By Alan Durning, Sightline.org
My hobby this week has been watching the demolition of the two dams on the Elwha River
via webcams. The long awaited dam removal is opening the pristine
waters of the Elwha inside Olympic National Park to wild salmon for the
first time in a century.
I cobbled together video of breaching the Glines Canyon Dam in four
places, from October 3 to 6, using the slightly clunky webcam stream.
And here is a similar, longer video of trenching around the Elwha Dam, from mid-September to October 6.
In Cascadia, most of our problems, like these dams, are things we made
ourselves. We can unmake them, too. All it takes is effort. A lot of it.
Sometimes for a long time. It took more than two decades of tireless
exertion by the tribes and others on the Olympic Peninsula to bring down
these dams, which produced very little electricity while undermining
fishing, tourism, and our natural heritage.
Essays in the Range blog are not written by High Country News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.
Originally posted at The Daily Score, a Sightline Institute blog.
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