Stretching from the Olympic Mountains down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Elwha River Watershed includes some majestic scenery and it is home to many species of fish and wildlife. (More than 80 percent of the watershed is protected within the Olympic National Park.) For centuries, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and their ancestors have also called the watershed home; many of the tribe’s most important spiritual sites are located along the Elwha River. Today, many different groups of people use the watershed for recreational, residential, commercial, and industrial purposes.
In the early 1900s, two dams were built on the river that had significant effects on the watershed. Some resources were lost--for example, some of the tribe’s spiritual sites were covered by the dams and their reservoirs. Other resources (such as salmon) were negatively impacted by ecosystem changes caused by the dams. Still other resources were positively affected by the dams--for example, the reservoirs created by the dams provided new lake habitat for the trumpeter swans and new recreational opportunities for visitors.
Under the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act, these dams are scheduled to be removed beginning in 2012. Overall, resources in the Elwha watershed are expected to be affected positively by the dam removals. However, there will be tradeoffs for many resources. For instance, some areas of land will be flooded when the dams are removed--but hundreds of acres of land underneath the dams and their reservoirs will be uncovered as well. In some cases, it may be possible to compensate for resources lost as a result of the dam removal (for example, by redeveloping other areas of land for the same purpose as the flooded land).
There are many key resource management questions to consider before, during, and after the dams are removed. As part of the Elwha Restoration Project, many groups are working to develop resource management strategies that minimize (or compensate for) adverse effects to watershed resources, where possible.
Learn more about resource management on the Elwha project by clicking on the links below:
Key Management Questions: The Elwha dam removal and restoration project is one of the largest in U.S. history, and many resource management questions must be considered at each phase of the project.
Biological Opinions: Several federally listed threatened species (such as the Chinook salmon) live in the Elwha watershed. When a species is listed, it is assigned to a trustee agency that is responsible for protecting it. The trustee must review any proposed federal actions (such as dam removal) that might affect the species and issue a biological opinion assessing the implications--several of which have been issued for the Elwha Restoration Project.
Environmental Impact Statements: The National Park Service, as the lead federal agency on the Elwha Restoration Project, has prepared several Environmental Impact Statements for this project.
Brownfields Cleanup: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has developed a program to identify contaminated sites (brownfields sites) that could be restored with the help of a federal grant. The tribe is already in the process of reclaiming several sites; however, cleaning up additional sites may provide a land restoration option for land that will be flooded when the dams are removed.
Land Use: The land within the Elwha River watershed has many uses, including recreational and residential. Some land use activities will be permanently affected once the dams are removed, while others may only be temporarily affected during the removal process.