The Upper Deschutes Home Rivers Initiative is focused on restoring and sustaining ecosystem connectivity in the Deschutes River Basin. TU engages in important river stewardship projects by organizing projects, providing volunteers, expanding project goals and deliverables, and building partnerships that will care for the basin far into the future. This may mean advocating for increased stream flows to bring more water through the basin; supporting riparian planting which provides strong habitat for our native fish species; or generally improving the conditions of watersheds in our area in order to provide quality spawning habitat for fish. We hope to reconnect and protect mainstem river systems with key tributaries which provide critical spawning grounds for the reintroduction of salmon and steelhead to the upper Deschutes River Basin. Both the larger river systems as well as these key tributaries also provide habitat for a diversity of life stages for redband trout and other native fish species.
In pursuit of these restoration processes, we are working with numerous agencies and organizations throughout the Deschutes River Basin. We are focused on five restoration priorities:
A classic bend in the Upper Deschutes River