Matt Jenkins did a nice job of covering stream
restoration on the middle section of the Deschutes river, but he
completely ignored the significant problems in the upper river.
He writes, “Upstream from Bend, the river boils silvery
green … charging through craggy chutes resplendent with
ponderosa pine and Douglas fir (actually there’s a lot more
jackpine), before it slows and widens …” Hey, Matt, it “slows
and widens” way above the outskirts of Bend. Two dams, Crane
Prairie and Wickiup, handcuff the river shortly below its source.
These dams are the domain of four irrigation districts in the
Deschutes Basin, and as a result the Upper River is far from
healthy.
I look out the windows of our home on the banks
of the Big Deschutes and see no “shimmering and frothy cascades.”
Instead my view is mostly of muddy banks with an occasional
sandbar. There is a river, but right now it hardly warrants the
designation “wild and scenic.” It is a sorry piddle of a stream
now, so shallow in many spots that one can easily wade across. The
reason behind this sad situation is the need of the irrigation
districts to impound water behind the dams in winter months. All
this is reversed in the spring when water is released in such
volume as to savagely erode banks and produce significant silting.
Wes Perrin
Bend, Oregon
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A river dribbles through it.
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