Oregon Water Trust reached an agreement with Portland General Electric, who owns Trout Creek Ranch, to permanently acquire ecologically significant water rights on the ranch and convert those to permanent instream use. Trout Creek provides some of the best spawning and rearing for the Deschutes Basin’s famed summer steelhead runs. However, most of Trout Creek’s natural flow has been historically removed for irrigation in the summer. Serious impacts to the fishery occurred due to the stream drying up. Over the last several years, Oregon Water Trust has helped remedy this problem temporarily by leasing the ranch’s 2.6 cubic feet per second of water rights instream. |
