I crossed the Columbia River and found myself in Portland. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city with so many bridges and overpasses. I maneuvered my way across the Willamette to downtown, where TU’s west coast office is located.

Elizabeth Dubovsky and Kate Miller gave me a sunny Oregon welcome. At a nearby seafood restaurant, Elizabeth and Kate filled me in on the activities of the Portland office.

Elizabeth has been working on the “Why Wild?” initiative. Through this effort, TU and their partners hope to educate the public about wild salmon. “Why Wild?” recommends a holistic approach to salmon restoration. The campaign stresses the importance of focusing our actions on the “4H’s:” habitat, harvest, hydropower, and hatcheries.

While most anglers recognize the difference between hatchery and wild salmonids, your average fish-market patron is not so savvy. One of the goals of the “Why Wild?” program is to educate consumers about the benefits of eating wild salmon captured from sustainable American stocks.

These wild-caught fish taste better and contain fewer harmful chemicals than salmon raised in fish farms. In addition, managed harvest of healthy wild fisheries is environmentally sound, while most commercial fish farms do tremendous harm to our coldwater and marine resources.

By improving our management of the 4H’s, TU believes we can protect our remaining wild salmon stocks (primarily in Alaska) as well as restore the fish runs in the lower 48.

Saving our salmon will be a long uphill battle. Twenty-five different major populations of Pacific Coast trout and salmon are recognized as threatened or endangered.

In the lower 48, large dams complicate migration in most of the major rivers. Over a century of heavy logging, grazing, and development has diminished habitat quality in the smaller streams and rivers. The remaining pristine rivers in Alaska are threatened by large-scale mining proposals as well as road construction and heavy logging in steep, sensitive watersheds.

Commercial fish farms, comparable to floating cattle feed lots, pollute estuaries and the escapees threaten the genetic purity of our wild fish. We are becoming more and more dependent on hatchery reared salmon and steelhead for recreational fishing as well, but many scientists doubt the fitness of these man-made specimens. Hatchery reared fish provide us with another tool in our quest to save the salmon, but they can also mask the underlying problems created by habitat loss, dams, and decades of over-harvest.

While the situation is dire, I believe there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. For starters, these fish have evolved to survive and they continue to surprise us with their tenacity and ability to overcome the odds. We just need to give salmon a chance and they’ll persevere.

Secondly, there is strong economic incentive to restore wild salmon. The loss of commercial fisheries is a huge blow to coastal communities. Viable fish stocks have financial and social value on the Pacific coast. Recreational angling is another important money-maker that depends on salmon.

And while the benefits of wild salmon to the ecosystem, the health benefits to the consumer, and the joy inspired by a tugging Chinook on a fishing line are tough things to quantify, they are all important reasons to restore our wild fish stocks as well.

In Washington, I visited with TUers who are making real progress improving spawning and rearing habitat as well as getting fish around large dams. Trout Unlimited is involved in similar initiatives in Oregon.

The Portland TU staff is comprised of policy experts who go to bat for salmon in the legal arena. Kate Miller is the newest addition to TU’s roster. After interning with TU, going to law school, practicing law in her home state of Washington, Kate is back with TU as a Legal Analyst.

Dam relicensing provides a great opportunity for TU’s salmon gurus to improve the future for wild fish. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issues hydropower dam licenses for 30-50 years. When that time is close to expiring, the dam owners must apply for a new permit. To get their permit, the owners must prove that they are taking appropriate steps to help fish and wildlife.

The Deschutes River is arguably the best fishery in Oregon. The face of the river changed indelibly in 1957 when construction of the Pelton-Round Butte Dam complex commenced. The complex is composed of three dams. The big ones named Pelton and Round Butte produce electricity while the third is a reregulating structure that helps control water flow to mitigate some of the negative impacts to the fish.

While water flow has been successfully maintained, the original measures to maintain fish passage flopped and the dams blocked off to over two hundred miles of spawning and rearing habitat.

Adult fish could make it upstream through a network of ladders and other fish passage measures, but swirling warm and cold water currents in Billy Chinook Reservoir prevented the smolt from finding the route downstream. Fifty years later, this problem has yet to be resolved.

Fortunately, the lower 97 miles of river still provides some of the most productive steelhead and salmon water in the lower 48. Not only that, but the trout fishing both above and below the dams is excellent. The Metolius River is a stronghold for bull trout. The mainstem Deschutes offers a healthy population of feisty redband trout.

Still, with the dam complex’s license up for renewal, the owners, government agencies, and conservation groups (including Trout Unlimited) agreed to collaborate with the interest of fish in mind. Portland General Electric (PGE) and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation share ownership of the dams and both parties have actively studied the needs of trout and salmon in the Deschutes.

The owners are now planning on investing $121 million (in 2003 dollars) for fish-related projects over the next half a century. The cornerstone of their efforts will be a 270-foot tall selective water withdrawal tower that will hopefully re-direct the lake currents, allowing the smolt to find a new fish passage facility, as well as give dam operators control of the downstream water temperature. Restoring the historic temperature regime will assist Chinook salmon in the lower river and bull trout in the reservoirs.

The new withdrawal tower should be completed by 2008. By 2010, everyone hopes that adult steelhead and salmon will once again return to the upper Deschutes.

Don Ratliff, senior fisheries biologist at PGE, gave me a tour of the facilities. See the photos by clicking HERE. Don has been working on the Deschutes for 35 years and I couldn’t have found a better guide to teach me about the fisheries in the area.

Of all the interesting things I learned while on the Deschutes, I was most surprised to learn that steelhead spawn in tiny streams. Even the tributaries that can be entirely dry in the summer offer important spawning habitat.

I visited one small tributary, Wychus Creek, with a PGE electrofishing crew. The crew is sampling resident trout populations in historic sea-run fish spawning waters. Steelhead and salmon smolts will compete with these trout for habitat and food. Click HERE to see the photos.

After touring the project site, Don and I went steelheading downstream near the town of Maupin. At one of Don’s favorite riffles, we swung flies methodically. The technique seems simple, but it takes years to master.

The angler casts a fly down-and-across the river and then lets the fly swing with the current. The fly rides a few inches under the surface of the water. When the fly is directly downstream, the angler takes a step towards the ocean and then repeats the process.

The trick is to swing the fly at the right speed through the right water. Steelhead often hold at the drop-off immediately downstream of a riffle, but they can also be found in fast pocket water and even slow moving pools.

Local knowledge is key and I was glad to approach the Deschutes with Don’s guidance. We had a couple hours of fishing time after the dropped behind the canyon wall but before sunset. Towards the bottom of the first beat, I felt the distinct tap of a fish on my line. Immediately my adrenaline was pumping, but the fish must have just nipped the tail of my egg-sucking leech.

Steelheading is an exercise in faith. The best steelheaders always believe the fish are out there, even when they haven’t seen one for days. Still, it is a lot easier to stay focused when you’ve had a strike and I plied the water with increased zeal.

One riffle down, I was swinging my fly through Don’s most productive water. The riffle broke in front of a large boulder, creating great holding water. “You should get a strike right there.” Don predicted as my fly swung in front of the rock. On my second cast, I again felt the electric tap of a fish on the line, but again the fish avoided the business end of the hook.

Already I’d had a world class steelheading experience. Steelheaders must expect to go days, weeks, months, and even entire seasons without a strike. I was definitely benefiting from beginners luck and loving every minute of it.

With ten minutes of fishing light left, a third fish interrupted my drift. This one took the hook and the fight was on. After one quick run and a jump for good measure, I wrestled the fish to hand. My 8/9 weight striper rod was a little overkill for the 23” hatchery-raised steelhead, but I didn’t want to lose a fish if I was lucky enough to hook one and there are some 20 pound brutes in the brawling Deschutes.

I now have the steelheading bug and I look forward to returning in search of my first wild steelhead trout. I encourage you to make the trip yourself. I’ve heard that one 1/4th of all the steelhead in the Columbia River System enter the Deschutes for at least a little while. This river is definitely the place to be for those of us who can’t afford the journey to Alaska or British Columbia.

And the improvements in fish passage and water temperature will only help the fishing for decades to come!

If you can’t shut down your computer and catch the next flight to Portland, visit these links; it's the next best thing:

My photos of the Deschutes River
TU’s Why Wild? Campaign
TU’s Pacific Salmon Page