The most valuable fish in the Columbia River

By Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon—

The most valuable fish in the Columbia River will be one that looks exactly like this: Wild, dipnetted from a platform at Celilo Falls by a supremely lucky Native fisherman, on its way to restock an endangered species somewhere upriver from the dam at The Dalles.

Celilo Falls resides in their DNA as surely as their ancient places of origin and their anadromous journey of life, death and rebirth.

The absence of Celilo Falls is confusing to the salmon, goes against the grain of their DNA, and contributes to their decline as well as to the cost of recovery and restoration.

No single event could be more beneficial to the recovery of endangered species throughout the entire system everywhere above the dam at The Dalles than the rebirth and preservation of Celilo Falls, under the stewardship of the Columbia River tribes, who had done so successfully for more than ten thousand years, more than 42.53 times longer than the United States has existed as a nation.

The Friends of Celilo Falls is forming….

The last Columbia River barge

 

By Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon—Sooner or later, the last barge will pass through the series of navigation locks that compartmentalize the Columbia River into a series of stepped slackwater ponds.

The scene will look something like this, much the same as on any other sunny day in the Columbia Gorge, with just a single barge plying its way; in this series, heading upriver towards the Bonneville navigation locks:

 

In the final analysis, barge traffic will die off for economic reasons, which can largely be explained by the simple fact that the Columbia River is not the Mississippi.

The Columbia lacks significant traffic, far short of what would justify the cost of maintaining the lock infrastructure; and the Mississippi lacks the salmon, which have evolved over thousands of years to thrive in the fast moving environment that preceded the construction of the dams.

The fact is that just about half of the barges that move up and down the river are empty. This one is loaded, but most of the barges that travel upriver are empty.

That tiny speck moving off into the distance is that same lonely barge….

It will pass through the navigation lock at Bonneville Dam, and it will do so for free. It may surprise you to know that there is no cost charged to the barge operators for using the navigation lock.

The Columbia River economy supports only one barge company, an effective monopoly on commercial and industrial traffic along the length of the river, and that company enjoys subsidies that few are probably aware of: free travel through the locks; no charge for lock maintenance; and, probably most significant, a slackwater subsidy that keeps the river at a level that best suits the occasional barge, like this one, to the detriment of the salmon and Celilo Falls, which costs the public tens of millions of dollars a year.

While commercial operators enjoy free use of the entire river, the public is faced with charges at the handful of places where there is public access, like this one:

Ironically, public access to the navigation locks is closed off, an issue of Homeland Security. When I arrived at the security kiosk to visit the Bonneville visitors center, the guard wanted to look into my trunk to see if I was carrying any weapons.

Geez, if I wanted to create a big mess at the dam, I think I’d just take a barge full of fertilizer and diesel fuel up into the lock. That ought to do it.

The Columbia River is not the Mississippi. It is time we recognized that fact.

The Friends of Celilo Falls is forming….

Father-sense, a missing daughter, earthquake and tsunami

by Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon--

No noise woke me early morning yesterday; no bathroom urge stirred me, no dog moving around in here, but a sense that something was wrong somewhere….

My father-sense had been activated….

I looked at the clock, where 3:00 am or thereabouts glowed in the dark; no reason to get up other than to turn on the news, the bad news….

Major earthquake in Japan, tsunami, nuclear power plants in harm’s way, and somewhere in that country my baby girl, Allie….

I actually have no direct knowledge that my daughter is in Japan, little information about her since she disappeared in a Mormon abduction 15 years ago, a week past her eighth birthday, but I heard a rumor that she had been sent to some Mormon missionary operation in Japan about eight months ago….

(The Mormons are well-organized to make children disappear, to sever families forever, just ask the bereaved parents and grandparents who make up Mormons HMC “Mormons Have My Child.”)

But now, my father-sense was confirming my earlier suspicion, that my child is in fact in danger, amid falling buildings, chaos, tsunami, and as the hours have worn on, clearly in a place where lack of clean water, food shortages, sanitation and disease crises loom for the survivors….

Is my daughter among them? Where is she? Is she injured, frightened? Is she alive? When and how will she be safe? When will I see her again? When will I hear her voice?

If the Mormons who have controlled her life for the past fifteen years have anything to say about it, then these questions will never be answered, not in my lifetime.

There is news of winter cold, fuel shortages, transportation links broken, people buried alive, nuclear plant supercrisis, aftershocks, more buildings coming down, endless heartbreak….

My father-sense hit crisis mode also nearly six years ago, and the following morning I learned that my beloved son Aaron had fallen into a coma and died in his mother’s empty house in Payson, Utah, a Mormon stronghold in the desert, a place where the Mormon system smothers non-Mormon children to death, spits them out unwanted and unloved, but that is a different story.…

The Sendai Earthquake, as this disaster is now known, caused the main island of Japan to move eight feet, and shifted the Earth on its axis…and somewhere in there is my baby girl, her name is Allie (Alexis) Cruz, and she is more beautiful than all of the stars in heaven….

My father-sense is at maximum alert, calling her name….

The people who could tell me where and how my daughter is are the same people who caused her and my other children to disappear:

Chris and Kory Wright, the Mormon zealots who concealed my children in Utah:

https://www.columbiaultimate.com/about-us/management-team.aspx


And Gina Foulk, here with husband #5:

http://www.eldoradohillsseniorcare.com/contact.nxg

Celilo Falls: Time to start the clock ticking, time to light the fire....

By Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon--

We live with the consequences of many disastrous public policy decisions, arguably none more plainly evident than the flooding of Celilo Falls, radioactive sites aside….

The flooding of Celilo Falls is the American equivalent of the Soviet decision to drain the Aral Sea, taken in the same era, the wrong people in charge, all thinking in the very same way….

This US Army Corp of Engineers movie was shot in 1956, one year before a confluence of short-sighted idiots at the state, local and federal levels deliberately destroyed all that you see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Ku9HIyQNQ

The Army film documents the fact that there was no shortage of information available to the decision-makers. They knew what they were about….

Another video, “See Through the Water”, tells the Celilo story in the words of the Celilo people themselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXFYu7l_rNk

The rock structure of Celilo Falls lies intact below the surface of the pond that now covers this place.

Someday, a study will be taken, weighing the costs and benefits of reclaiming Celilo Falls and all that it stands for, versus the costs and benefits of maintaining the dam at The Dalles, and a decision will be made in favor of Celilo Falls and the salmon, someday….

It is only a matter of time until we get to that place, as these two videos make plain. There are costs and benefits either way. It’s time to do the math.

No reasonable person living today would consider building a dam to flood Celilo Falls. The notion, just like draining the Aral Sea, would be unthinkable….

There is a way to engineer getting the occasional barge up and down the river, and a way to generate power and a way to bring Celilo Falls back to life as surely as there is a way for a man to walk on the Moon….

Were it not for the terrible decisions of a previous generation, were Celilo Falls flowing today, this place would be regarded as one of the world’s greatest heritage sites, and every effort would be made to preserve the Falls and the cultures it sustained forever, to the last human breath, we would all stand together….

It is time to start the Celilo Falls clock ticking, time to do the math, time to stand vigil for the day that the waters roar and the earth shakes anew….

It is time to light the fire that will still be burning when Celilo Falls reappears, when the salmon leap and all the world celebrates, it is time to light the fire….