CROOKED RIVER STEWARD

Jim Myron: myrons@canby.com

The Crooked River, in central Oregon, is a large tributary to the Deschutes River. It runs for approximately 155 miles and the basin drains nearly 4,300 square miles. It has three major headwater tributaries, the North Fork, South Fork, and Beaver Creek which join to make the mainstem as it flows through Paulina Valley. Further down, Bowman Dam, creates Prineville Reservoir. Below Bowman, eight miles of the river are designated Wild and Scenic as it traverses a steep desert canyon. In Prineville it is joined by Ochoco Creek, soon to collect McKay Creek and several smaller tributaries. It empties into Lake Billy Chinook, a large impoundment on the Deschutes created by Round Butte Dam. This dam inundates nine miles of historic river channel.

At one time, the Crooked and its tributaries provided major spawning habitat for anadromous species such as spring Chinook salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey. Native redband trout and bull trout inhabited much of the river as well. Today, only the redband (and possibly a few bull trout) still inhabit the stream in fragmented populations. Recently, reintroduction efforts of Chinook salmon and steelhead have begun on the Crooked River and other sub-basins of the Deschutes River. Their survival and success of this program is contingent on proper fish passage at Opal Springs, Ochoco, and Bowman Dams which block any upriver migration to historic spawning grounds.

Along with the physical barriers facing the anadromous fish, lay several other limiting factors to healthy native populations. There is need for flow restoration, instream habitat restoration, riparian and wetland restoration, erosion-sedimentation reduction, nutrient and farm chemical management, irrigation and livestock management, upland and livestock management.