Irrigation season over; fish rescue preps in place

October marks the end of the irrigation season in the Deschutes River Basin, where water flows have been managed the same way for the past 65 years — until this year.

That’s because last year, people discovered a large fish kill on a side channel of the Upper Deschutes River at Lava Island Falls, due to the water drawdown. Hundreds of fish died.

“It is unacceptable, unfortunate,” Brett Hodgson, district fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Thursday.

Typically, irrigation districts and the Deschutes Basin watermaster take three to four days to lower water levels. These levels could drop up to two feet in some areas of the river.

“That’s a huge variation in flow, and that presents a lot of problems,” Hodgson said.

A large community backlash brought the issue to the surface. This year, parties are working with ODFW and taking two weeks to complete the process.

“To actually slow down the rate at which we ramp down the Deschutes River this year,” said Deschutes Basin Watermaster Jeremy Giffin.

The process will cause a small loss in water stored for next irrigation system, but Giffin said in the grand scheme of things, it won’t make a difference.

“I think this is a good first step, but more needs to be done,” Hodgson said.

ODFW says it’s a water management issue, not a fish management issue.

“Between the two agencies, something will need to be figured out in the long term,” Giffin said.

This season, ODFW, the Forest Service and a band of volunteers with buckets in tow will try to save as many fish as possible later this month.

“Everyone is banding together to try to do the best we can, but we’re going to lose some fish,” Hodgson said.

Some fish, but far fewer will be lost than the year before.

“It could be thousands, it could be hundreds,” Hodgson said.

All parties involved will begin monitoring the levels on October 20th. Volunteers will begin their work saving fish as soon as then as well.