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This paper explores the spurt of dam-building in British Columbia from the 1960s to the 1980s, offering a different interpretation of high modernism and the changes it caused. It does so by focusing on the agents of high modernity: the engineers, geologists, and construction workers who designed, built, and drove the machinery of progress. By taking the synoptic seriously, we make three related arguments. First, dam-building was characterized by an intense engagement with place that generated a particular kind of knowledge, something we call 'high modernist local knowledge.' Second, the environmental and social changes that ensued from dam-building were a result of the presence, not the absence, of this local knowledge. Moreover, and finally, those changes were more than destructive. Big dams did not just destroy locales, they displaced and globalized them, and in so doing created new ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used ultrasound imaging and passive integrated transponder (PIT)-tagging programs to assess maturation status and iteroparity patterns in summer-run steelhead (anadromous rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss) of the interior Columbia River Basin (Pacific Northwest, USA). Postspawn kelts examined in downstream fish bypass systems at Columbia River and Snake River dams were disproportionately female (>80%) and majorities were of wild origin, unlike prespawn steelhead at these sites. Annual repeat migration estimates varied from 2.9% to 9.0% for kelts tagged at lower Columbia River dams (n = 2542) and from 0.5% to 1.2% for Snake River kelts (n = 3762). Among-site differences reflected greater outmigration distance and additional dam passage hazards for Snake River kelts. There was also strong evidence for condition-dependent mortality, with returns an order of magnitude higher for good- versus poor-condition kelts. Disproportionately more females and wild fish also returned, providing potentially valuable genetic and demographic benefits for the Columbia River’s threatened steelhead populations. Results overall provide baseline data for evaluating kelt mortality mitigation efforts and basic life history information for steelhead conservation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]