Life or death struggle on the Deschutes: Another fish rescue

As thousands of fish die in the Deschutes River, a few thousand more were saved during this week’s multi-day effort that’s becoming a frustrating annual event for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and volunteers.

On Wednesday, biologists with ODFW, volunteers with the U.S. Forest Service and others wrapped up a rescue operation for fish that have become stranded in pools of the river.

“We salvage as many fish as we can out of the side channel and put them back into the main stem,” said Assistant District Fish Biologist Erik Moberly.

Each October for the last three years, the department has organized the rescue in response to dramatic drops in stream flow.

It comes as irrigation season ends and water is stored for next season. Deschutes Basin Watermaster Jeremy Giffin said significantly less water is flowing through the channel.

“That generally means taking the flows from about 1,000 feet per cubic second, to depending on the water year, down to the minimum of 20 cubic feet per second,” Giffin said.

Giffin said it’s not always necessary to curtail that much water, but for the last few years, the reservoirs have been far from full.

While biologists and volunteers saved more than 7,000 trout, whitefish and sculpin, there’s a stark reminder of the issue in another dried-up pool just a few hundred yards away: hundreds of dead and dying fish.

“It’s disappointing,” said volunteer Gabe Parr. “It’s disappointing, knowing that it can be prevented and that we’re smarter than this.”

Central Oregon Irrigation District General Manager Craig Horrell told NewsChannel 21 he knows it’s a big problem, and a contentious issue.

In above-average rain and snow years, Horrell said, the fish are fine. But lately it’s been nothing but drought.

“We have lawsuits against us,” Horrell said. “It’s our operations, and it’s drought. We have a workgroup dedicated to finding solutions — we’re working hard.”

Horrell said it will take time and money to make irrigation efforts more efficient. He also said several irrigation districts, including COI, are interested in taking over fish salvage efforts that are currently managed by ODFW.

“We’ve helped schedule those efforts,” Horrell said. “We would love to do (the rescues).”

Moberly said his department recognizes how important irrigation is to farmers and the economy — but his job is to protect the fish.

“What we’re doing is not a long-term solution,” Moberly said. “The Deschutes is currently managed for irrigation. They want to hold water back for the next irrigation season — and the fish lose.”

ODFW wants to make it clear that although it manages fish and wildlife, the department does not have control over water flow or irrigation management.

About two dozen volunteers gathered up the lucky fish, but many will die.

“We can’t salvage all of them,” Moberly said, acknowledging there’s not enough manpower. “There’s many more side channels and oxbows upstream where fish are dying.”

In a normal precipitation year, Giffin said, water flow would slowly be reduced over a course of about three weeks. This year, they changed water levels in just 10 days.

“Due to the incredibly low reservoir levels in the upper basin and the low natural flows of the rivers, we’ve had to cut back the river at a fairly quick rate,” Giffin said.

According to Moberly, the move will have an impact on the ecosystem.

“It makes a significant biological difference,” he said, “in the fact that 40 miles of stream get de-watered in the Deschutes, and thousands of fish don’t have a place to live.”

It’s frustrating for many involved, but there’s a focus on the positive.

“Every fish we put back in (the water) is an opportunity for a memory to be created — for a child, for a grandfather, for anyone that wants to come out and enjoy it,” Parr said.

He added, “When absolute strangers walking this trail stop and ask questions and you’re able to educate and inform, then any of the frustration with the fact that we have to save fish goes away, because we’ve created an opportunity to educate.”

The rescue took place along a one-mile stretch of the river at Lava Island Falls. Although fish are dying and stranded along many other stretches, Moberly said there are two main reasons they focus in one spot.

“It probably is that there is a river trail right next to this side channel,” he said. “A lot of the public use it and they see the need for something to happen here — a lot of dead and stranded fish. And we know that we can access it; we know we can get those fish back to the Deschutes.”