For first time in years, chinook salmon spawn in upper Columbia River system Updated Dec 18, 2020; Posted Dec 18, 2020 Cascade Locks, Oregon--Sept. 2, 2012-- Chinook and other fish fill the viewing windows at Bonneville Dam in this Oregonian/OregonLive file photo.LC- Facebook Share SPOKANE, Wash. — For the first time in more than a generation, chinook salmon have spawned in the upper Columbia River system. Colville Tribal biologists counted 36 redds, a gravely nest where female salmon lay eggs, along an 8-mile stretch of the Sanpoil River, a tributary of the Columbia, in September, the Spokesman Review-Journal reported. “I was shocked at first, then I was just overcome with complete joy,” said Crystal Conant, a Colville Tribal member from the Arrow Lakes and SanPoil bands. “I don’t know that I have the right words to even explain the happiness and the healing.”