Salmon released in Spring Creek

Hopes for salmon recovery in the Metolius River were bolstered last week with release of 11,500 juvenile coho salmon and about 4,500 sockeye salmon juveniles.

Camp Sherman resident Jim Sternberg has been raising these fish adjacent to Spring Creek in a project sponsored by Portland General Electric (PGE).

A large group of local Camp Sherman residents joined members of the Warm Springs Confederated Tribes, students from Black Butte School and public officials from the Forest Service and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for a ceremonial fish release on Tuesday, March 14.

The release is part of PGE's $50 million program to reintroduce salmon into local rivers in conjunction with the 2001 relicensing of the Pelton and Round Butte Dams.

The Spring Creek location is one of four that have been set up for juvenile salmon release. Others are located at Headwaters of the Metolius, House on the Metolius and Jack Creek.

It is hoped that some of these juveniles will survive until next year when they will mature and migrate down the Metolius River into Lake Billy Chinook. Biologists hope to gather the migrating salmon in Lake Billy Chinook or as they exit the Metolius River to gauge the survival success of the released juveniles.

Survival is no sure thing.

Incoming waters, from the Metolius, Deschutes and Crooked Rivers mix in the lake and the differing temperatures confuse the fish. Those fish finding their way to the Round Butte Dam, would be collected and "transported" past the three dams (Round Butte, Pelton, Reregulating) and on toward the ocean.

According to wildlife officials, the fish ladders at Round Butte and Pelton are not working.

Salmon coming "home" to spawn will face the same transit problems. Forest Service scientists also want to make sure that any fish migrating upstream do not carry disease. Infectious hematopoietic necrosis and whirling disease are found below the dams but not above.

If no diseases are found and fish are to continue upstream they must be transported around the dams and placed in Lake Billy Chinook and/or one of the three rivers.

To maintain a healthy breeding population, between 2 and 6 percent of the released fish must return to their spawning grounds. Presently, along Oregon's coastal waters, less than 1 percent of the salmon return to their spawning grounds.

The salmon problem has been around for more than a century. In the last 50 years, $3 billion has been expended on solving the problem on the Columbia River.