A record number of wild coho salmon returned to the Upper Clackamas this year! Portland General Electric counted 10,000 fish, the highest number recorded at North Fork Dam since its construction and the beginning of counts in 1958.

 

The early run’s success is largely due to fish passage infrastructure created by PGE, which allows fish to bypass three dams safely and quickly. In particular, a new floating surface collector in North Fork Reservoir, which became operational in 2016, captures more than 90% of ocean-going juvenile fish in the reservoir. This facility is the only surface collection system in the region to bypass fish through a multi-dam complex utilizing a pipeline, without the aid of transport or trucking to a release site.