News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Could steelhead someday swim again in Squaw Creek as it roars down from the mountains and flows through Sisters?
That dream could become a reality if the Squaw Creek Stewardship Working Group succeeds in its mission to restore water to the creek.
One of the ways that can be done is to acquire water rights from willing landowners and convert them into an "in-stream" water right; water that was taken out of the stream for irrigation stays in the creek.
The watershed working group works under the umbrella of the Governor's Upper Deschutes Basin Watershed Council. They presented their plans and philosophy to the Sisters City Council at their Thursday, July 10, meeting. Kris Balliet sketched the group's goals, and Deschutes County watermaster Kyle Gorman explained the arcana of water rights seniority.
"Priority date plays an enormous role in who gets water on Squaw Creek and who doesn't," Gorman explained.
Water rights that date back to before the turn of the century are very valuable, because they give first right to water from the creek. In dry times, those with less seniority get their water shut off first. Those with water rights from the 1880s and '90s are assured of getting water.
Senior water rights from the Smith/Barclay irrigation system will become available as Barclay Ranch owner Ted Eady commercially develops the property. According to Gorman, the Oregon Water Trust has contacted Eady about acquiring the Smith/Barclay water rights.
Eady could sell the water rights to the trust or to another irrigation user.
Gorman said that the possibilities have only been discussed.
"Nothing is actually even in writing," Gorman said.
The watermaster noted that the trust has also talked to other water rights holders above the irrigation diversion south of town, including Edith Leithauser and John Tehan.
Gorman emphasized that no one has the power to "take" water rights; returning water to Squaw Creek would involve only willing landowners and appropriate benefits in cash or kind would be arranged.
Gorman cited the example of a rancher who returned water rights on a creek near his property in-stream in exchange for being provided with an equivalent amount of hay to what he could grow on his formerly irrigated land.
Sisters residents and merchants have expressed concern over what will happen to the water running in the irrigation ditches through Sisters. The water in the Smith/Barclay irrigation ditches will be gone regardless of where the water right goes.
But the working group hopes to preserve the aesthetic value of the water running through town.
"We've all, in the working group, been concerned about these ditches," said group member Maret Pajutee.
She said the group is willing to work on ways to preserve the water features, including a recirculating water system.
"Our primary goal has been that this be a positive experience (with) all working together," said Balliet.
A full-flowing creek could be filled with salmon and steelhead -- as it once was -- if relicensing requirements for the Round Butte dam on the Lower Deschutes River include fish passage.
The watershed working group believes that a restored creek would be an educational and aesthetic asset to the Sisters community -- and it could become a prime fishery.
"One goal," Balliet said, "is that this would become a blue-ribbon trout stream."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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