An interesting coalition of fishers is mounting an effort to help bring a volitional fish (steelhead and salmon) passage to the Opal Springs dam complex on the lower Crooked River.
The coalition includes Northwest Steelheaders, Native Fish Society, Central Oregon Flyfishers, WaterWatch of Oregon, Crooked River Watershed Council among others.
From a NFS email recently –
For nearly 15 years, and over $200 million dollars spent, public and private stakeholders have been working on the reintroduction of steelhead and salmon into their historic territory above Lake Billy Chinook in the upper Deschutes Basin. The upper Deschutes includes the middle Deschutes, the Metolius River, the Crooked River and their tributaries. Historically, the Crooked River and its tributaries represented prime spawning grounds for steelhead and Chinook salmon heading up the Deschutes, but unfortunately a barrier largely blocks upstream passage for returning anadromous fish.
Currently, a trap and haul system at Opal Springs dam provides a temporary solution to the fish passage issue, but successful reintroduction is in jeopardy if a fish ladder is not installed. The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife ranks it as the second most important fish passage project in the state, behind the Hells Canyon Dam complex. The owner of Opal Springs Dam has no legal obligation to provide a fish ladder, but is willing to do so and has offered to pay approximately half of the cost. Of the hundreds of millions of dollars already invested in the reintroduction efforts, the approximately $3 million needed for the ladder is trivial in comparison.
The Opal Springs Passage website has been set up to explain the project in detail, track the efforts to get this done, petition the Oregon governor for support and channel fundraising.
Worth skipping a morning espresso or two and donating ten bucks (or more).
Image via Opal Springs Passage site.
