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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 2019)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Tuesday, December 3, 2019 Opal Springs fish ladder opens doors for trout, salmon By MICHAEL KOHN EO Media Group BEND — Just call him Fin- lay. That’s the name given to the first steelhead to officially climb the newly opened fish ladder at Opal Springs Hydro- electric Project, once a barrier to anadromous fish trying to reach spawning areas in the upper Crooked River. Finlay — named in honor of the project’s lead consul- tant, Finlay Anderson — was recorded on a web camera swimming into the current at the final stage of the $11 mil- lion ladder and spillway proj- ect, according to Joel Geh- rett, general manager for the Deschutes Valley Water Dis- trict, the entity that manages the project. Finlay struggled momen- tarily against the current but safely reached the top side of the Opal Springs dam, the first steelhead to get that far on its own in more than 30 years. Other fish, including rainbow trout and whitefish, were also seen making use of the ladder. The fish ladder project — completed earlier this month after two years of construc- tion — was a long-anticipated milestone for fish making their way through Central Oregon’s network of rivers and streams as part of their life cycle. Dams, canals and other man-made barriers have threatened numerous fish spe- EO Media Group Photo/Ryan Brennecke Gabriel Havlik, an employee with Deschutes Valley Water District, walks along a section of the recently completed fish ladder at Opal Springs Dam on Nov. 23, 2019. and made it happen. It’s really all about them and it’s a neat story,” Anderson said. The project is located less than a mile upstream from the Crooked River Arm of Lake Billy Chinook. No ladder was installed when the dam was built in the mid-1980s because at that time natural fish pas- sages were already blocked downstream by the Pelton Round Butte Project. A $100 million project to improve fish passage and habitat at the Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric Project improved conditions for fish passage, and adult salmon and steelhead began their return cies in Central Oregon for decades, but the construction of fish ladders like the one at Opal Springs is a key step toward fish recovery efforts. Before the opening of the ladder, project workers at the site had to manually capture the fish with nets at the bot- tom of the hydroelectric proj- ect and place them back in the river above the dam. Anderson was humbled upon hearing the news that the first steelhead was named in his honor. “That’s really cool. I appre- ciate the gesture, but it’s a tes- tament to the Deschutes Valley Water District who persevered Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY WEDNESDAY Mostly cloudy Intervals of clouds and sunshine 48° 35° 51° 33° 43° 32° 47° 33° THURSDAY FRIDAY Intervals of clouds and sunshine SATURDAY Showers around in the afternoon 49° 37° 49° 37° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 45° 30° 44° 33° 44° 32° OREGON FORECAST ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 49/45 44/35 42/28 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 43/35 Lewiston 49/44 42/34 Astoria 52/43 Pullman Yakima 37/29 49/43 44/36 Portland Hermiston 49/42 The Dalles 43/32 Salem Corvallis 46/35 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 41/34 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 50/37 43/31 43/35 Ontario 41/32 Caldwell Burns 32° 30° 43° 29° 70° (1941) -5° (1985) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 47/37 0.00" Trace 0.11" 4.95" 6.97" 8.58" WINDS (in mph) 41/33 37/23 0.00" 0.01" 0.09" 11.59" 8.88" 11.56" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 39/27 47/38 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 48/35 41/34 29° 26° 41° 28° 67° (1975) 6° (1985) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 51/45 Aberdeen 40/34 37/30 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 52/47 Today Medford 55/36 Wed. SW 4-8 S 4-8 Boardman Pendleton SW 4-8 S 6-12 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 45/27 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today First 7:17 a.m. 4:12 p.m. 12:42 p.m. 11:16 p.m. Full Last Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 85° in Marathon, Fla. Low -22° in Cotton, Minn. Dec 3 Dec 11 Dec 18 Dec 25 NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to EastOregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Copyright © 2019, EO Media Group 70s 80s By SABRINA THOMPSON EO Media Group 90s 100s warm front stationary front LA GRANDE — Ginkgo trees have survived the extinc- tion of the dinosaurs, the bombing of Hiroshima and traveled around the world. The tree has become a sym- bol of peace between Japan and other nations through the Green Legacy Hiroshima project, with seedlings planted across the globe. The cities of La Grande and Elgin will join the movement when they plant ginkgo trees in the spring. “It is a really neat pro- gram,” said Teresa Gustafson, urban forester for La Grande. “We put in a request and now we have a tree to plant in April.” Long-lived ginkgo trees grew in Eastern Oregon mil- lions of years ago before becoming extinct everywhere but China, according to ODF’s public information officer Jim Gersbach. The Oregon Department of Forestry distributes these spe- 110s high low Idaho man faces consolidation of indecency cases in Union County LA GRANDE — The Union County Dis- trict Attorney’s Office seeks to join two pub- lic indecency and stalking cases involving the same defendant, Denver Lane Knowlton. According to court records, the state has accused Knowlton, 31, of Caldwell, Idaho, of masturbating in public in front of a woman on March 28 in La Grande, and of following her in a vehicle, following other females, includ- ing children, and of trying to entice a girl into a sexual act. The state charged Knowlton in one case with a single count of public indecency and four counts of stalking; and in the second case charged him with one count each of stalking, public indecency, luring a minor and endan- gering the welfare of a minor. Circuit Judge Wes Williams on Wednes- day will consider the state’s motion to con- solidate the cases. But Knowlton’s defense attorney, Michelle Bartov of La Grande, is asking the court to deny the consolidation. She also wants the court to break up most of Subscriber services: For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1 SUBSCRIPTION RATES EZPay 52 weeks 26 weeks 13 weeks Local home delivery Savings (cover price) $13/month 60 percent $173.67 41 percent $91.86 38 percent $47.77 36 percent *EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit or debit card/check charge Single copy price: $1.50 Tuesday through Saturday Circulation Dept. 800-781-3214 cial peace trees in partnership with the nonprofit groups Ore- gon Community Trees and the Medford-based One Sunny Day Initiative. The seedlings were grown from seeds from trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Medford resident Hideko Tamura-Snider brought the seeds to Oregon. She survived the Hiroshima bombing, which occurred 74 years ago on Aug. 6, 1945. Her mother died in the atomic blast. State forestry selected 24 communities to receive the trees, including Portland, Bend and Klamath Falls. La Grande and Elgin made the cut because of their ability to care for the trees, according to Gersbach. “La Grande said early on that they were interested in having the trees in town,” Gersbach said. The La Grande tree will be planted during the Arbor Day celebration in April at River- side Park, 3501 N. Spruce St., and the tree in Elgin will be part of a newly constructed memorial garden at the Elgin High School’s athletic complex. “The tree is the perfect way to start the garden,” Elgin School District Superinten- dent Dianne Greif said. Greif said the school dis- trict plans to get students involved in the planting during the spring. The seedlings were germi- nated in Ashland by Michael Oxendine, a board member of the Oregon Community Trees. “Oxendine grew them to be big enough to establish, but they are not huge,” Gustafson said. She explained the seed- lings will need protective gat- ing in the early stages until the roots grow enough, but ginkgo trees are very sturdy and will be able to withstand the weather of Northeast Ore- gon. According to Gustafson, there are several ginkgo trees planted in the town and this species of tree does not require additional care. BRIEFLY New NATIONAL EXTREMES a decade before the various stakeholders could come to an agreement and raise the necessary funds. The fund- ing sources included $4 mil- lion from the Deschutes Val- ley Water District with the rest coming from state and federal partners. Permissions were also needed from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis- sion, the agency that oversees nonfederal hydropower proj- ects in the U.S. Part of the design required raising the Opal Springs dam by 3 feet. This allowed the construction of a new spillway chute for smolts. The spillway also delivers more water into the stream, attracting fish to the bottom of the ladder. The free-flowing aspect of the fish passage is better for breeding and will result in healthier populations of fish, according to fisheries activist Yancy Lind. “Clearly, it’s working,” said Lind, who helped fundraise for the project. “To reconnect a section of river that has been disconnected for decades is fantastic. It will help increase the genetic diversity of fish in the basin.” The 4.3-megawatt hydro- electric component of the dam creates power that is sold to Pacific Power’s electric grid. Deschutes Valley’s main busi- ness is delivering water to businesses and residences in Jefferson County. La Grande, Elgin will receive seedlings from trees that survived Hiroshima A bit of snow in the morning PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 46° 34° to the Upper Deschutes and Crooked river system. While some fish made their way up the Deschutes and Metolius rivers, most headed up the Crooked River, according to Brett Hodgson, Deschutes District fish biol- ogist for the Oregon Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife. Biologists cannot defini- tively explain why fish prefer the Crooked River route, said Hodgson. “It could be out-migrating smolts are able to move out of the Crooked more effec- tively than in the Deschutes/ Whychus. Thus, there are more adults to return to the Crooked River,” Hodgson said. Another reason, Hodgson suggests, is the unusual con- figuration of Lake Billy Chi- nook simply allows for easier passage up the Crooked Arm. When they reached the Opal Springs dam, the Deschutes Valley Water Dis- trict passed fish above Opal Springs through a trap-and- haul effort. The new lad- der allows fish to get through unaided. Gehrett, head of the water district since August, said the team was challenged by some unexpected boulders that needed to be broken up during the construction of the lad- der, but engineering aspects of the project were otherwise uneventful. “There was great coordi- nation between the owner of the dam and the contractors. Unexpected problems were dealt with really well,” said Gehrett, who left his role as head of utility services in Des Plaines, Illinois, earlier this year in order to manage the water district. While fish ladders can take various forms, the unit at Opal Springs is a gently ascending, water-filled series of steps that doubles back on itself, with 38 shallow pools along the way that give fish a chance to rest on the upward journey. Discussions around the design and funding of the ladder lasted for more than ADVERTISING Regional Publisher and Revenue Director: • Christopher Rush 541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com Advertising Manager: • Angela Treadwell 541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com Multimedia Consultants: • Lora Jenkins 541-276-2214 • ljenkins@eastoregonian.com • Jeanne Jewett 541-564-4531 • jjewett@eastoregonian.com • Audra Workman 541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com Business Office Coordinator • Dayle Stinson 541-278-2670 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com the charges into separate cases. Bartov in court documents asserted “Knowlton stands falsely accused” of the crimes and argued the court should cre- ate separate cases so her client could get fair treatment. Man injured in Bend police shooting ID’d BEND — A man shot by police as Black Friday shoppers gathered at a north Bend shopping center has been identified as Adam L. Gilliam, 28. District Attorney John Hummel released information Monday into the shooting that left Gilliam hospitalized. He is expected to survive. Hummel did not release the name of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office deputy or deputies who shot Gilliam four times, or why it’s thought police shot Gilliam. “The investigation regarding the details of the actual firing of the weapon(s) is still active and releasing DA Hummel’s impres- sions of who fired might subtly influence eye- witnesses’ memories,” read a statement from the DA’s office. — EO Media Group Classified & Legal Advertising 1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678 classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com NEWS • To submit news tips and press releases: call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com • To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News: email community@eastoregonian.com or call Tammy Malgesini at 541-564-4539 or Renee Struthers at 541-966-0818. • To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries: email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit eastoregonian. com/community/announcements • To submit sports or outdoors information or tips: 541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com Business Office Manager: 541-966-0824 COMMERCIAL PRINTING Production Manager: Mike Jensen 541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
