Day 13 Olympic National Park- Salmon & Dam Removal

Patrick gave a great lecture today about Salmon and dam removal. Salmon are considered a keystone species because they have an important impact on multiple trophic levels. They are also an indicator species, meaning you can tell the overall health of the river ecosystem because they use the whole river system from the still water to the rapids. If the salmon are healthy, the river is healthy. The Endangered Species Act protects species, subspecies and distinct population species of Salmon. I thought it was interesting that one species can be protected in some areas and hunted in another. It is also possible for a type of salmon to be protected in one river and not protected in another river.
There are about 400 types of salmon in the Pacific NW, now only 200 remain. This is probably due to the fact that there are 150 dams along the Columbia River. Salmon do not adapt well to this, or other activities that disturb their habitat such as logging. The "solution" to this is to create salmon hatcheries, but the salmon are not as robust and they don't do well. They are also creating competition between the native salmon, and the native populations are starting to actually decline. The state also tried to reduce harvest of salmon, but it is creating political problems.
We also spoke about Olympic National Park. Their goal is to preserve the Roosevelt Elk herd and old growth forest. This goal of conservation is somewhat unusual for the creation of a National Park, as it is usually founded on tourism. Olympic National Park has one of the largest undisturbed natural shorelines. The park is protected by the Wilderness Act, which means it is largely untouched by man, and it has opportunity for traditional recreational actives. There is no hunting, timber, or even pavement. I thought that was really interesting. One of the challenges is that a lot of people want to hike at Olympic so it's hard to keep the area pristine.
The Elwah Dam was built in 1912 without a permit and was inside of the Nat'l Park with the unique mission statement to protect the area... yet there was a dam upstream. After years of debate, it was finally decided that it was not economically viable to update the dam, and it would be beneficial to the salmon if it was removed. Lots of sediment was released after the removal, which harmed the river for some time, but it was unavoidable. It will take at least ten years to restore the river to somewhat natural conditions. The removal gave many opportunities for scientists to study the impacts of dam removal on the river. It is also a model of how to rebuilt habitat. I was surprised to learn that after dam removal, it takes over 100 years for it to be visibly back to normal, if ever, I didn't realize it takes so long for the ecosystem to fully bounce back. I am interested to watch and see how the Elwah is restored over time, and what kinds of strides will be made in other dam removals from to the knowledge we gain from Elwah.

Our Campsite along the Elwah River