KGW8: Steelhead return highlights collaborative efforts to restore native fish runs on Deschutes River
A spike in steelhead returns on the Deschutes River underscores years of collaboration, restoration and partnership.
By Chris McGinness
WARM SPRINGS, Ore. — Steelhead are returning to Central Oregon, and Portland General Electric (PGE) and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (CTWS) are calling it a "win" on the Deschutes River. It signals a potential turning point in the long battle to restore native fish runs blocked by dams since the 1960s.
PGE and the Confederated Tribes, co-managers of the Pelton-Round Butte Dam complex, are celebrating this season’s steelhead run as the most successful since the launch of their ambitious fish reintroduction program nearly 20 years ago.
“For the first time since we’ve started this decades-long reintroduction program, we’re meeting our adult passage goals,” said Megan Hill, a fish biologist who manages the hydro environmental program for PGE.
Hill confirmed that 950 adult steelhead have returned upstream to spawn in historic habitats, just five short of the target modeled in the 1990s.
Steelhead once thrived in the Deschutes watershed, but were cut off by hydroelectric development. Reintroducing them required innovative fish passage systems, years of trial and error, and multi-agency collaboration. Early efforts struggled, especially in safely transporting juvenile fish downstream past the dam complex.
“They could get adults upstream, but they could not capture the juveniles coming back down,” explained Lyman Jim, CTWS fisheries manager.
In recent years, targeted infrastructure improvements, including fish guidance nets and adjusted water flows, have significantly improved juvenile capture and transport. A record-number of juveniles moved downstream in 2022, likely contributing to this year’s boom in adult returns.
“It’s taken years of adjusting our approach,” Hill noted, referencing the complex challenge of balancing hydropower operations with fish survival. “We immediately started catching fish [at the juvenile collection facilities], but not as many as we wanted. We've had to adapt how we generate power to better align with fish movement.”
The Pelton-Round Butte complex generates 500 megawatts of electricity and represents a major income source for the Warm Springs Tribes. CTWS is one of the few tribal entities nationally licensed to operate a dam, highlighting a unique model of tribal self-regulation and sustainable resource development.
Still, Hill and Jim caution that while this year’s steelhead return is cause for celebration, challenges remain. Climate change, including unpredictable snowpack, rising river temperatures, and shifting ocean conditions, continues to threaten fish populations.
“We’re seeing what we can accomplish when ocean conditions are good,” Hill said. “But so much remains outside our control.”
Despite that, both Hill and Jim emphasize the importance of the moment.
“It would possibly start a self-sustaining run,” Jim said, alluding to an ecological and cultural goal that would mark a full-circle return for native fish and the people who have long stewarded the river.
Hill summed up the collaborative spirit of the effort.
“This isn’t just a win for PGE or Warm Springs — it’s a testament to what can happen when you look at the entire system, from headwaters to ocean, and work together,” Hill said.
