Portland General Electric in 2010 began operating a “Selective Water Withdrawal” tower above Round Butte Dam on central Oregon’s Deschutes River. The ecology of the lower Deschutes, one of the West’s premier flyfishing destinations, has suffered ever since. These ecological impacts, in turn, have negatively affected businesses and communities in north Central Oregon that rely on the river. This short vid explains how selective water withdrawal operations have impacted the community of Maupin, Oregon, and highlights the efforts of the Deschutes River Alliance to fight back.
A River Worth Fighting For from Deschutes River Alliance on Vimeo.
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.