An Upstream Battle:

Restoring Whychus Creek

Chinook salmon

Whychus Creek, a tributary of the Upper Deschutes River, is located near Sisters, Oregon. Ten years ago, a twenty-mile stretch of this river not only had no fish, it had no water. Irrigation withdrawals, land use changes, and dams had combined to eliminate the thousands of steelhead and Chinook salmon that once started and finished their lives in this creek. In the last fifteen years, however, a gradual shift has occurred in the Whychus Creek area and also in much of the Deschutes Basin: a coalition of landowners, citizens, nonprofits and government agencies have come together to restore the creek as a home for migratory fish.

Martin Winch, author and longtime Deschutes Basin resident, explains, “It started with tiny steps…there were all these pieces that had to come together. It really takes a critical mass of people and ideas…but suddenly we woke up and there were all these people thinking ‘watersheds.’” The restoration effort taking place at Whychus Creek is an endeavor involving dozens of groups and organizations, all motivated by the hope that they might together reopen the upper watershed to migratory fish, a place where the fish have not been seen in nearly five decades.