By Dylan J. Darling / The Bulletin
Published: February 16. 2012 4:00AM PST

Those involved are being tight-lipped about the specifics of the plan, which they said could be complete Friday but likely won't be immediately available.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Service, prompted by a public records request by The Bulletin, late Tuesday released a Jan. 27 draft of the “2012 Pelton Round Butte Adult Passage Strategy.”

Some of this year's returning adult spring-run chinook and sockeye salmon, as well as summer steelhead, will be trapped below the dam complex on the Deschutes River near Madras and released upstream of the dams, according to the 10-page draft strategy.

Still up for debate is what percentage of fish that return will go upstream and what percent will go to the Round Butte Hatchery.

The fish released upstream will be the first adult salmon and steelhead to swim in the river and its tributaries since 1968.

“The Department is advocating for a measured conservative approach in implementing the reintroduction effort,” according to the draft.

Earlier in the week, Brett Hodgson, ODFW's district fisheries biologist, said there had been changes made to the strategy since the Jan. 27 draft but declined to release an updated version, saying it was a “joint document” with the tribes.

It's the second time in the past six months that a state agency in Central Oregon has deferred to the tribes to release information that would otherwise be public. In late August, the Oregon State Police assisted the Warm Springs Public Safety authorities on a fatal van crash on Trout Lake Road. Warm Springs Public Safety officials declined to release the name of the 7-month-old that died or the names of 11 others injured in the wreck, including six children.

Colleen Munson, ODFW executive support specialist, reiterated the agency's stance in a Tuesday letter accompanying the draft strategy.

“We are currently working on a revised version incorporating the appropriate comments which will be co-authored by The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs,” Munson wrote. “We anticipate more modifications will occur before we have a final strategy. We hope to have the final strategy the end of February and will gladly share the document at that time.”

While excited to talk about the possibility of adult salmon and steelhead returning to the water upstream of the Pelton Round Butte Dam complex, wildlife managers with the tribes declined Wednesday to release the latest draft of the strategy.

Like the state, they want to wait until it is finalized.

“On Friday we will get further resolution,” said Brad Houslet, fisheries department manager for the tribes.

The tribes, along with Portland General Electric, co-owners of the power-producing dams, completed a $100 million submerged tower in 2009 just upstream of Round Butte Dam. The tower allows for young fish, which so far have been spawned at the Round Butte Hatchery, to move from tributaries to downstream of the dam. The first full wave of adult salmon and steelhead is expected to return this year.

The Deschutes River fish committee, comprised of ODFW, the tribes, PGE, federal agencies, water users and conservation groups, has been meeting for more than a decade with one of its main goals being the return of adult salmon and steelhead to the Upper Deschutes.

The release of adults upstream of the dams could lead to the first natural spawning of salmon and steelhead in tributaries, such as Whychus Creek and the Metolius Rivers in more than 40 years, said Don Ratliff, PGE senior aquatic biologist.

“We are going to have a whole new generation who are going to see salmon in their streams,” Ratliff said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7812,

ddarling@bendbulletin.com