A staggering 2,600 pounds of garbage and weeds was collected this year at the annual Deschutes River Cleanup, nearly double the amount collected in 2019, which was the last time scuba divers participated.
Volunteers fanned out along the river for the 26th annual Deschutes River Cleanup, pulling invasive weeds and cleaning up trash, all the while taking the opportunity to socialize and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Improved conditions in Oregon fisheries this year will allow salmon, steelhead, trout, and bass fishing to open Aug. 15 on the lower Deschutes River, according to a release from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Though federal and state biologists have agreed to stop releasing hatchery winter and summer steelhead into the Hood River basin, a new study says that hatchery fish spawning in the river have little influence on wild winter steelhead productivity.
The countdown has begun for residents of northeast Bend to learn the future route of the Pilot Butte piping project, a plan that will end more than a century of use for the canal that runs through the area.
The Upper Deschutes Watershed Council is organizing two days of water sampling on Whychus Creek to improve its data on benthic macroinvertebrates.
Oregon has just finished testing 140 drinking water systems across the state for PFAS, or per- and poly-fluorinated substances.
As water becomes scarcer in Central Oregon — and debate rages over how to conserve water and share it among a variety of stakeholders — the Deschutes River Conservancy is taking a closer look at some of the more divisive issues with a new, year-long series of public seminars.
Even in times of drought, the amount of water flowing into the Crooked River from Prineville Reservoir typically hovers at or near 50 cubic feet per second. But this fall — after successive dry years and Crook County still in throes of severe drought — the flow is expected to drop to 10 cfs.
