About

The City of Bend and Bend Parks and Recreation District invited the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council (COIC) to convene an Advisory Committee to identify a preferred fish passage concept that aligns with community values articulated in the 2015 Community Vision for Mirror Pond and Downtown Bend.

Narrow Scope

The Advisory Committee is charged with a very narrow scope: to focus exclusively on fish passage options for the purpose of offering a recommendation. Other elements of the 2015 vision, including dam removal, fall outside of the scope of this project.

Advise Rather than Decide

The committee is purely advisory in nature, and will not be making a decision. Rather, it will identify a preferred fish passage concept based on criteria established by committee members and forward this recommendation to The City of Bend and Bend Parks and Recreation District.

Meeting Schedule

COIC anticipates facilitating up to six Advisory Committee meetings from May through October 2021. All meetings are currently planned to be hosted online and will include time for public comment. Once a preferred fish passage option is identified by the committee, one meeting will be dedicated to sharing the decision with the public, answering questions, and soliciting additional input.

Background and History

Mirror Pond is a long-standing icon in the Bend community. For over a century, this area, coupled with Drake and Harmon parks, has served as the community’s central park, offering a venue for special events, recreation and relaxation. However, the pond acts as a settling basin for sediment flowing down the Deschutes River and from City of Bend storm water outfalls. Thus maintaining Mirror Pond involves the ongoing expense of dredging and active maintenance. Various groups organized by the City and BPRD have been studying this issue since the early 2000’s, including the Mirror Pond Management Board, the Mirror Pond Steering Committee, and the Mirror Pond Ad Hoc Committee.

2015 Community Vision

In 2013, The City Council and BPRD Board of Directors resolved to pursue the preservation of Mirror Pond and further assess related costs, and to hold discussions with PacifiCorp about the future of the dam. Prior to the current effort, a series of community discussions regarding the future of Mirror Pond were launched in 2015. At that time, Pacific Power, the owner of the Newport Dam that forms Mirror Pond, was exploring dam removal options. Subsequent community meetings identified a range of related substantive issues and social values. For example, sedimentation, impacts to recreation, fish passage, aesthetics of the park, river hydrology, and potential impacts to adjacent property are just a few of the issues that were identified.

These community discussions culminated in the “Community Vision for Mirror Pond and Downtown Bend”.

The Vision outlines the community’s general aspirations for the Mirror Pond area, which characterizes the vision as a “middle ground” between the “status quo” option of dredging Mirror Pond and the “natural river” option of removing the dam to allow the river to flow naturally.

The Community Vision assumed that Pacific Power was divesting its ownership of the Newport Dam. However, in 2016, Pacific Power released a public statement that it was “committed to the Newport Dam/Bend Hydro project for the long-term.” The current process will update the fish passage portion of the Community Vision taking into account Pacific Power’s ongoing ownership of the Dam.

Fish Passage Explored

In 2019, the City of Bend and the Bend Park & Recreation District adopted Resolution 3165 and 430 that describe conditions for collaboration between the City and BPRD to contribute to the preservation of Mirror Pond. COIC will convene the short-term Advisory Committee to identify a fish passage solution at the Newport Dam.

At this time there is no change in the status of the dam’s ownership. The owner of the dam retains authority of the structure’s continued use.

This effort focuses narrowly on identifying a preferred fish passage option.