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Bend Park & Rec District Board members receive update on Mirror Pond Vision Fish Passage Project

During the Bend Park and Recreation District Board meeting on Tuesday evening, one of the hottest topics on the agenda was the Mirror Pond Fish Passage.

Kris Knight, Executive Director of the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, who is overseeing the Mirror Pond Vision Fish Passage project, said the project is moving along nicely.

Right now, fish can't move upstream and downstream. It's like there's a wall in the river, and it's important for fish as part of their life cycle to be able to move to cooler waters, to move to different parts of the river again, as part of their life cycle.”

Knight concluded: “And so we've been… the community has been chipping away. There used to be multiple barriers along the river in Bend. And so, this is now… We've worked to the point where fish will be able to move, you know, upstream and downstream throughout the community once this last fish barrier is removed.”

Knight is leading efforts to raise funds to design the final fish passage structure located at Mirror Pond. So far, Knight has secured $30,000 from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to create an agreed-upon design called the ‘Nature-like Fishway.’

There was some pushback at the meeting regarding PacifiCorp, known as Pacific Power, and their involvement and responsibility with the project.

“The problem is that the fish are facing extinction and severe limitations in their number. And really Pacific Power is the 800-lb. gorilla in the room, and they need to be brought to the table and to take a larger responsibility for both the planning and the financing of fish passage,” said Bend resident, Jerry Freilich, phD.

Knight disagrees:

“PacifiCorp is the dam owner, and they're at the table supporting this effort to try and create fish passage.”

The Bend Park and Recreation District says as it relates to the Mirror Pond Fish Passage Project it should begin sometime this year and wrap up in 2026.

Article Topic Follows: Government-politics

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Tracee Tuesday

Tracee Tuesday is a multimedia journalist for NewsChannel 21. Learn more about Tracee here.

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