year ODFW electrofishes the Crooked River below Bowman Dam to estimate fish size, health, and abundance and they are looking for volunteer help June 21-23. Volunteers walk down the bank of the river while ODFW biologists float and shock the river.  Fish near the boat are temporally stunned by the electric current and float to the surface where they are captured, counted, and measured.  I first helped with this many years ago and it made me a far better angler on the Crooked and elsewhere.   Even after decades of fishing experience and “reading the water”, I was amazed to see where fish were holding and in what numbers.   If you are interested in helping, contact Tim Porter, Assistant District Fish Biologist in Prineville, at (541) 447-5111 ext. 24 or Timothy.K.Porter@state.or.us.  Let him know which day(s) you can help and he will get back to you with more detailed info.  You need to be able to carry buckets of stunned fish back upstream to release them near where they were captured.  The day usually lasts from 8:30 am until 2 pm.

Here’s a message from ODFW: “The USFWS and NOAA have decided to release some water from Bowman Dam next week as a smolt pulse to help steelhead smolts move downstream.  We’re trying to let as many constituents know as possible to help minimize inconveniences.  The pulse flow will start on April 17 where they will slowly increase the amount of water released throughout the day to ramp up at an appropriate rate.  The full 250 cfs pulse will be released all day on the 18^th and 19^th, and then will slowly be ramped back down to base flow on the 20^th.  We are uncertain at the moment what base flow will look like at that time since OID has indicated they may start releasing irrigation water on the 17^th.  Irrigation flows usually average about 200 cfs so the total amount of water could be anywhere from 250 cfs to 450 cfs.”

I would avoid fishing the river during the pulse flows. Given the low amount of water in Prineville Reservoir combined with continued uncertainty about timing and amount of snow melt and runoff into the reservoir, this is a pretty significant event.

A few days ago Central Oregon Daily News ran a story on the “award winning” way the City of Prineville stores water by pumping it into an aquifer for later use. Aquifer recharge is a tool that is getting a lot more interest as our planet heats. Storing “excess” water in the ground for use later is conceptually a good idea. It is a lot less expensive and controversial than building new reservoirs. As usual, when it comes to water, however, the devil is in the details. I wrote about Prineville’s plan over a year ago and pointed out the serious ecological problems it creates for the Crooked River and the fish and wildlife that depend on it. Read the post for a longer discussion, but in summary, there is no excess water in the Crooked River. The aquifer being drawn down is naturally recharged in the winter when flows may be higher and the water is naturally released in the summer providing cool water when the river needs it. Pumping down that naturally recharged aquifer and moving the water to another “contained” aquifer for storage, water that is not released back into the river but is used by data centers, helps the Prineville economy and municipal water system but further degrades the Crooked River which has been on life support for many years.

The Wild & Scenic section of the Crooked River below Bowman Dam is prized by anglers from all over Oregon who target abundant wild, native mountain whitefish and redband trout. The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife annually surveys fish populations in the river in June. Unsurprisingly, over the years ODFW has recorded a direct connection between river levels and fish health. Specifically, flows below 35 cfs have been shown to have strong negative impact on trout abundance.

The period from mid-September to November 1, 2022 witnessed an unprecedented reduction in flows in the Crooked to approximately 10 cfs. In response, ODFW conducted a survey in October to get a preliminary idea of the impact. We really won’t know what has happened until the survey next June, but it should not be surprising that the initial results do not look good.

You can read the entire draft report yourself*, but as predicted by ODFW, and obvious to anyone who has spent any time fishing the Crooked River, it has been dramatically impacted. I’ll get into the details below, but first there is a massive caveat that you must be aware of.

A reader asked me to look into what appears to be a very concerning rise in the Crooked River yesterday. Jeremy Giffin, our local water master, explained that this is a faulty reading as the recorder is being replaced this week and readings won’t be reliable for a while. The plan is to continue flows at around 50 cfs for many more months. Thanks to the reader who alerted me and to Jeremy for promptly responding to my inquiry.

Flows out of Bowman Dam into the Crooked River have been raised to almost 50 cfs, the target until irrigation season begins next April. Unfortunately, they were raised abruptly. I was not there to watch but am certain this caused a significant amount of sediment to be moved, which only adds to the suffering of fish and wildlife that depend on the river. We won’t know the status of the fish until ODFW’s annual fish sampling next spring, but let’s hope for the best. (Note that the flows were around 10 cfs until a little over a week ago when they were raised to about 23 cfs.)

Brooke Snavely of Central Oregon Daily News interviewed me today on the banks of the Crooked River. I don’t know how long the story will be archived on their site, but below is the accompanying text. It’s always a strange experience to see myself on video and to try to understand the thought process behind a fair amount of talking on camera getting edited down to a few seconds. But, Brooke did a fine job of squeezing a lot into a 2 minute story.

It’s almost time for a funeral for the Wild & Scenic section of the Crooked River. It took a few days, but yesterday evening Ochoco Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation reduced the river below Prineville Reservoir 12 cfs. Today I went to pay my respects and take some photos. It is so sad. Don’t forget, the river below the City of Prineville has been in even worse shape, running at 1 to 2 cfs for weeks*, at a time when over 80 spring chinook have been attempting to move up to spawning grounds. Today I left my office in Bend early and drove to the Prineville Reservoir and then down to the bottom of the Wild & Scenic section. Below are photos, videos, and some commentary.

As you probably already know, Ochoco Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation began reducing flows in the Crooked River two days ago. I guess we can be thankful that they did not immediately drop it all the way to 10 cfs so that fish and other aquatic life can try to find deeper pools, but in the long run it will not matter. The river is going too low. Today the Bend Bulletin ran a story on the declining flows that was a little premature in my mind, I am waiting until the flows are fully reduced before heading out to see the damage and take photos. The story contained the normal platitudes from local officials expressing how terrible it is they had to take this drastic action due to factors beyond their control. The typical drivel, once again unchallenged in the article. One comment was particularly misleading, however.

Yesterday I spoke with Bridget Moran of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the agency that worked with local irrigation districts and the City of Prineville on the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. Due to the cooler and wetter than anticipated spring, Ochoco Irrigation District was able to move their irrigation shut off date from August 15 to September 15. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the plan is now to keep flows at 10 cfs from shut off until November 1, not October 15.

Yesterday morning a client called asking about the “old, scruffy” guy on TV talking about fish the day before. Well, about 3 weeks ago I was interviewed by Central Oregon Daily about the plans to reduce the Crooked River to 10 cfs and realized they must have finally run the segment. At the time of the interview Ochoco Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation were planning to reduce flows around August 15, now they are targeting September 1. Otherwise, I think the interview remains factual. The flows will be reduced until October 15 when the Habitat Conservation Plan requires flows of 50 cfs through the winter. I know of a couple of attempts help alleviate this disaster but at best they are unlikely to succeed.

I would have made this post last night but I was presenting to the local chapter of Project Healing Waters about local water issues. I continue to be pleasantly surprised by people wanting to learn about how water is controlled in Central Oregon and their concern with its mismanagement once they get the facts.

It took three weeks from the time I first alerted the Bend Bulletin on the disaster that is going to happen on the Crooked later this summer, but I am thankful that they did finally run a story. Unfortunately, they did not go into much detail on just how devastating it will be for fish and wildlife. The quote from ODFW, “at this point, the scope of the impacts are unknown and difficult to predict”, is unfathomable. We know what is going to happen and it will be ugly. It seems all the people involved are simply going to watch it happen.

I have heard that folks have been reaching out to the Bureau of Reclamation and elsewhere on the planned reduction of flows in August to 10 cfs in the Crooked River. While the BoR has been unresponsive, public awareness and pressure is a good thing. Keep contacting them and spreading the word! For those of you interested in digging into the details of how this can be allowed to happen, keep reading.

Brett Hodgson retired from ODFW last year after spending decades as a fish biologist in Prineville and Bend. In my experience, he the most knowledgeable source of information on local fisheries issues and stays active as a volunteer with ODFW. I called him yesterday to get his take on the plans to reduce flows in the Crooked River to 10 cfs next month. It was an interesting conversation, keep reading for more.

Every month a group of local, state, and federal government agencies, Ochoco Irrigation District, the Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs, and others meet to discuss water releases out of Prineville Reservoir into the Crooked River. The minutes of that meeting are distributed to a wider audience, including yours truly. The June 1 minutes were released a few days ago and I had the chance to read them today. If you care about the Crooked River you should be extremely concerned. I encourage you keep reading and to contact Gregg Garnett, the Bend Field Office Manager of the Bureau of Reclamation at ggarnett@usbr.gov or (541) 389-6541 x226.

Last week was a typical example of how the Crooked River is managed by the Bureau of Reclamation and local irrigation districts with no concern for fish and wildlife. In only 45 minutes on April 26th, releases from Bowman Dam into the Crooked River rose from 144 cfs to 240 cfs. This started at 5:45 am and ended at 6:30 am. I hope no anglers or wildlife were wading in the river early that morning. Of course, a sudden surge of this magnitude will have stirred up considerable spawning bed clogging sediment.

The Bureau of Reclamation has launched a new website tracking Prineville Reservoir water management. For those of you like me who like to dive into the weeds, it’s worth a quick look. The primary content is the letter to “Prineville Reservoir Storage Contractors”. It states that at 27% full, Prineville Reservoir has never been this low at this time of year, is not likely to fill more, and will likely be empty by the end of irrigation season. Most water right holders (“storage contractors”) will receive at most 49% of their water allocations. The big users will receive even less. Ochoco Irrigation District will receive 42% of their water right and North Unit only 27%. This is bad news for irrigators but fishing in the Wild & Scenic section this summer should be fine. The big unanswered question is where will the water for the 50 cfs of winter releases required by the Habitat Conservation Plan come from? Without adequate winter release and a huge snowfall next winter the Crooked River will be in very bad shape. At what point do the needs of fish and wildlife come into consideration?

Like many of you, I have been watching the Bureau of Reclamation graph for Prineville Reservoir and the Crooked River. I also receive notes from the monthly planning meetings that occur between the Ochoco Irrigation District and various agencies. I have been waiting to write about this, but a reader asked about it today and irrigation season starts soon, so here’s what I know and what I anticipate will occur.

Yesterday, the Bulletin published my column on Facebook’s use of water in Prineville and its impact on the Crooked River.  Another part of the Bulletin article to which I was responding briefly mentioned the Ingram Meadow Restoration Project in the Ochoco Mountains stating it was a Facebook project that is benefitting our local environment.  Clearly, restoring natural habitat is a worthy endeavor to be supported.  It is not at all clear, however, what role Facebook played in this US Forest Service project or how it helps offset their significant use of water many miles downstream.  If Facebook, or Apple, really want to provide benefit that directly offsets the impact of their data centers on the Crooked River there is a restoration project in their backyard they should fund.

Update: I have been told that Facebook donated $30K to the National Forest Foundation which was then forwarded to the USFS for the Ingram Meadow Project. The total spent on “Meadow and Riparian Enhancement” was $150K.

I have been a member of Central Oregon Flyfishers since 2004. Like so much else in Central Oregon, COF has grown considerably since then, mostly with new members from out of the area. At last month’s COF meeting a question was asked about fishing the Crooked River in the winter during low flows which made me think it was time for another overview of how Bowman Dam and the Crooked River are managed.  Here’s a quick recap.

A reader recently contacted me concerned about low flows in the Crooked River.  As I have written about in the past, Prineville Reservoir is currently being managed by Ochoco Irrigation District and the US Fish & Wildlife Service to release 50 CFS during the winter (non-irrigation season).  In my opinion, this is in violation of the 2014 Crooked River Act.  At the beginning of the irrigation season there was more than enough water in the “fish bucket” to meet the Act’s 80 CFS target over the winter. Worse, they are not even releasing 50 CFS as the river has been at 47 CFS for some time now.  3 CFS might not seem like much, but OID is currently asking to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to add 4.8 CFS. Once again, fish, wildlife, and taxpayers are losing.

After almost four hours of testimony and discussion, the ODFW Commission denied the request by Ochoco Irrigation District, the City of Prineville, and Crook County to provide a waiver for fish passage! Get more background information here. I certainly hope that the applicants follow the advice of the Commission and come back with an improved application. Clearly, adding a hydro facility to Bowman Dam has real benefit, but there needs to be real benefit to fish as well.

As I wrote about here and here, Ochoco Irrigation District, the City of Prineville, and Crook County would like to add a hydroelectric facility to Bowman Dam (Prineville Reservoir) without providing fish passage. This would violate the law so they are asking the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife for a waiver. The ODFW Commission will make their ruling this Friday. You can find the meeting agenda here, and sign up to testify (via Zoom) here. Public testimony at prior hearings has been overwhelming against providing a fish passage waiver but the applicants will make their best case for it on Friday so a strong showing by conservationists and fish advocates is essential. Lend your voice to fish, it’s not painful at all.

At the end of 2014, the Crooked River Collaborative Water Security and Jobs Act was passed.  Commonly known as the “Crooked River Act”, I was a minor participant in the negotiation of this controversial legislation.  Many people whom I respect continue to believe that the Crooked River Act was a giveaway to irrigators and a loss for fish and wildlife.  I disagree with them, but the way in which the bill is being implemented does not meet the spirit in which it was negotiated.  Read on for an overview of the bill, how it is working, how it is not, and why this is an even more important topic given the impending release of the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan.

All public comments pertaining to the requested fish passage waiver are part of the public record. I requested a copy of them, which you can see here. There is some grey area as a few were not perfectly clear, but by my count there were 171 letters in opposition to the waiver and 12 in favor. (In other words, the overwhelming majority asked that fish passage be provided.) I thought the letters made for interesting reading and recognized many of the writers. The final decision is scheduled to be made in September.

While the winter has started out somewhat dry in Central Oregon, things look good for the Crooked River this winter.  Prineville Reservoir was not drawn down to very low levels over the summer and is currently 57% full.  The majority of that is “fish water”, meaning it is not earmarked for irrigation use, and can be released for fish and wildlife.  93 cfs is currently being let out into the Crooked, which provides reasonable habitat for fish, and this amount should be maintained throughout the winter.  Some fish water may even be left over.  Of course, higher flows will likely occur if the reservoir completely fills over the winter.  So, right now it looks like next spring and summer could be good for fishing on the Crooked.

Three federal agencies (Bureau of Reclamation, National Marine Fisheries Service, and US Fish & Wildlife) manage water releases out of Prineville Reservoir into the Crooked River.  As of last week, they believe flows for fish and wildlife can be maintained through the winter.  Prineville Reservoir has a capacity of 148,640 acre feet of water, approximately half of which is guaranteed for irrigation. Water in excess of that at the beginning of irrigation season is “fish water” to be released for the “maximum biological benefit” for fish and wildlife.  Irrigation season ends in a month and Prineville Reservoir is still 66% full, leaving plenty of fish water to release during the winter.  Keep reading for more details.Read More »