Not yet. If it’s anything like so many other western rivers the Deschutes is constantly threatened by dwindling public access, the conversion of working ranches and landscapes into McMansions and second homes for the wealthy and famous.
There was a quote on a sheet of printer paper taped to the office door of my first supervisor in the field of natural resources. I swear it was Martin Luther King, but can’t find it. David Attenborough says something similar, but it wasn’t him. The gist is: people don’t protect what they don’t know. People don’t protect what they’ve never seen. So while I’ve yet to see the Deschutes, I’m glad groups like the Deschutes Land Trust are working to protect the landscape and its species, for me and for others.
Someday.
The outside bend. 
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