A reader and fellow member of Central Oregon Flyfishers sent me this photo from a trail cam in his back yard. He lives overlooking the Middle Deschutes near Eagle Crest. A USFW biologist confirmed that it’s a badger. As the bio said, “pretty cool”!

This says it all. An irrigation ditch or habitat for aquatic species? You decide.

On March 30^th I wrote a post titled, “It’s spring and fish killing season”, and simultaneously sent it to the Bulletin for their consideration as a guest opinion column.  It does not bother me that the paper did not publish my submission.  They are a private business, not a public utility, and can chose to publish what they think best serves their economic interests.  If they think readers would prefer to see nationally syndicated columnists over local items of interest, it’s their prerogative.  Then, two days ago, this article appeared in the paper, which is clearly based on my writing.  I have no issue with this either. Writing a longer story based on my submission is fine, the topic deserves more than the 650 words to which a guest column is confined.  What does bother me, however, is the continued deference to irrigators and lack of concern for fish and wildlife issues, especially when I so clearly discussed them.

I write a lot about irrigation flows and its impact on local rivers, but today’s graphs once again illustrate the point. Irrigation season is underway with 25% of the water being delivered. This will be ramped up to full delivery by mid-May. Above is the Bureau of Reclamation chart for the Deschutes River at Benham Falls. It shows a relatively measured increase in flows, an increase that has generated sediment in the river but not extreme levels. In contrast, look at the chart for the river below the final irrigation diversions at North Canal Dam.

You’ve all heard about the annual fish “salvage” on the Upper Deschutes River above Bend. Periodic dewatering of the river by irrigation districts and the stranding of fish has been going on for decades but it recently has had negative press resulting in limited efforts made to save some fish. When this started I spoke to ODFW who said they wanted nothing to do with it. The salvage only occurs on a very small part of the river where hikers can easily see it, is mostly a feel-good PR event with no measurable biological impact, and the burden should be on the irrigation districts to better manage the river and perform any needed fish rescue operations. I stopped writing about this a long time ago, but here’s a recent no-holds-barred article on the topic from Bend resident George Wuerthner.

I’m sure you have all been hearing about the end of irrigation season in Central Oregon, the reduction in flows coming out of Wickiup Dam as it is refilled, and the fish salvage operation just above Bend. You probably have not heard about the corresponding havoc on the Middle Deschutes, however.

North Canal Dam, located just upstream from the Mt. Washington bridge in Bend, is the northernmost irrigation diversion dam on the Deschutes River. Built in 1912 and 33 feet high, it is the largest and oldest dam in Bend. A fish ladder was required to be installed in 2017, providing upstream fish passage for the first time in over 100 years. The dam is on the left in the image above, two major irrigation canals are on the right, and the fish ladder is in the middle, indicated by the red arrow.

Tod Heisler at Central Oregon Land Watch wrote a really good post for their blog, “Drought and the Deschutes: Looking at the same river twice“. It succinctly covers a topic I write about a lot: the dramatic difference in flows above and below Bend during irrigation season. I highly recommend it. Here’s some more color to this discussion: many local groups promote the Middle Deschutes as a success story. In fact, just yesterday I was in a meeting where a local prominent NGO and a government employee did just that. Once again, I lost my cool. Historically, the Middle Deschutes as it flows through Bend should be somewhere over 1,200 CFS right now. A few days ago it was at 62 CFS. That’s 5%* of the historical flow. True, 62 CFS is better than nothing, but we have a very long way to go before this stretch of the river is healthy again.

(*Yes, I made a stupid math error in the first version of this post, now corrected. I need a proof reader / editor sometimes.)

It appears that yesterday was the first day of this year’s irrigation season in Central Oregon. Once again, local irrigators showed their disregard for the Deschutes River, dropping the river below Bend from 470 CFS to 107 CFS in 10 hours. Such a rapid, deep decline in flows strands and kills fish along with the aquatic insects the fish feed on. Of course, this has been going on for over 100 years and is why the Middle Deschutes is in such terrible shape. It also shows, once again, that without the threat of a lawsuit, the irrigators will not change their behavior. (Irrigation season is somewhat variable but partial deliveries start in early April and ramp up through mid May with full deliveries.)

Counter Punch ran this article today from Bend resident George Wuerthner reacting to the current mismanagement of the Middle Deschutes and asking if we should completely rethink how water should be used.

This is no way to manage a river for fish, wildlife, or recreation. Simply incredible.

Today, the Bulletin covered the current erratic flows in the Middle Deschutes caused by the last irrigation diversion in Bend. I too had been told that the issue had something to do with automatic gate malfunctions from debris clogging the gates or perhaps upstream flow fluctuations from the whitewater park or the PacificPower dam that creates Mirror Pond. I wonder.

This week has seen multiple, abrupt 50%+ drops in the Middle Deschutes below the last irrigation diversion near the Mt. Washington bridge. Clearly, this is ecologically devastating to aquatic life. It is also arguably illegal. Enough senior water rights have been transferred to the river to keep flows around 120 CFS at this time of year. So far this week the river has been dropped to 48, 53, and 57 CFS. Oregon Water Resources Department says there is an issue with North Unit Irrigation District’s automated gates, but the damage is still being done.

I asked Jeremy Griffin, our local water master, what happened yesterday with the flows on the Middle Deschutes. He said the automatic gate for the NUID canal at the North Canal Dam “went wild” for a while. While my concern for the ecological damage that was caused by the huge, rapid drop is justified, I assumed that the drop was purposeful rather than accidental. That assumption was based on watching the irrigators create frequent, sudden drops for many years (although not quite as large). Nevertheless, I should have investigated it before making my post. For that, I apologize. I hope that they can get their equipment fixed, and soon.

“The Deschutes River’s beauty hides problems”, was an editorial in yesterday’s Bend Bulletin.  I continue to be pleased with the paper’s new commitment to environmental coverage.  The problems facing the Deschutes River are numerous, complex, and often rooted in decisions made a century ago.  Few people, or even some organizations claiming to be advocates for the river, really have a grasp of the broad range of interwoven issues: water law and rights, hydrology, global heating, tax policy, groundwater recharge, mitigation, economics, biology, etc.  It really is a fascinating area that I have been studying for over a decade.  In that context, I think the Bulletin’s editorial did a fine job of skimming the surface of a few current high-profile issues.  In the future, I hope they can provide broader and more nuanced coverage.

Today the Middle Deschutes below North Canal Dam was lowered to 74 CFS.  The average for this time of year is 470 CFS.  Historically it would be at least 1,000 CFS.   I took the first photo this afternoon just below the dam, the river has been turned into frog water and much of the bank and what was habitat has been exposed.  The second photo is at Sawyer Park.  Look at this entry to see the see a similar view 10 days ago when it was at 310 CFS.Read More »

As I recently posted, last Monday through early Wednesday the irrigators raised the level of the Middle Deschutes almost 50% from 410 CFS to 600 CFS before dropping it to 250 CFS in about 6.5 hours during the day Wednesday.  Today I had to go into Bend so I stopped by Sawyer Park to take a look.

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Unfortunately, I am given frequent reason to post about the environmental destruction to the Middle Deschutes from abrupt, drastic irrigation withdrawals.  Today is a particularly egregious example.  In 2 days flows in the river were increased from 410 to 600 CFS and then dropped to 250 CFS in just a few hours!  Where’s the news coverage showing all the stranded fish in the side channels in the middle?  Why don’t the irrigators slowly ramp down flows in the Middle Deschutes like they do in the Upper Deschutes?  Business as usual for the irrigators is the business of environmental destruction.

Today I saw that one of the COID main canals near my house was full of water so I checked the graph.  As you can see below, there have been some pretty dramatic fluctuations in the Deschutes below Bend over the past week.  There was an abrupt diversion into the canals on February 10 and it looks like another is starting today.  (Note that it can take a few days for the water to make it down the canals.)  As I have written before, these sudden fluctuations wreak havoc on the aquatic environment and cause increased sedimentation which fills spawning beds.Read More »

On January 31 the Deschutes River Conservancy announced that they had secured funding from Intel Corporation to help with their middle Deschutes summer water leasing program. Without the DRC’s various efforts, including the leasing program, the middle Deschutes below Bend would be virtually dry in the summer.  Additional funding for the leasing program is welcome news but requires some context. 

Flows in the Deschutes above Bend are controlled by irrigation districts who withhold water to fill reservoirs in the winter and release water in the summer which is then diverted into a series of irrigation canals.  The last major diversion is located at the North Canal Dam in Bend just upriver from the Riverhouse.  During irrigation season the Deschutes below this dam is reduced to a relative trickle, dramatically damaging the ecosystem for fish and wildlife. Read More »

Irrigation season has started and once again the middle Deschutes is suffering.  As you can see on the Bureau of Reclamation website, the Deschutes River below North Dam (just upstream from the Mt. Washington bridge) is now reduced to 62 cfs.  As I argued in this post, recent levels are least as damaging as what happens in the upper Deschutes below Wickiup Reservoir in the winter.  The flows should come back up a little later in the spring as the irrigators allow some additional flows but by that time the damage will have been done.  The exposed river bottom will kill fish eggs, the aquatic insects that fish eat, and the plants that the insects need.  In spite of all the time, effort, and money put into restoration the Deschutes continues to be no more than an irrigation ditch for the benefit of a few irrigators to the detriment of the rest of us.

UPDATE: a reader pointed out to me that my graph only covers the past 2 weeks. If you go to the BoR site (link above) and run the graph for a longer period you will see that the middle Deschutes was running around 800 cfs for most of the winter. 800 cfs to 62 cfs is a better illustration of just how environmentally damaging the beginning of irrigation season is.