Lostine River

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The Lostine River is a tributary of the Wallowa River, more than 23 mi (36 km) long, in northeastern Oregon in the United States. ^[1] It drains a portion of the Eagle Cap Wilderness of the Wallowa Mountains in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. It joins the Wallowa River at Wallowa.

It rises in several forks, the East Fork (sometimes referred to as East Lostine River) and West Fork at elevations of more than 8000 feet (2450 m) approximately 15 miles (24 km) south of the city of Lostine and 10 miles (16 km) WSW of Joseph. It flows generally northward following a large U-shaped canyon. It exits the wilderness at an elevation of 1200 m (3930 ft) and gradually changes character as it reaches more level terrain which slopes gradually down to 3000 ft (914 m) where it meets the Wallowa River. The river's flow varies seasonally from about 50 to 1000 cubic feet per second.

Irrigation diversions play a significant role in the river, both as input from the Minam Lake and Minam River and diversionary output to the Wallowa River. ^[2] These water diversions contributed to the end of the local run of coho salmon, and reduced the population of the run of spring chinook salmon to a low of 13 fish in 1999; both had been a historic source of food for the Nez Perce people. Since that year the chinook salmon run has recovered to 800 fish in 2005. An agreement between the farmers, the Nez Perce and the Oregon Water Trust reached in 2005 have led to an effort to preserve the streamflow furing the summer, helping the salmon run to survive.^[3]