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For the past three autumn there have been record runs of salmon on the Columbia River. Every tributary stream in the Columbia Gorge was filled with spawning salmon. These photos show salmon spawning in Eagle Creek, which flows into the Columbia just upstream from the Bonneville Dam. |
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| But for the past two year we have seen the lowest salmon runs on the Columbia in many years. The fish returning these years were smolts heading to the ocean in 2001. That year an extreme drought created record low flows on the river. An additional assault on the salmon occured in the summer when the Bonneville Power Administration curtailed spilling water over the dams on the Columbia River. Normally water is spilled during the salmon smolts' journey to the ocean in the summer and fall. But in 2001 Enron and other energy trading companies manipulated power shortages up and down the west coast, and the BPA used this rigged energy crisis as an excuse not to spill water. Only a fraction of the smolts made it to the ocean that year and thus we are seeing very few adults returning in 2005 and 2006. | |||
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