15 miles of Deschutes River tributary opened for safe fish passage

HOOD RIVER, OR - Whychus Creek, a tributary to the Deschutes River in Oregon, provides excellent habitat for Chinook salmon and summer Steelhead, while also providing irrigation water for farmland surrounding the central Oregon town of Sisters.  One irrigation water diversion on the creek, owned by the Three Sisters Irrigation District, serves over 8,000 acres of that farmland.  As part of a broader restoration effort enabling the reintroduction of the fish, the District installed a new fish screen on their diversion in April 2011.  This new fish screen opened 15 river miles for safe fish passage.

 

Requiring a screening technology that would be low-maintenance, the District, along with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council and project partners, chose to use a fish screen technology developed in Hood River, Oregon, known as the Farmers Screen.

 

The Whychus Creek Farmers Screen is the largest Farmers Screen installed to date, and is just one component of the broader restoration effort on the creek that has been underway for several years.