The Elwha Ecosystem Restoration Project is a 21st-century project of the U.S.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

to remove two

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

s on the

Elwha River The Elwha River is a river on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. From its source at Elwha snowfinger in the Olympic Mountains, it flows generally north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Most of the river's co ...

on the

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large peninsula in Western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

state, and restore the river to a natural state. Until 2024, it was the largest

dam removal Dam removal is the process of demolishing a dam, returning water flow to the river. Arguments for dam removal consider whether their negative effects outweigh their benefits. The benefits of dams include hydropower production, flood control, ir ...

project in history and it is the second largest ecosystem restoration project in the history of the National Park Service, after the

Restoration of the Everglades An ongoing effort to remedy damage inflicted during the 20th century on the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history. The degradation of the E ...

. The controversial project, costing about $351.4 million, has been contested and periodically blocked for decades. It has been supported by a major collaboration among the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, environmental organizations, and federal and state agencies. The removal of the first of the two dams, the

Elwha Dam The Elwha Dam was a 108-ft (33 m) high dam located in the United States, in the state of Washington, on the Elwha River approximately upstream from the mouth of the river on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries ...

, began in September 2011 and was completed ahead of schedule in March 2012. Removal of the second dam, the Glines Canyon Dam, was completed on August 26, 2014.

History of the Elwha River

Historically, the

was one of the few rivers in the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The te ...

that supported all of the

anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousa ...

salmonid Salmonidae (, ) is a family of ray-finned fish, the only extant member of the suborder Salmonoidei, consisting of 11 extant genera and over 200 species collectively known as "salmonids" or "salmonoids". The family includes salmon (both Atlantic a ...

species native to the Pacific Northwest. Ten stocks of anadromous salmon and trout species are known to have been present in the river before the dams were built: spring- and summer/fall-run

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Oncorhynchus, Pacific salmon. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other vernacular names for the species include king salmon, quinn ...

(''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha''),

chum salmon The chum salmon (''Oncorhynchus keta''), also known as dog salmon or keta salmon, is a species of anadromous salmonid fish from the genus ''Oncorhynchus'' (Pacific salmon) native to the coastal rivers of the North Pacific and the Beringian Arctic ...

(''O. keta''),

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon (or "silvers") and is often ...

(''O. kisutch''),

pink salmon Pink salmon or humpback salmon (''Oncorhynchus gorbuscha'') is a species of euryhaline ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the type species of the genus ''Oncorhynchus'' (Pacific salmon), and is the smallest and most abundant of t ...

(''O. gorbuscha''),

sockeye salmon The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a ...

(''O. nerka''), summer- and winter-run

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacif ...

(''O. mykiss''),

bull trout The bull trout (''Salvelinus confluentus'') is a char of the family Salmonidae native to northwestern North America. Historically, ''S. confluentus'' has been known as the " Dolly Varden" (''S. malma''), but was reclassified as a separate speci ...

(''Salvelinus confluentus''), and

cutthroat trout The cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii'' clade) is a clade of four fish species of the Family (biology), family Salmonidae native to cold-water Tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. ...

(''O. clarki clarki''). The river was considered the most prolific fish producer on the

. It was particularly known for its very large Chinook salmon, weighing as much as . Prior to the construction of the two dams on the river in the early 20th century, an estimated 392,000 fish returned annually to spawn. By the late 20th century, the number had declined to less than 3,000. Pink salmon were historically the most numerous salmon species in the river, with over 250,000 adult returns. By the 1980s that number fell to near zero. Coho occupied the largest area of the watershed, going up many of the tributaries, and nearly to the headwaters of the Elwha River. Salmon were long an extremely important food source for the Lower Elwha Klallam people. They have occupied territory in this area for thousands of years, and still live on land at the mouth of the river. The salmon runs provided a valuable food source for many animals, such as black bear,

coyotes The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely relat ...

gray wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though grey ...

bald eagles The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a Species complex, species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

s, and dozens of others. In addition, salmon carcasses littered stream banks during prime fall and spring spawning, providing food for scavengers and decaying and enriching the soil. In the Elwha River basin, salmon once contributed over 300 tons of

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

and

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

every year, via decaying carcasses and the scat of predators and scavengers. In this way salmon played an important role in the overall health of the ecosystem. About 130 species benefit from the nutrients in salmon carcasses. Today, about 83% of the Elwha River's

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

lies within

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a national park of the United States located in Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier e ...

, where it is protected, more than that of any other river on the Olympic Peninsula. Most of the Elwha's basin is in pristine condition, unlike many other rivers on the peninsula whose basins have been harmed by extensive land use, especially

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucks The primary goal of this project was the removal of the

and the Glines Canyon Dam from the Elwha River on the

state. Elwha Dam was built privately from 1910 to 1912 by Thomas Aldwell, who owned land in the area. This resulted in blocking passage of migrating fish, limiting them to the lower of river below the dam. In 1927 Glines Canyon Dam was built upriver of Elwha Dam.

was established by the federal government in 1938 during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. In 1940, the park's boundaries were expanded to include Glines Canyon Dam and its reservoir of Lake Mills. The presence and operation of the dam was inconsistent with National Park Service policies to "restore natural aquatic habitats and the natural abundance and distribution of native aquatic species, including fish, together with the associated terrestrial habitats and species," and with Olympic National Park objectives to "conserve, maintain, and restore, where possible, the primary natural resources of the park and those ecological relationships and processes that would prevail were it not for the advent of modern civilization." The national park, tasked with preserving natural ecosystems, had a man-made system within its boundaries that was known to disrupt major portions of the ecology. When Elwha Dam was built, it was secured to the walls of the bedrock canyon, but not to the bedrock underlying the river substrate. In 1912, shortly after the reservoir (Lake Aldwell) filled, pressure at the base of the dam built up so much that the foundation of the dam blew out. The void under the dam was plugged by adding fill material to the river below and upstream of the dam. Elwha Dam became operational in 1913. Because of this and other reasons, this dam did not receive a federal license to operate. An 1890 Washington State law required fish passage devices to be built on dams "wherever food fish are wont to ascend". Thomas Aldwell ignored this requirement. Fish Commissioner Leslie Darwin offered to waive that requirement if Aldwell built a

fish hatchery A fish hatchery is a place for artificial breeding, hatching, and rearing through the early life stages of animals—finfish and shellfish in particular.Crespi V., Coche A. (2008) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Gloss ...

adjoining Elwha Dam. Although Aldwell initially balked at this proposal, he did build a fish hatchery that began operation in 1915. The hatchery was a fiasco. Its managers were unable to successfully rear fish. It was closed in 1922.

Sediment load

With the Glines Canyon Dam blocking sediment from reaching the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The Canada–United States border, international boundary between Canada and the ...

for more than 80 years, most of it had been accumulating in Lake Mills. Prior to dam construction, the sediment from the Elwha River accumulated at the mouth of the river, expanding the delta and forming extensive sandy beaches. East-flowing currents would transport much of that sediment toward the bluffs of Port Angeles and onto Ediz Hook. However, since the sediment had been accumulating in Lake Mills, wave action and currents had eroded the beaches until they became little more than rocky or pebbly slopes. The mouth of the river had eroded by several acres over the years, shrinking the size of the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation and eliminating their once abundant

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

beds. Ediz Hook has eroded to the point that

rip-rap Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour (in British English) or rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion. ...

has to be placed on the feature to protect Port Angeles harbor from the effects of the wave action. The

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

spends approximately $100,000 annually to control erosion of Ediz Hook and estimates the Elwha River contributed between 50,000 and 80,000 cubic yards of sediment per year before the dams were built. The dammed river contributed a negligible volume of sediment to Ediz Hook.

The decision to remove the dams

The combined power output the dams generated was approximately 19 mega-watt hours annually, a figure roughly equivalent to 38% of the electricity necessary to operate the Nippon Paper mill in

Port Angeles Port Angeles ( ) is a city and county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,960 at the 2020 census, it is the most populous city in the county, as well as the most populous city on the Olympic Peninsula. T ...

. Other power sources in the regional grid supplied a much greater proportion of the area's electricity. The dams blocked and nearly eliminated the once enormous runs of salmon in the river and their nutrients into Olympic National Park. The sediment was no longer making it to the sea, resulting in erosion problems on the shore. Although the Elwha Dam was nearly a century old, it had never been secured to the bedrock, resulting in a potential danger of dam failure and a resultant flooding of downstream communities. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe had sought the removal of the two dams since they were built. In 1968 the owner of the dams, Crown Zellerbach Corporation, applied to the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates the interstate transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas and regulates the prices of interstate transport ...

(FERC) for a license for Elwha Dam, and in 1973 applied to renew the license for Glines Canyon Dam. By this time, the treaty fishing rights of the Pacific Northwest tribes had been recognized in the 1979

Boldt Decision Boldt may refer to: * Alwin Boldt (1884–1920), German Olympic cyclist * Carl Boldt (1932–2015), American basketball player * David Boldt (1918–2007) * Georg Boldt (1862–1918), Finnish philosopher of religion * George Boldt (1851–1916), Pr ...

, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe pressed for removal of the dams to restore salmon runs to the Elwha River. The Tribe opposed both applications by Crown Zellerbach, intervening before the FERC. The environmental community also got involved in opposing the dams. By the 1980s twelve conservation groups opposed the relicensing process, including Olympic Park Associates, Seattle Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and American Rivers. A series of political battles occurred locally and in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, particularly with Senator

Slade Gorton Thomas Slade Gorton III (January 8, 1928 – August 19, 2020) was an American lawyer and politician from Washington. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a member of the United States Senate from 1981 to 1987, and again from 1989 to ...

blocking the project, while Senator

Brock Adams Brockman Adams (January 13, 1927 – September 10, 2004) was an American lawyer and politician. A Democrat from Washington, Adams served as a U.S. Representative, Senator, and United States Secretary of Transportation. He was forced to retire in ...

strongly supported the removal plan. Final congressional approval of the dam removal project was expressed in the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act of 1992, which authorized the

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

to acquire and remove two dams on the river and restore the ecosystem and native anadromous fisheries. However, Senator Gorton continued to block and delay the process. By 2000 Gorton retreated, allowing the dams to be purchased by the federal government in order to arrange for removal. In 1987 the dams and all other assets of Crown Zellerbach were acquired by the James River Corporation, which owned the dams until 2000. Concerned that it might someday be required to remove the dams and pay for river restoration, the corporation sought to transfer the dams to the federal government. In February 2000, the government bought the dams and related facilities for $29.5 million. Until removal, the dams had been operated by the

Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it ...

, with National Park Service oversight. When the federal government purchased the dams in 2000, it freed the James River Corporation from any further liability related to the damage caused by the dams in the past or potentially in the future.

Dam removal and river restoration

After the 1992 Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act was passed, a number of alternatives for restoration were explored by the Department of the Interior. The Final Programmatic EIS (

environmental impact statement An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...

), released in June 1995, concluded that the only way to fully restore the river was to remove both dams. The Final Implementation EIS, released in November 1996, concluded that sediment that had accumulated in the two reservoirs should be allowed to erode and disperse naturally downstream. Elwha dam remnants

Removal of the Elwha Dam began in September 2011 and was finished in spring 2012, ahead of schedule. Removal of the second dam, the Glines Canyon Dam, was completed on August 26, 2014. The dam removal process was originally projected to last two and a half to three years. The estimated cost of removing both dams was $40 to $60 million. The total cost of the Elwha River restoration is approximately $351.4 million. This price includes the purchase of the two dams and related facilities, construction of two water treatment plants and other facilities to protect water users, and construction of flood protection facilities, a fish hatchery, and a greenhouse for growing native plants for revegetation. The draining of the reservoir has revealed a ceremonial creation ground of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe; it had been submerged since the early 20th century. This has been profoundly welcomed by the tribe, which has planned events to restore the sacred space. After the removal of the dams, 10.5 million metric tons of sediment was released from two reservoirs through the Elwha river system. The sudden increase of sediment supply caused bed

aggradation Aggradation (or alluviation) is the term used in geology for the increase in land elevation, typically in a river system, due to the deposition of sediment. Aggradation occurs in areas in which the supply of sediment is greater than the amount o ...

of ~1 meter, resulting in a change of channel morphology from pool-riffle to braided, and decreased the slope of the lowermost river. Widespread bed aggradation forced flow through floodplain channels, depositing additional sediment in the side channels of the Elwha river floodplain. Mainstream aggradation also formed numerous bars, further establishing braided morphology. The river system showed a greater geomorphic response to dam removal than it had to a 40-year flood event four years before dam removal. The dams had virtually eliminated bed-material sediment supply to the river downstream, forming large deltas upstream of each reservoir. Once released, the sediment travelled downstream to the mouth of the river, where a new estuary is believed to be forming. These geomorphic alterations have important ecological implications, affecting aquatic habitat structure,

benthic fauna Benthos (), also known as benthon, is the community of organisms that live on, in, or near the bottom of a sea, river, lake, or stream, also known as the benthic zone.riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

vegetation. The process of

hydrochory In spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors ...

after dam removal has increased the distribution of seeds downstream, allowing for the dispersal of seeds that were previously blocked off. This has restored hydrochory on the river and the return of riparian vegetation downstream. Actively restored sites and recolonized sites have not developed significant populations of invasive species. The response of the Elwha River system to the dam removals provides a unique and important case study for future river restoration projects.

Salmon Restoration

The restoration of anadromous and migratory fish populations connectivity and habitat are primary goals of the restoration project. Anadromous and migratory fishes previously lost 90% of their habitat due to the dams. After dam removal, eight anadromous species swiftly ascended upstream into areas previously impeded, restoring connectivity, permitting the return of fish upstream and increasing their spatial distribution and density. Coho Salmon after a century long absence is reproducing and rearing in the section that was occupied by the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams. Recolonization efforts through relocation of adults to the Little River and Indian Creek tributaries from hatcheries has established levels of spawning and juvenile production comparable to other Coho Salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest.

Partnerships, research, and education

The partnership includes the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, in addition to local and state governments and outside public interest groups. As the largest project ever of its kind, it presents huge research opportunities. These are being pursued by students and professors at

Peninsula College Peninsula College is a public community college in Port Angeles, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. It is part of the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system and offers Bachelor of Applied Science in Management and Behavioral Heal ...

Eastern Washington University Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university in Cheney, Washington, United States. It shares its satellite campus in Spokane, Washington with Washington State University. Founded in 1882, the university is academically divided in ...

, and

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington, United States. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, s ...

, as well as professors from many other universities. The National Park Service and Olympic Park Institute are involved in education projects to inform the public about the history of the river, the dam removal process, ecosystem restoration, and the return of salmon to the upper river. The restoration partnership has supported Indigenous survival and collective continuance; however, many desired goals of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe have not been achieved. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is concerned with the dispossession of lands and river access. Tribal, Federal, State, research, and community groups hosted the 10th-year anniversary of dam removal with the 2022 Elwha River “ScienceScape” symposium to review the first decade of partnership and restoration, and plan ahead for the next decade of monitoring.

Media

The

and the Elwha Ecosystem Restoration Project were the basis for the 2018 documentary, ''The Memory of Fish''. It is the story of Dick Goin's 30-year fight for the removal of the Elwha River Dam for the return of salmon to the Elwha River.

References

External links

NPS Elwha Ecosystem Restoration PageOlympic Park InstituteHistorical Background on Elwha Dam RemovalWebcam Index Page
All six time lapse cameras from the project

*{{citation , last=Mapes , first=Lynda V. , title=Elwha: Roaring back to life , newspaper=

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

, date=February 13, 2016 , url=http://projects.seattletimes.com/2016/elwha/
Unconquering the Last Frontier
" Film, Robert Lundahl. Public Television Documentary Film chronicles history and lead-up. Narrated by actor Gary Farmer ("Dead Man," "Pow Wow Highway").
Elwha River Restoration
an interactive report Environment of Washington (state) Olympic National Park Salmon restoration Dam controversies