Jefferson County Beach Watchers toured the Elwha Dam on June 23, 2010. Yep, this is the Last Dam Summer. We learned that - and a lot more.
We learned that this is the largest dam removal ever undertaken in the US. There are two dams and the first one is at river mile 4.9 (that is 4.9 miles from the mouth of the river) effectively blocking fish passage at that point. There are 70 miles of river and tributaries in the watershed. Prior to the building of the dams, starting in 1910, all five species of Pacific salmon used the Elwha and the fish runs were in the 100's of thousands. Today, there are only a few thousand fish returning.
Because over 80 percent of the watershed is within the Olympic National Park, the areas upstream of the mouth have been largely protected for over 100 years - making the river an ideal candidate for restoration.The two dams (one is 105 feet tall and the other is 210 feet tall) will come down over a period of two plus years to reduce the damage from the 17 million cubic yards of sediment that has accumulated behind the two dams.
We also got the opportunity to visit the nursery where they are growing out many of the native plants that will be used to restore the 700 acre area that will be left after the reservoirs are drained. There is a 7-year planting plan that will use about 1/2 million plants! Grasses are expected to do better than woody plants in the sandy/gravel terraces remaining after the water is gone. A very challenging landscape to revegetate!
This field trip was part of our Advanced Training and participating Beach Watchers received 9 hours credit. Special thanks to Beach Watcher Glenn Waldenberg for making all the arrangements for the trip.
We would like to thank the Olympic National Park staff Dean Butterworth and Josh Chenoweth for their time. We learned so much and look forward to watching the process unfold.For more on the removal and the transition plan go to http://www.elwhainfo.org/elwha-river-watershed/dam-removal/strategy-dam-removal
