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cover image courtesy of USGS
It’s been ten years since the Elwha Dam (5-miles upstream) and Glines Canyon Dam (13-miles upstream) were removed from the 45-mile long Elwha River.
And other than a change in scenery, the results are quite unremarkable, especially considering the cost to taxpayers.
Yet we still find misinformed people who keep holding-out the Elwha Dam removal project as an example of what we might expect in regard to the Klamath River Dam…
William E. Simpson II is an ethologist living among and studying free-roaming native species American wild horses. William is the award-winning producer of the micro-documentary film 'Wild Horses'. He is the author of a new Study about the behavioral ecology of wild horses, two published books and more than 150 published articles on subjects related to wild horses, wildlife, wildfire, and public land (forest) management. He has appeared on NBC NEWS, ABC NEWS, CBS NEWS, theDoveTV and has been a guest on numerous talk radio shows including the Lars Larson Show, the Bill Meyer Show, NPR Jefferson Public Radio and NPR National Radio.
6 Comments
Great article. Thank you again for all your hard work.
Fantastic reporting explaining the difference between the rivers tge Dams the distance the sediment the eviromental destruction 👏
We are all praying some one like yourself that can convey facts over smoke will please say something about Scott Dam at LAKE PILLSBURY.
The dam has been in place for over a hundred years the sediment behind the dam is deep full of mercury from old minds along the shoreline. The area surrounding the lake has been harvest for timber adding more sediment. The forest fires in the past five years have also adding more run off sediment.
There are cabins and resorts and boats adding to toxins. Yet Jared Huffman congressman and other none profits want to demolish the the dam.
Please Help SAVE SCOTT DAM AT LAKE PILLSBURY.
At this point I say leave well enough alone. The regulatory agencies have to impose serious restrictions penalties and fines on the owners of the dams in question.
Tell me why the maintenance burdens be imposed on the taxpayers?
We all recognize and have experienced water shortages due to drought & band-aid solutions. To include the convoluted tug-of-war to do the right thing concerning healthy fish populations, water conservation & storage.
As a lifelong fisherman & water drinker I can only vote & hope that the powers that be will cease the politics of PROFITEERING from our ENVIRONMENTAL BLOOD… that being sustainable migratory fish populations, agricultural water supplies & recreational water flows.
An eye opening read is STRONGHOLD by Tucker Malarkey.
This is a bullshit article that doesn’t any basis in fact when it comes to fish restoration.
As the lead author for the Elwha River Fish Restoration Plan, multi agency managers used 35 to. 50 years as a possible recovery timeline for fish populations. No one said 10 years . Fish populations have been continuously colonizing more upstream areas in the Elwha River. We are seeing more redds in tributaries and the mainstem Elwha. I start steelhead spawned surveys in two week for this coming year (2024).
One generation of chinook is 6 to 8 years in the Elwha. Do the math. You can’t create paper fish to debunk recovery efforts. Get out into the systems and see what’s happening.
You should be. Vilified for such a biased article. Salmon would never recover in the Klamath without dam removal. We all have to pay the costs of impacts to our natural resources populations when it comes time to recover them.
This article supposes salmon recovery is simply a matter of increasing potential spawning habitat, which, with as learned as the author purposes to be, he should know full well places it nearly in the realms of purposeful misinformation (propaganda). It says nothing of some of the biggest problems affecting Klamath river fish populations, and the suspected relief thought to be attainable for them through dam removal, such as water temperatures, flood events as they relate to whole river desiltification, and C. Shasta reduction. The improvement of these three factors alone will be a significant benefit to indigenous fish populations and the long term recovery of California salmon populations.
This article was SUCH a waste of time & effort. For you: writing it. for me: reading it. You need a lesson in Treaty Rights my friend. The Supreme Law of the Land – Google your own constitution.
Wild salmon have returned to both the Elwha and Klamath Rivers. Hate to say HaHa but stick that in your pipe and smoke it. Faster & more then scientists predicted. How do I know? I love on the Elwha River. Those fucking dams put out enough electricity to power a rotating fan. They cost more in upkeep then what they were worth. Google that. They didn’t even have fish ladders .. you know .. to “save money.”. You bitch and moan about the cost but you made that mess, you clean it up. Clean up the culverts blocking salmon in WA State too. tribes will stand on FEDERAL LAW, and sue any state or city that stands in the way of protecting salmon. You should be happy. You benefit when a keystone species is fought for. We all benefit, every species, every person. Cause when you finally push the environment past the brink, when you poison all the water, cut down all the trees, that “green gold”, when you raze the land for some minerals – your days are numbered my friend. So BE GRATEFUL that the dams are gone. Dams age out. It happens. Get used to it cause there’s hundreds of aging out dams. Y’all better switch over to renewable sources of energy .. they’re better for the environment AND CHEAPER.