Introducing Dan Ellis

Hello Everyone!  I am honored to be writing this introduction and at the same time, very humbled to be joining such a dedicated group of people who have been fighting so hard for so long to heal our beloved Deschutes River.

My own history with the river began as a child at the knee of my Dad and Grandfather.  Camps along the river were great family gathering spots where I learned a little about casting and bugs and caught enough fish to understand how special they are.  I remember late night drives from school in Corvallis to be on the water early, the long warm days and the even longer drives back.  After school and the service, I lived in the Bay Area for many years, but I still visited the river at least once a year as I never forgot those childhood trips.  They are a big part of me.

Professionally, I found my niche in the medical device space.  Mostly, early stage companies in every sector from cardiology to orthodontics.  I had the opportunity to work with amazing people on some incredible projects, literally all over the world.  Along the way, I learned something about how organizations work best, about customers and boards.  When it was time to retire there was no question about getting closer to home and the river. I hope to bring that experience and love of the river to the DRA and the job at hand.  

Today I reside in Portland, but spend more weeks than I can count on the Deschutes in pursuit of her special fish.  If you see a dirty red pick up pulled over somewhere on the access road, stop and say hi.  We can swap flies and tales.

Many of you I already know and I hope to meet many more as we move forward together in our quest to heal the mighty Deschutes.  My best to all!

A Major DRA Transition

Written by Greg McMillan

Each of us has a few individual days that we can recall that changed our lives.  One of mine was in early August of 2011, now approaching ten-years ago.  I had just retired a few months prior and was about to resort to an old habit of floating the lower Deschutes River and fishing for steelhead on alternating weeks as I’d done during fall time ten years previously.

The first night in camp I noticed that there were no caddis flies in my lanterns.  None.  Zero.  Zip.  The same was true on nights two, three and four.  It was like being in a science fiction movie where a neutron bomb had gone off, killing whole species but not damaging physical structures.

It shook my sense of reality so profoundly (after all, what is the Deschutes in summer without caddis flies?) that after returning home I called my friend and former Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist Steve Pribyl.  He said he had noticed the same thing.  He asked me if I’d noticed how few swallows there were in the canyon in that summer.  I noticed that from then on, as well as the absence of other insect eating birds as well as bats.

One of my next calls was to my longtime friend Rick Hafele, thinking he’d have an answer to what was going on, if anyone would.  But he didn’t.

And thus, began ten-years of investigation, research, fieldwork, meetings, fundraising, organizational management, even more meetings and then legal efforts to attempt to get the Deschutes River back to being the river we all knew and loved.

Now ten-years later it is time to allow others to take over the task of saving our river.  As each day brings me closer to 70-years old, it’s becoming harder to devote my decreasing energy to the task of saving the lower Deschutes River.  Especially given what I believe is the energy level needed to accomplish that task.

Dan Ellis will be taking over as president of the Deschutes River Alliance later this summer.  Dan is a highly qualified individual who has been preparing to take over the DRA for the past six-months.  He has my confidence as well as that of the Board of Directors and our staff.  The transition to Dan’s leadership should be as smooth as could ever be possible.  He will deserve your confidence too.

The DRA also has excellent staff.  Sarah Cloud, Ben Kirsch and Robert Casey will be continuing to provide the work needed on a day-to-day basis and do so with excellence.

I’ll continue to be around serving as a member of the Board of Directors and act as an advisor and consultant for as long as the board desires.  

In the meantime, I want to give a very heartfelt thanks to all of those of you who have supported the DRA since its inception in 2013.  Without that support, we wouldn’t be where we are today, and we won’t be able to get to where the DRA is headed in the future.  The DRA has plans to strengthen our pursuit of cleaner, colder water for the lower Deschutes River.  It is my hope that you will continue to support that goal.

Again, thank you, and my best wishes to each and every one of you.  May your love for the Deschutes River carry us to success in the future.

DRA urges Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) to prioritize projects to benefit the Deschutes Basin

On May 24, the Deschutes River Alliance submitted comments on the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s proposed “priority projects” for water quality standards implementation in its 2021-2023 Triennial Review. 

Under the Federal Clean Water Act, ODEQ is required to periodically review and update water quality standards, with input from the public. In its review, ODEQ identifies and prioritizes needed ‘projects’ to improve its water quality protection directives for the next three years.

In our comments, DRA supported three of ODEQ’s “high priority” projects – updates to the fish use maps used to set water quality standards for (1) temperature and (2) dissolved oxygen, as well as (3) plans to finally create procedures to address excessive and nuisance aquatic plant, algae, and phytoplankton growth.

The map updates are desperately needed. They were last updated in 2003. As mentioned briefly in our previous post, the available data on current fish use directly conflicts with ODEQ’s outdated maps. And despite ODEQ’s previous identification of the need in its 2017’s Triennial Review for 2018-20, no changes were made to the maps. Based on this, DRA pressed ODEQ to take specific and urgent action to complete these updates, to the direct benefit of redband trout and bull trout in the lower Deschutes River.

DRA also supported ODEQ’s high prioritization of creating a “phased, integrated approach” to deal with excessive, nuisance algae growth that often produce toxin dangerous to both humans and pets. Lake Billy Chinook’s frequent,annual algal blooms are a prime example of these conditions. The blooms that shut down Salem’s drinking water supply in 2019 are another example. We’re glad ODEQ is finally prioritizing it taking an active role on this important project.

To improve ODEQ’s approach on excessive growth, DRA suggested also addressing three other projects simultaneously with it – setting numeric nutrient pollution limits, revising and enforcing the numeric pH limits for priority waterbodies, and creating procedures to implement narrative algal growth controls. All of these projects directly influence, or are influenced by, the other projects. Nutrient pollution is a major contributor to excessive growth. An alternate indicator of excessive nutrient pollution and growth is pH levels. And by implementing the narrative standards for algal growth will improve ODEQ’s ability to respond to the issue on a whole. Addressing these together will create a more comprehensive approach to excessive growth that is more likely to be successful than any one of these projects on its own.

Finally, DRA urged ODEQ to prioritize ‘valuable’ and ‘urgently-needed’ projects. Currently, ODEQ also considers a project’s ‘level of effort’ and ‘risks to success.’ In our comment, DRA argued that valuable and urgently-needed projects that may be resource intensive or risky are exactly the project that need to be prioritized. Difficult projects need the extra attention and prioritization to be able to overcome inexperience or potential ‘risks.’ Delay will only make the project more difficult, and there is much more risk to Oregon’s aquatic life and ecosystems from ODEQ’s inaction. With that in mind, we urged ODEQ to emphasize whether a project is valuable and/or urgently needed rather than the difficulty or risk of undertaking the project. 

We will continue to fight to ensure that ODEQ provides sufficient protections for the Deschutes Basin and, in doing so, improves water quality statewide. We will continue to pay attention to ODEQ priorities and efforts and urge the agency to do all it can to improve the state’s waters.

Keep an eye on our blog for more updates.