Wednesday October 22, 2025
The Bulletin —
An annual fish recovery effort at Lava Island Falls over the weekend netted and saved thousands of rainbow and brown trout, sculpin and other fish. Work to recover fish in shallow pools continued into Monday.
A final count of 10,222 saved fish was reported by Monday night, according to Gina Maag-Klobas, a biological field technician with Mount Hood Environmental, a consultancy specializing in fish salvage and transport. Around 75 volunteers showed up at Lava Island Falls this year to help.
The total number of fish caught and relocated was well above previous years — when around 6,500 to 7,000 fish are typically netted over three days.
The effort to recover fish in October at the side channel of the falls has been a recurring event for more than a decade. Each year, volunteers and professionals work together to scoop up fish with nets, then place them in buckets to be carried back to the main stem of the river.
Workers from Mount Hood Environmental, a consultancy specializing in fish salvage and transport, used electroshock backpacks to temporarily stun the fish, making it easier to net them.
The final totals included 37 brown trout, 85 mountain whitefish, 2,118 sculpin and 7,981 rainbow trout. Approximately 3,000 fish were netted during the first two days. The final day catch was nearly 7,300 fish.
The event is organized by the Deschutes River Conservancy, with funding assistance from several irrigation districts in the region. The recovery effort costs around $25,000. The effort is expected to continue for at least a few more years until irrigation districts can increase river flows in the winter months.
“It’s a wonderful stop-gap while we work toward a longer-term solution,” said Angella Rinehold, senior water advisor with the Oregon Water Resources Department. “It is great to see the irrigation districts, the DRC and the community come together to help while we work toward not needing to help.”
The drying out of the side channel at Lava Island Falls in October is not a natural occurrence. The water levels drop after operators at Wickiup Dam curtail releases at the close of the agricultural season. Releases from Wickiup plunge from around 800 cubic feet per second (cfs) to around 200 cfs in less than a week.
When flows are reduced, the side channel dries out in about three days. By the third day, all that is left are small pools that corral fish and other aquatic creatures.
Josh Bailey, general manager for North Unit Irrigation District, says there has been talk in the past about creating a channel in the bed of the river to funnel water into the side channel in winter. The opportunity failed to move forward due to regulations around altering the river channel due to its status as a wild and scenic river, which creates certain protections for the river.
“We looked at modifying the channel,” said Bailey. “We put in a request to the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies, and it didn’t really go anywhere.”
Now, the district and conservationists see an opportunity to keep the water flowing in winter by increasing winter flows to 300 cubic feet per second. That is expected to occur by 2028 or 2029, after irrigation districts in Central Oregon are able to conserve more water through canal piping projects.
Maag-Klobas said the recovery effort was showing good results as of Saturday.
“The volunteers have been super positive and super helpful. Everyone is willing to jump in and help where they are needed,” she said.
One of those volunteers was Hilary McDonald, an employee with the city of Bend. She said she came out to help because of her interest in Central Oregon’s rivers and the need to protect them. She spent her morning on Saturday counting fish recovered from the pools before releasing them.
“It is a fun experience. It feels like a great community volunteer opportunity,” she said. “We care about the fish, and we care about the river, so it’s a great way to be involved in the community as well as helping out the local rivers that we love.”
Brannen Bates, a retired firefighter from Sisters, was also on hand to assist in carrying buckets of fish from the pools to the inventory area.
“If the fish go away, eventually we are going to go away,” he said. “We have to save them.”