The rewilding of the Elwha River: 12 years after dam removal | Oregon Field Guide



It’s been over a decade since two dams came out of the Elwha River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Salmon are returning, cougars, elk, foxes and bears roam 800 acres of newly restored land, and the river runs wild, tearing up the road that ran along its banks. For the first time in over a hundred years, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members can catch salmon on a free-flowing Elwha.

For more stories like this visit OPB online at https://opb.org.

Chapters
0:00 Tribal ceremony for first day of fishing
3:27 Fish biology surveys
5:32 Mammal camera trap surveys
7:35 Tribe fishing


Oregon Public Broadcasting aims to elevate and amplify the community, connect Oregon and its neighbors, and illuminate a wider world through stories. OPB Every Day. OPB Everywhere.

One way to support OPB and the work of public media is to subscribe to our channel for new OPB videos every month: https://www.youtube.com/opb?sub_confirmation=1

Member support makes all the videos on the OPB YouTube channel possible, and everything else you love. Ensure the next important story is covered and join in as a Sustainer now at https://give.opb.org/opb/?s=OAMEGNS220500000

#Elwha #DamRemoval #oregonfieldguide #Salmon #OlympicPeninsula #LowerElwhaKlallamTribe #undamming #OPB #Oregon #PacificNorthWest

source

37 thoughts on “The rewilding of the Elwha River: 12 years after dam removal | Oregon Field Guide”

  1. I have evidence the Elwha Valley hosted a mega-ice tunnel emanating from the sub-glacial Salish Sea over 14 k years ago. This tunnel channel conducted enough water to erode greater volume than the Missoula outflow. The offshore erosional patterns and low mountain pass erosion can be easily seen on Google Earth.

    Reply
  2. This is a miracle. And yet it's not, because people purposefully made this happen. This kind of positive result happens when people work together for the health of the planet and for the health of each other. Thank you to everyone who made this happen for all of us!

    Reply
  3. Can we dare to dream that the same thing might happen on the Columbia – or even the Colorado – one day? And if these miracles should happen, then let's also give them back their original names, so they can truly run free and wild again.

    Reply
  4. It’s amazing the fish could return considering a hundred years of total blockage. Were there no fish passages at those damns? If so it’s unbelievably arrogant of us to think it didn’t matter.

    Reply
  5. Here in Western Oklahoma, the population is really declining. They are talking about making it a park taking out all the fences and putting Buffalo back in.. I don’t know when it will happen but I hope it does!

    Reply
  6. we must, MUST learn to live with nature, instead of having nature live with us. We are (human race) are still very stupid, young and stupid… I’m happy when I see 1:18 smart people doing smart things! ‼️🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

    Reply

Leave a Comment