What's up with Wikiup?
In the last few weeks, we've seen coverage in our local media on the drainage of Wickiup Reservoir – a tragedy for farmers, for fish and for our river. Read the Bulletin articles here and here.
The chronic mismanagement of water resources in our basin has had profound consequences for commercial farmers, our native fish and wildlife, and vegetation critical to streambanks.
It was known from the very start of irrigation season that water supplies were at great risk. Some farmers and ranchers of Central Oregon rely on our precious water resources for their livelihoods, but most do not. Cooperation among irrigators was needed in this drought year to assure that farmers did not come up dry.
Not only has Wickiup been drained this year, but every November, water managers “turn off” the river at the dam to store water for the following year’s irrigation season. The dewatering of the Upper Deschutes on an annual basis has created lethal conditions in the river for fish and other aquatic life. Bull Trout no longer swim in these waters and the native Redband Trout and Oregon Spotted Frog populations are in severe decline.
The once stable flow is now highly volatile. The low flows dry the banks and weaken the riparian vegetation; the subsequent high flows uproot and wash away the vegetation critical to anchoring the fine volcanic soils of the streambanks, resulting in severe erosion and a river channel that is 20% larger than it was in its natural state.
Sadly, this was preventable and points to the complete mismanagement of our precious water resources by those we entrusted to do the job.
Wickiup Reservoir has been drained dry and the Deschutes is in jeopardy.
We can do better.
It is time to stop the wasteful business-as-usual practices that generate these tragic outcomes. There is too much at stake for our rivers, farmers, and communities. We advocate for sensible, incentive-based strategies that can work today.
An array of conservation strategies have been studied and implemented over the past two decades – an integrated approach deploying market-based approaches to incentivize reduced water use and infrastructure improvements in the districts and on farms will generate results at a more reasonable cost and timeframe.
Fish and family farms should be beneficiaries, not casualties.
What’s your river story?
What’s your relationship with the river? How do you use it or how is it integral to your lifestyle or livelihood? What is your hope for the river? Send us your Deschutes River Story, we’d love to hear from you! You can email Tod@colw.org to share.