Washington State in Washington State the Spirit of the Elwha River Flows Again

Restored Elwha River. Souce: John Gussman

Sediment from the Elwha River flows into the sea later on dam removal. Source: Jonathan Felis, USGS

Elwha Dam. Source: Andy Maser

Glines Canyon Dam during dam removal. Source: Jeff Duda, USGS

Free flowing Elwha River. Source: USGS

Overview

In the tardily 1800s, the Northwest region was used to supply the lumber needed to build new cities throughout the growing Usa, bringing rapid change to the Olympic Peninsula. The Elwha River was severely altered as a result. In the early 1900s, ii dams, Elwha and Glines Canyon, were built. The dams fueled regional growth, but blocked salmon migration upstream, disrupted the flow of sediment and wood downstream, and flooded the historic homelands and cultural sites of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. For over a century, the spider web of ecological and cultural connections in the Elwha Valley were cleaved.

In 1992, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Deed, authorizing dam removal to restore the altered ecosystem. After two decades of planning, the largest dam removal in U.S. history began on September 17, 2011. Half-dozen months afterwards Elwha Dam was gone, followed by Glines Canyon Dam in 2014. Today, the Elwha River once again flows freely from the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Although the two dams removals were originally branded as salmon-restoration projects, they have had significant watershed-wide and scientific impacts.

Quick Facts

Project Location:
240148 US-101, Port Angeles, WA 98363, USA, 48.06505617676191, -123.57255231907459

Geographic Region:
North America

Country or Territory:
U.s. of America

Biome:
Freshwater

Ecosystem:
Freshwater Rivers & Streams

Projection Lead:
National Park Service

Organization Type:
Governmental Body

Project Partners:
National Park Service Department of the Interior Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agency of Reclamation Washington Department of Fish and Wild fauna Western Washington University University of Washington Peninsula College Washington SeaGrant Elwha Research Consortium Elwha Nearshore Consortium

Location

Project Phase:
Monitoring & Evaluation

Kickoff Appointment:
1992

End Date:
2014

Primary Causes of Degradation

Dams & Hydrology

Degradation Clarification

In the early 1900s, entrepreneur Thomas Aldwell saw the river and its narrow gorges equally an economical opportunity. He sought to harness this raw, massive energy, and so he formed plans to build a hydroelectric dam. With fiscal backing from Chicago investors, the Olympic Ability Company was formed, and the plans for the dam were materialized when structure began, in 1910. Functional in 1913, the Elwha Dam supplied energy to ability the pulp mill in Port Angeles. A growing economic system and a greater need for manufacture led to the determination to build another dam. Past 1927 Glines Canyon Dam was congenital eight miles upstream. Power generated by the dams helped fuel the local economy, but the failure to build fish ladders left the Elwha River with a mere five miles of available habitat for returning anadromous fish. The number of fish returning each year plummeted from 400,000 in the early 1900s to just three,000 after the dams' construction blocked much of the river and its tributaries.

The dams had a number of other serious impacts including sediment and silt blockage behind the dams, erosion of the river banks, and the effects on a huge portion of the park and people that previously relied on the anadromous populations for sustenance.

Defining the Reference Ecosystem

The reference ecosystem is primarily based on

historical data

most ecological attributes at the site prior to degradation.

Reference Ecosystem Description

For millennia, the Elwha River ran wild, connecting mountains and seas in a thriving ecosystem. The Elwha River basin covers over 300 square miles (833 square kilometers), transporting freshwater and sediment from the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Some of the richest runs of salmon outside of Alaska, with crowded upstream to their spawning grounds in the wild Elwha River. The river ran freely through towering forests that sheltered a living community including black bears, cougars, eagles and the Klallam people. Ten different runs of anadromous fish, 11 varieties of salmon and trout, including coho, pink, chum, sockeye and Chinook salmon, along with cutthroat trout, native char and steelhead, fabricated the pristine valley their home. For millennia these fish thrived in the river and provided food for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe who lived along its banks.

Project Goals

Restore the salmon and trout populations to the river.
Restore the river habitat connectivity from the headwaters downwards to the coast.
Minimize presence of invasive, exotic species.
Restore natural ecosystem processes.
Establish native forests.
Comprehensively monitor the changes to the river post-removal including:
- How the rebuilding of salmon populations would unfold
- The response of resident fish populations and other aquatic life to returning salmon populations
- How and when the sediment would redistribute through the organisation
- How speedily the ecosystem would stabilize afterwards full dam removal (peculiarly the erstwhile reservoir areas)
- How released sediment would affect freshwater and marine ecosystems and their biota
- How other animals, such equally ducks, river invertebrates, frogs, and black bears, would respond to dam removal and the render of salmon to the upper parts of the watershed
- How plants would recolonize and whether invasive species would influence re-vegetation in exposed reservoir areas.

Monitoring

Monitoring Details:
The Elwha River Restoration project provides a rare opportunity for scientists to learn what happens when a dam is removed and salmon return to a wild, protected river. Monitoring is being conducted as role of ongoing research efforts. Scientific monitoring and assay for the projection is led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in coordination with the Olympic National Park, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the Bureau of Reclamation, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Bureau, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other local and country entities. Efforts to runway the effects of dam removal on the river include monitoring and analyses of river water and sediment belch, channel morphology, floodplain vegetation, and river geochemistry and nutrients. Researchers continue to monitor the river and nearby wild animals and have already compiled a crucial library of data about the world's largest dam removal and restoration project to date. What they've learned, and how they are measuring success, will be a guiding light for future dam-removal projects.

Stakeholders

The dams' removal was decades in the making and the result of advancement led past the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and conservation groups. Today, although dam removal is consummate, the restoration of the Elwha River and its ecosystem is an ongoing procedure. The National Park Service is working closely with Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and many other partners to achieve those goals.

How this project eliminated existing threats to the ecosystem:
The dams themselves were the largest threat to the ecosystem, altering the natural hydrology and ecosystem of the river. The dams were removed to eliminate this threat.

How this project reinstated advisable physical conditions (e.g. hydrology, substrate)",:
Prior to dam removal, nigh of the river'south natural sediment flow was trapped in reservoirs behind the dams. As the dams came down, over 100 years of accumulated sediment, or xix 1000000 cubic meters, was released downstream, making it the largest controlled release of sediment into a river and marine waters in history.

How this project achieved a desirable species limerick:
The primary objective of the dam removals was to restore the salmon population by expanding their habitat and spawning ground area.

How this projection reinstated structural diversity (eastward.thou. strata, faunal food webs, spatial habitat diversity):
Park botanists and dedicated volunteers have begun the labor intensive task of reestablishing riparian areas by planting more than than 400,000 native plants in the newly exposed sediment. Without the dams blocking sediment flow, the objective was to return sediment to enrich habitat forth the river.

How this projection recovered ecosystem functionality (e.grand. nutrient cycling, institute-animal interactions, normal stressors):
More than than 100 species of wildlife are known to swallow salmon during one or more stages of the salmon'south life wheel. Additionally, nutrients delivered upriver past migrating salmon permeate wildlife food webs near salmon-bearing rivers. Restoring salmon populations and habitat by removing the dams is cardinal to sustaining many species of wild fauna in the riverine environs and restoring ecosystem functionality.

How this project reestablished external exchanges with the surrounding mural (eastward.thousand. migration, factor flow, hydrology):
The two dams were removed to restore the natural hydrology and connectivity of the river.

Ecological Outcomes Achieved

Eliminate existing threats to the ecosystem:
Once removed, the natural hydrology of the river has been renewed and the river ecosystem has begun to exist restored. The full extent of river restoration has yet to exist realized since the project completion is still recent, so the effects of dam removal continue to materialize.

Reinstate appropriate physical conditions",:
The release of 100 years worth of sediment behind the dams acquired elevated water turbidity, changes to the channel shape, and modifications to river habitats, including the renewal of sandy embankment habitat near the nearshore environment where the river ends. Information technology took only nigh two weeks for sediment released from the dams to reach the ocean. Some sites received every bit much as one to three feet of sand every bit the river moved the accumulation from the reservoirs.

Reach a desirable species composition:
It's however as well early to tell how large the rebound volition be for salmon populations and other species populations, but initial results are encouraging. A multitude of species take returned to the park. Developed fish from all the species accept returned, including Chinook , coho. In that location are increases in sockeye salmon and bull trout. Pink and chum populations are still lower than desired, just overall, in that location has been a positive response for the majority of the populations throughout the watershed. Elwha River salmonids accept renewed access to more 70 river miles of pristine spawning habitat protected within the park.

Reinstate structural multifariousness:
The nearshore environs, where the Elwha River meets the ocean is changing in leaps and premises. With renewed sediment flow, sandy beaches are reappearing and nearshore habitat that once provided rich shellfish beds is reemerging. Dungeness crab, shrimp and forage fish liked past salmon, birds and other marine life quickly moved in to colonize the new sandy terrain.

Recover ecosystem functionality:
Elwha River salmonids have renewed access to more than than seventy river miles of pristine and protected spawning habitat. Studies are ongoing to quantify how dam removals impacted salmon-wildlife interactions and river ecosystem functionality as a whole. One recent study found that access to salmon dramatically improves the lives of a riparian bird species called American dippers (Cinclus mexicanus). Even though these dipper populations hadn't seen salmon for 100 years, they rapidly integrated the fish — and their nutrients — back into their diets.

Reestablish external exchanges with the surrounding mural:
The river in one case once more flows completely freely from the headwaters down to the strait, serving equally reestablishing a cardinal connectivity network for the surrounding landscape.

Factors limiting recovery of the ecosystem:
There were a few kelp beds merely off the river'south mouth that were immediately covered with sediment, only overall there is much more than good habitat at present and the impacts have been all positive overall.

Socio-Economical & Community Outcomes Achieved

Cultural dimensions such equally recreational, aesthetic and/or spiritual:
The Elwha River is of keen cultural and spiritual value to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. It is thanks to their advancement that the river restoration project occurred.

Has the projection had any negative consequences for surrounding communities or given rise to new socio-economic or political challenges?:
Some of the renewed river area is non in the national park, and a local community is expressing interest in the new beach. New people are moving in, and they are building closer to the water's edge. That can pb to issues with toxic stormwater runoff and erosion.

Key Lessons Learned

Rivers are highly efficient at transporting sediment. An estimated 2-thirds of the sediment behind the dams has now moved downstream, with 90 percent of it reaching littoral habitats.
Removing dams has immune the river to recreate its natural sediment government.
The dam removal and resulting sediment period led to the re-creation of the estuary, which has moved the mouth of the river almost half a mile further out and provided new habitat for salmon and other species.
These ecosystems can exist very resilient to these large-scale perturbations
It is of import for researchers to call back about the whole variety of creatures that could be impacted and attempt to exercise as much research as possible before dam removal.
For this projection, a lot of baseline research was conducted on bears, the mid-sized carnivore communities, small mammals and amphibians, just the riverine bird community was somewhat disregarded. Dippers were studied, but the other fish-eating birds and the birds at the mouth of the river were not.
Look at dam removal in its entirely, including what happens to the nearshore, and make sure that is a restoration priority. Dam removals should aim to optimize the nearshore environment by letting the sediment come to the shore.

Primary Contact

Organizational Contact

minchewthille.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.ser-rrc.org/project/usa-washington-elwha-dam-removal-and-river-restoration/