Marion and Polk counties began a Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program under the direction of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The successful pilot project expanded to include all Oregon counties in 1997.
In Bend, autumn means piles of leaves, fleece jackets and sprinkler blowouts. Another sign of the changing season is the sudden drop of the water line in the Deschutes River after dam managers do their annual tightening of the spillway at Wickiup Reservoir.
To remedy the problem, the conservancy and partners, including many volunteers, are once again relocating stranded fish as the river level drops in the Upper Deschutes from Wickiup Reservoir, a fish rescue that has been occurring each fall for the past several years.
Since 2010, PGE and the Tribes say they have been advancing an ambitious, long-term effort to restore sustainable populations of salmon and steelhead to the Deschutes Basin, including the Crooked and Metolius rivers.
The Bulletin was impressed by a statement he made relative to the best method of making a success of agriculture in the upper Deschutes valley.
The effects of this year’s drought in the Pacific Northwest were ugly for many farmers growing malting barley in dryland regions east of the Cascades. Prolonged hot and dry weather shriveled the Oregon crop by 72%, from 2.1 million bushels last year to 608,000 bushels as yields tumbled from 72 to 32 bushels an acre, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
I’m concerned about a narrative circulating accusing Central Oregon Irrigation District (COID) of irresponsible irrigation management and shaming the district for being a senior water rights holder. The accusations aren’t based on science or facts, but rather on emotion and personal opinions.
The legal dispute pits the enforcement of state water rights against the federal government’s obligation to operate the Klamath irrigation project in compliance with the Endangered Species Act.
This summer’s heat wave in the Pacific Northwest brought temperatures of over 110 degrees Fahrenheit to Oregon, and that led to a condition called “foliage scorch,” in which leaves prematurely browned, said Chris Still, a professor at the Forest Ecosystems & Society department at Oregon State University.
