Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 0 Likes
Twitter 0 Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
0 Likes
0 Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • Mountain Lifer

Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World

  • May 15, 2023
  • Mountain Life Media
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

The undamming and subsequent regeneration of the Elwha River, Olympic Peninsula, Washington, has revealed buried treasures. And shows that hope is a thing with fins. Excerpted from Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World. ©2023 by Steven Hawley. Reprinted with permission by Patagonia.


The Return of the Elwha

Dam removals reveal buried treasures. Fish move quickly to reclaim habitat that was walled off from them, sometimes for centuries. Dissolved oxygen in free-flowing water breathes new life into the whole aquatic food chain, from benthic macroinvertebrates to beavers, otters, even wolves. The river’s banks, once recolonized by vegetation, become a habitat for birds and bugs. These have become standard forecast outcomes for a river renewed by dam removal. On the recently dam-free Elwha River in Washington, draining the Olympic Mountains in the damp northwest corner of the state, hope is a thing with fins.

WBF23 BK900 000
Photo: Patagonia

Historically, the Elwha was among the region’s most prolific rivers, bearing ten varieties of anadromous salmon and steelhead. But in the early twentieth century, the river was dammed for hydropower. Though an 1890 state law required dams to have a passage for fish, the Elwha River dam had none, and blocked off some 90 percent of upstream spawning ground for hundreds of thousands of fish and decimated the Chinook salmon population. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, who have fished the Elwha since time immemorial, were severely affected as the fish they depended on all but disappeared. But a decade after two dams were removed on the Elwha, the recovery is well underway.

Web Large CRACKED 188 mcmillan
Seemingly, a salmon selfie: adult and juvenile Chinook reclaiming historic territory on the Elwha. Lower Elwha Klallam ancestral lands, Washington. Photo: JOHN MCMILLAN/Patagonia

The river is already in some ways defying expectations, and in the process, buoying the hopes of those who’ve come to love and depend on it. The first step in bringing salmon home to a place like the Elwha is re-establishing the habitat to which they have become accustomed over thousands of years of evolution. 

Over a century, enough sediment had been trapped by the two dams on the Elwha River—located about a hundred miles west of Seattle—to fill the Seattle Seahawks’ football stadium to capacity eight times over with sand. Skeptics fretted that the load of muck would spoil restoration efforts. Casual observers rightly wondered what would happen when it all got uncorked. The work of deconstructing the dams took place from 2011 to 2014. By the time the river was running unimpeded, the Elwha had built itself a whole new estuary.

Web Large CRACKED 172 gussman
Concrete isn’t forever: the Elwha was freed of its dams in 2014. Lower Elwha Klallam ancestral lands, Washington. Photo: JOHN GUSSMAN/Patagonia

Where the Elwha runs into the saltwater, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a beachcomber’s delight of roughly a hundred acres of sand, gravel, driftwood, and river channel was laid down by the newly unfettered river. Out beneath the sea, beyond the hundred acres of new earth, a sub-sea-surface delta—formed from additional sediment—raised the seafloor bed six to fifteen feet in height. All told, the estuary is about three times larger than it was before the dams came out. To the east of the Elwha’s mouth, the positive effects of sediment returning to an ecosystem deprived of its river-born soil for a century are visible as far as the discerning eye can see.


Related content from ML:

Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World

A host of nearshore fishes, not seen in such diversity and abundance off the mouth of the Elwha since the Model T was a novelty, quickly colonized the estuary habitat. Surfers relish riding a now-regular break that used to be seen only once in a blue moon. Beavers appear to be making a comeback. Pools and channels sculpted by the push and pull of tide, wave, and river action are a haven for juvenile fish.

A host of nearshore fishes, not seen in such diversity and abundance off the mouth of the Elwha since the Model T was a novelty, quickly colonized the estuary habitat. Surfers relish riding a now-regular break that used to be seen only once in a blue moon.


WBF23 BK900 000 ALT9
Photo: Patagonia

Elwha’s newly expanded beach is accessed down a steep, winding two-lane road that dead-ends inside a neighborhood at the east end of Freshwater Bay. A sign says, “No overnight parking,” and there’s a porta-potty and a couple of trash cans, attesting to the spot’s growing popularity. As happens with any desirable location, the brand-new estuary is in some ways burdened from the fresh love it’s receiving. Dog shit has become a problem, and bonfires set amongst the prodigious supply of driftwood don’t help much either. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, in whose reserved lands the new delta lies, have closed part of the area so that recovery can proceed without compromise by too many visitors. Yet it’s hard to blame anyone for enthusiastic curiosity here.

On a bright weekday February morning, after a rare sea-level snowstorm the night before, I expect to see no one, but immediately get welcomed by a family and their rambunctious, slobbering chocolate lab. They depart in one of about a half-dozen cars parked in the neighborhood dead-end.

WBF23 BK900 000 ALT3
Photo: Patagonia

“This is nothing,” one of a trio of twenty-something men tells me as we pass on the path atop a low dike that accesses the beach. “When the surf is up, you won’t find a place to park anywhere near.” Without the crowd on a calm winter morning, the placid scene nonetheless makes a wild impression.

Scads of trees, branches, and sticks in various states of decomposition litter the vast beach and tempt even the most dull-witted beachcomber to try a hand at building some daringly creative structure out of the ample supply. The beach is full of such ad hoc sculptures, some tending toward teepee shape, others more wickiup, still more that look like cast-offs from some post-modern sculpture exhibit. Bisecting the beach is the sinuous flow of the Elwha, curving gracefully to meet saltwater in a braided channel that enters the Strait of Juan de Fuca at an oblique angle.


More about the book here.

ML

Check the ML Podcast!

ML-podcast-cover
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • dams
  • environmental impact dams
  • Patagonia
Mountain Life Media

Previous Article
  • THE GEAR SHED

Mustang Survival: And We All Float On

  • May 12, 2023
  • Editor
View Post
Next Article
Colin-Field-Three-Stage-MTB-Emily-Batty
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail
  • Ontario

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign: Behind the Trail Closures at Three Stage

  • May 16, 2023
  • Mountain Life Media
View Post
You May Also Like
Kathryn-Corbiere-artist-Indigenous-Ontario-Blue-Mountains
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Ontario
  • The ML Interview
  • Women

Artist Profile: Elevating Awareness 

  • Editor
  • May 29, 2023
Fisher-Monahan-illustration-illustrator
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • On The Trail

Sweetgrass Chronicles: Walking from BC to San Francisco

  • Editor
  • May 26, 2023
ML-Blue-Mountains-cover-trilliums-crop
View Post
  • In This Issue
  • Mountain Biking
  • Mountain Lifer
  • On The Trail
  • Ontario
  • Paddling
  • Photography

ML Blue Mountains 20th Anniversary Issue Out Now

  • Ned Morgan
  • May 18, 2023
jeremy-Down-artist-surfing
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Ontario
  • Surfing

Artist Profile: Jeremy Down’s Georgian Bay Series

  • Mountain Life Media
  • May 8, 2023
Bruce-Peninsula-home-Ontario
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Ontario

At Home in the Woods

  • Editor
  • May 2, 2023
mario-rigby-kayak-lake-ontario
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Paddling
  • Trips & Expeditions

ML Podcast Episode 26: Eco-Explorer Mario Rigby

  • Editor
  • April 25, 2023
Feral-Nifty-artist-Whistler
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer

Artist Profile: Feral Nifty

  • Editor
  • April 11, 2023
Neha-Freediving-in-Kelp-Andrew-McCurdy
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer

Depths of Winter

  • Editor
  • April 4, 2023
Featured Posts
  • Kathryn-Corbiere-artist-Indigenous-Ontario-Blue-Mountains 1
    Artist Profile: Elevating Awareness 
    • May 29, 2023
  • Mike-Traslin-Andy-Traslin-ski-touring-KootenaysBC 2
    The Traslin Brothers: 200 Months of Earned Turns
    • May 30, 2023
  • Leslie-Timms-Devils-Glen-Nutcracker-Colin-Field 3
    Behind the Devil’s Glen Climbing Route Closures
    • May 25, 2023
  • Fisher-Monahan-illustration-illustrator 4
    Sweetgrass Chronicles: Walking from BC to San Francisco
    • May 26, 2023
  • Paul-Manning-Hunter-Kananaskis-River-surf 5
    Mountain Life Takes Home Multiple Awards
    • May 23, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • benno_bikes-46er-sea-otter-tour-web2
    Gear Shed: Picks for Spring & Summer
    • May 24, 2023
  • Baptism By Gravel: Rab Equipment Enters The Adventure Cycling Game
    • May 19, 2023
  • ML-Blue-Mountains-cover-trilliums-crop
    ML Blue Mountains 20th Anniversary Issue Out Now
    • May 18, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 0 Likes
Twitter 0 Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM

Warning: preg_match(): Unknown modifier '0' in /home/customer/www/mountainlifemedia.ca/public_html/wp-content/plugins/powerkit/modules/lazyload/helpers/helper-powerkit-lazyload.php on line 146
avatar
mountainlifemedia
Mountain Life
25K Followers
Just your average day on the trails…nothing to see here. #mountainlifer #onewheel 4 0
How many turns did you earn last winter? Most skiers and boarders would be proud to say they logged a week with no chairlifts and zero auxiliary help to the top—or toured exclusively for a month. 38 2
onekwe didn’t set out to become an artist. She first became a welder with the intention of establishing herself in the trade. But, as good welding jobs are few and far between where she lives on Manitoulin Island, she began doing commissions for architectural pieces and modern furniture. “From there, I found the opportunities and the abilities in myself to create art,” she says. 69 1
ML and partners offer a gear list curated for spring-summer stoke, including the latest sunnies, trail shoes, sun shirts, e-bikes, headlamps, racerback tanks, Rollerblades and sun hats. In alpha order. #linkinbio to check out all picks! 21 0
"Alright—where to begin? Between the months of July and November 2022, I walked about 2500 kilometres from British Columbia to San Francisco. Yes—I walked." 46 4
🚫The sweet sound of the wilderness at Devil’s Glen… 76 5
✨It's time for another giveaway! 66 120
☝️Ahem, so … we’re officially “award-winning” again. Yup: ML Rocky Mountains and ML Coast Mountains both received awards recently at the 2023 Alberta Magazine Publishers Association Conference. 80 9
We hope your long weekend was filled with adventure! Now sit back and relax while you enjoy episode 28 of Live It Up with Mountain Life featuring scottparentphoto! You’ve earned it 😉 #linkinbio 42 3
When you live in #Whistlerbc it’s that easy to change with the seasons 🌞 #mountainlifer 124 4
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

Just your average day on the trails…nothing to see here. #mountainlifer #onewheel 4 0
How many turns did you earn last winter? Most skiers and boarders would be proud to say they logged a week with no chairlifts and zero auxiliary help to the top—or toured exclusively for a month. 38 2
onekwe didn’t set out to become an artist. She first became a welder with the intention of establishing herself in the trade. But, as good welding jobs are few and far between where she lives on Manitoulin Island, she began doing commissions for architectural pieces and modern furniture. “From there, I found the opportunities and the abilities in myself to create art,” she says. 69 1
ML and partners offer a gear list curated for spring-summer stoke, including the latest sunnies, trail shoes, sun shirts, e-bikes, headlamps, racerback tanks, Rollerblades and sun hats. In alpha order. #linkinbio to check out all picks! 21 0
"Alright—where to begin? Between the months of July and November 2022, I walked about 2500 kilometres from British Columbia to San Francisco. Yes—I walked." 46 4
🚫The sweet sound of the wilderness at Devil’s Glen… 76 5
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.