Last summer, a narrow, rock-rimmed stretch of the Sacramento River near Redding, Calif., turned into a mass graveyard for baby salmon.
Upstream releases of water from Shasta Dam were so warm that virtually an entire generation of endangered winter-run chinook (“winter-run” refers to the season when the adults enter freshwater) was wiped out. The eggs never hatched or, if they did, the emerging young soon died.
A similar disaster could unfold this year. And if the drought drags on for another year or two, wild populations of some of California’s most prized fish are likely to vanish…
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