PORT ANGELES, Wash. – When the dams come down on the Elwha River in 2012, the lake waters will recede, revealing the origins of the Klallam people.

For the first time in almost a century, they will see the rock formations resembling two coiled baskets, where the Creator bathed and blessed the ancestors.

They will see the upper river where salmon returned to continue the cycle of life, their spawned-out carcasses feeding wildlife and their decomposing remains feeding giant cedars and other plant life.

They will see the meadows where the great-grandparents of today’s Klallam hunted, gathered plants for basket making and for medicines, and went on vision quests.

It was along this river that Hunter John lived to the age of 130, his longevity bolstered by a diet of deer, elk, and king salmon rich in Omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin D. Hunter John was a boy when Capt. George Vancouver and the Royal Navy entered Klallam’s territorial waters April 29, 1792. Hunter John died in 1912, the year the Elwha Dam was built.

Klallam educator Jamie Valadez looks forward to ceremonies returning to the creation site.

“It’s going to be just like Tse-whit-zen,” she said, referring to the shoreline village site uncovered during excavation for a since-abandoned state highway project. “That river is sacred. It’s where we were created.”

The dam removal is significant on several levels. First is the reconnection of the Klallam people to land that has been inundated for 100 years. Second, the dam removal will restore habitat for endangered salmon and threatened steelhead populations.

The two dams on the Elwha River created lakes that inundated areas sacred to the Klallam people.

The 108-foot-high Elwha Dam was built in 1912 about 4.9 miles upstream from the mouth of the Elwha River. The 210-foot-high Glines Canyon Dam was built in 1927 about 13 miles upstream from the mouth of the river.

The dams, built to generate electricity for the burgeoning Port Angeles area, created two lakes and cut off salmon from about 70 miles of spawning and rearing habitat.

At one time, salmon runs numbered 400,000, but since the dams were built, the fish have had access only to the lower five miles of the river. Today, some 4,000 fish return to the river each year.

Third, this will be one of the largest dam removal projects in the United States, with a total cost of $308 million. When the dams are removed, scientists will be able to see for the first time how the removal of large dams affects the restoration of ecosystems, fisheries, habitat and vegetation.

Besides their impact on the web of life, the dams are outdated and a threat to the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation downstream; in fact, an earlier dam built in 1910 failed.

About 20 agencies have been preparing for the dams’ removal since Congress approved the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act of 1992. The act authorized the federal government to acquire the dams for decommissioning, demolition and habitat restoration. An environmental impact study was completed in 1994.

The Elwha River Consortium formed – a collaboration of Lower Elwha Klallam, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Consortium researchers documented the current ecological and hydrological state of the river and published the research in a series of articles in the journal “Northwest Science.”

“The removal of the two dams on the Elwha River is one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken to restore prime fish habitat,” USGS ecologist Jeff Duda told Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission News. “It is vital to learn as much as possible about the effects of dam removal on large wilderness rivers and restoration of salmon populations.”

The research is important because the number of aging dams nearing life expectancy in the U.S. will increase in the next several decades, Duda said, and information on the ecological effects of dam removal will help decision makers and the public evaluate future dam removal projects.

Besides the obvious cultural, environmental and fisheries impacts of the dams’ removal, the research found that black bears may alter their seasonal movement and denning patterns to take advantage of energy-rich spawning salmon. Eagle populations and other wildlife are expected to benefit from the return of spawning salmon on the upper river.

In 2005, Lower Elwha Klallam started a steelhead broodstock program to ensure that remaining Elwha River steelhead weren’t wiped out during deconstruction of the dams.

Every summer since Lower Elwha Klallam has collected steelhead fry from the river and raised them in its hatchery. The fry collected are believed to be remnants of the river’s naturally spawning stock. Fry collected in 2005 are now 4 years old and were spawned this spring; their progeny are expected to be released as 2 year olds in 2011.

“We’ve found that wild steelhead tend to emigrate to the ocean as 2 year olds, so we’ll try to rear them to that age before we release them,” said Larry Ward, a tribal fisheries biologist. “We’ve been successful at raising the 2005 stock to spawning maturity, so things are going well so far.”

This year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration invested almost $57 million in projects to prepare the Elwha River basin for the removal of the dams. Among the projects: Preparing the river’s floodplain for the expected release of 20 million cubic feet of sediment trapped behind the dams.

“Historically, this river used to have several natural channels and drainages,” said Jim Balsiger of NMFS. “We want to ensure that the river quickly returns to its natural state when the Elwha’s dams are removed.”

The tribe is building 20 engineered logjams, removing three manmade dikes, replacing two culverts with a larger culvert and a bridge, and planting native vegetation. This work will help improve the river’s function ahead of the dams’ removal.

Lastly, this project is significant because of the career opportunities it’s creating for Klallam people in restoration of the Elwha River basin and its ecosystem. Scientists say up to 50 years of monitoring will be required to assess the effectiveness of dam removal on the recovery of Elwha River salmon, their aquatic habitats, and the food webs of which they are an integral part.

Bea Charles (1919-2009) spoke of the day the river would be restored and the salmon would return in the book “The Elwha River and Its People.”

“I may not see the abundance of fish come back in my lifetime, but I would like to see it come back for my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, and the rest of my people, the following generations to come. It was a gift from our Creator. It was our culture and heritage.”

To better understand the ecological changes that will take place when the dams are removed, click below:

Glines Canyon Dam

Elwha Dam