In the Media

For steelhead in Central Oregon, this is a time like no other. Hundreds of thousands of young steelhead have been reintroduced into Whychus Creek and the Crooked River. It’s part of a $150 million reintroduction effort, including the 250-plus-foot fish passage tower sunk into the water upstream of the Pelton-Round Butte Dam.

Break out the paddles and make ready the rafts: Race for the River will return Saturday for its sophomore year.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, visits Prineville today to discuss proposed legislation that would allow Prineville to draw more groundwater, help restore McKay Creek and more. But some conservation groups and angling advocates are upset about what it does not include — more water for fish and river health.

Jim Bartlett, fish passage biologist with Portland General Electric, holds the first adult spring chinook that returned to the Pelton Round Butte dam complex, after rearing in Upper Deschutes tributaries.

People in Japan are still trying to piece their lives together, following the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster there.

In Burns Wednesday, volunteers and crews were filling sandbags to help shore up a levee that stands between the Silvies River and part of the town, and the National Guard was on its way to help out.

Something very fishy was going on in the Sisters Country last Tuesday.

Threatened steelhead are being reintroduced to the upper Deschutes River, but the protections for the at-risk fish are being delayed so cities, counties, irrigators and landowners can have time to adjust.

Finding water in the Crooked River caldera is now less of a gamble and more of a science.