It’s Time for ODFW to Get Serious About Steelhead

A month to the day after closing steelhead angling on the lower Deschutes River for the month of September, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) announced its closure of the river to steelhead fishing for the remainder of the season. The Deschutes River Alliance sees this as more of the same ineffective response by ODFW – half-measures that do very little to protect steelhead while ignoring well-known options with far greater benefits to steelhead. ODFW must move beyond lip-service claims that every fish matters.  Token, knee-jerk responses that penalize sport anglers are no substitute for broad-based, decisive, and effective action. 

If ODFW really wants to prevent future generations of the region’s iconic steelhead runs from disappearing on their watch, it must combine any closure of recreational angling with the following actions: 

• Prohibit all non-treaty fisheries that will cause steelhead mortality – non-treaty commercial gillnet fishing, particularly small mesh gillnets, will impact the vast majority of steelhead they contact. Small mesh gillnet fisheries have a far greater potential for steelhead mortality than all recreational angling combined. Allowing extensive and intensive non-treaty gillnetting will result in substantial steelhead handle that will stress and likely kill steelhead. Allowing the small mesh gillnet season currently proposed to go forward is beyond common sense if every steelhead is important;
• If it is deemed necessary to close one tributary, then close all tributaries to steelhead angling – closing only some of Oregon’s Columbia River tributaries makes little sense if each and every steelhead is vitally important. If steelhead numbers are so low that it necessitates closing one tributary, all other tributaries should also be closed;
• Staunchly, effectively, and continuously advocate for improved water quality – the water quality gauntlet that steelhead face is unacceptable. The mainstem Columbia and countless tributaries, including the Deschutes, fail to support steelhead’s minimum biological needs. ODFW must effectively advocate for steelhead at every opportunity and demand improved water quality enforcement and compliance from its sister agency, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

This latest closure announcement came mere days before it was to take full effect. That short timeframe repeats the initial steelhead closure and, again, gives guides and license-purchasing recreators very little time to make alternative plans. Throwing recreation interests on the sacrificial altar to give the illusion of agency responsiveness looks even worse when considering that sport angling simply does not drive wild steelhead populations. The result highlights ODFW’s preferential treatment of more harmful non-treaty commercial gillnet operations over the economies and livelihoods of rural Oregon communities. 

We call on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to take the lead and carry out their mandated mission and speak for the fish! If ODFW truly believes that every steelhead matters, it must take a much more serious and holistic approach that targets all the pressures that steelhead face. While closing sport angling for steelhead is a measure ODFW can take, it will have very minor positive impacts compared to the gains from improving water quality to levels that meet steelhead’s minimum biological needs. ODFW cannot continue its current strategy of penalizing sport anglers instead of being true advocates for the fish, as it will surely lead to the destruction of vital river-based economies that rely on healthy, thriving ecosystems. Please join us in calling for ODFW to address the systematic reasons for low steelhead returns rather than scapegoating recreational anglers.