The Last 100 Miles: The Fight for the Deschutes River is a documentary film that portrays the degradation of one of the finest trout and salmon sanctuaries anywhere in the world, and the work by those who love the river to save it.

The Deschutes River is fed by rain and snow from the rugged mountains of central and eastern Oregon. Dams built 60 years ago wiped out prolific salmon and steelhead runs. Yet the remaining 100 miles of free-flowing river became one of the region’s beloved destinations for whitewater adventure as well as fishing. “We love this river,” says local naturalist and fishing guide Amy Hazel, who has lived near the Deschutes for 30 years. “It means everything to us, so we’re going to do everything in our power to save it.”

Hazel, alongside a trio of water and fisheries scientists, were puzzled by signs of trouble they observed in the river they love like a cherished family member. They knew that Portland General Electric, the Oregon-based corporation that owns and operates the Deschutes dams, altered the way it releases water from the reservoir at this project in 2010. But those changes they discovered, has turned the once pristine last 100 miles into a river at risk.

The team of volunteer scientists and activists also discovered that, unlike many modern ecological problems, this one can be fixed. A 270 foot-tall tower, submerged in the the reservoir near the dam, designed to draw water from different depths, could be adjusted to put colder, cleaner water back in the river. But Portland General Electric refuses to consider the easy fix.

“When I think about the future of the river, I also think of the future of Tegan, and what this river is going to look like in ten or twenty years,” says Mia Sheppard, another local fishing guide whose daughter (Tegan) knows no other home than her small town on the river. “PGE,” says Sheppard, “could fix this with the flip of switch.”

Polluted water now flows into the last 100 miles of the Deschutes resulting in an ecological catastrophe. The Last 100 Miles depicts the work of those who love the Deschutes River and are raising their voices. “If we don’t fix it now,” says John Hazel, a fly shop owner who first fished the Deschutes in the late 1960’s, “how is it going to get fixed? Who is going to fix it?”