Oregon Leaders Are Trying to Save the Deschutes River. Here’s Why That’s So Hard.

A dam across the Deschutes River in Bend, Oregon, diverts water to irrigation district canals in July 2025. Brandon Swanson/OPB Every year, about 90% of Central Oregon’s Deschutes River disappears into networks of canals and pipes traversing high desert. Between April and October, what’s left in this major river — one of the largest spring-fed waterways in the U.S.