Land Trust explores Whychus Creek

The Deschutes Land Trust is making an enormous investment in the health and future of Whychus Creek, so it's only natural that the organization would want to learn as much as possible about this important local stream.

Toward that end, Brad Nye, Conservation Director for the trust, led a small party on an exploratory hike into a remote section of the creek that rarely sees human traffic.

The outing began at Rimrock Ranch, a privately owned 1,120-acre working ranch outside of Sisters with close ties to the Land Trust. A few miles downstream from the Land Trust's Camp Polk Meadow Preserve, Rimrock Ranch comprises the last stretch of private land before Whychus Creek enters the Crooked River National Grassland. From that point on, most of the stream flows across public lands inside the boundaries of the National Grassland.

This is not a hike that is going to be on anyone's "must do" list. As soon as the party passed through the fence at the north end of the ranch, the brush beating began. Except for the occasional game trails, there is no trail at all on this section of the creek. In fact, at some points there is not even any ground to walk on. Three fords were necessary when the already steep and irregular terrain gave way to vertical rock cliffs.

Thick vegetation, fallen logs and boulders were only some of the obstacles encountered on the expedition downstream. However, because so much of Whychus Creek near Sisters has been damaged and altered, it was a treat to see some of the land where the lower portions of the creek still run wild.

When salmon and steel-head runs are returned to the system, this will be an area the fish will struggle through that is largely out of the public eye. The once-bountiful steelhead and salmon runs of Whychus Creek were cut off from the ocean and extirpated by dam construction in the 1960s.

Wildflowers were just beginning to bloom. One of the hike participants, Karen Allen of Bend, identified a flowering bush as squaw currant. Then, with a chuckle, she added, "I wonder if we're supposed to call it Whychus currant, now." Most local residents know the stream by its original name of Squaw Creek. The name was recently changed for reasons of political sensitivity.

Surprisingly, Douglas fir - normally not a tree associated with this part of the Central Oregon ecosystem - was found all along this stretch of the creek. Obviously, seeds had washed thirty miles downstream from the higher elevations of the Cascades and were able to find a foothold in the moist and shaded confines of the Whychus Creek Canyon.

In all, it took over four hours to cover a mere 2.5 miles of the rough country. Further travel downstream had been under consideration, but when the party reached the road crossing where cars were waiting to transport the hikers back upstream, it was decided that sufficient exploration had been accomplished for one day.

The crossing where the hike ended is the point where roads from Stevens and Fremont Canyons converge to cross Whychus Creek. From there, the road continues on to Alder Springs and Holmes Road. Of particular interest at this road crossing is a fish trap maintained by Portland General Electric. The trap is part of a program to monitor the downstream progress of steelhead smolts.

Steelhead fry were reintroduced into Whychus Creek two years ago in anticipation of completion of a fish passage system at Round Butte Dam on Lake Billy Chinook. Hundreds of thousands more fry were released into the stream just last week, and even more are slated for future release.

Forest Service fisheries biologist, Mike Riehle, said that the young steelhead smolts are about six inches in length at this point in their lives. They can be distinguished from non-migratory rainbow trout by a "silvery" appearance caused by the shedding of scales in the smoltification process.

The creek trap was originally intended merely to monitor and study the young fish on their way toward the ocean. However, a major structural failure during construction of the fish passage system has delayed completion of the project. Therefore, young steelhead caught in the trap will, instead, be removed and transported for release below the dam. This will help keep the young fish "on schedule" in the maturation process.