0:00

Mendel Skulski: Hey! Welcome back. This is part two of our

0:04

two part series on dams. We're calling this episode Rushing

0:08

Downriver. Music: [Sploosh, with watery noises underscoring] Mendel Skulski: If you haven't already listened to part one,

0:11

you might want to put this on pause while you go get caught

0:14

Music: [Watery noise picks up into steady, synthy music with

0:14

up. gusts of wind and cunching of sand coming in the interview]

0:34

Anne Shaffer: But you guys should see this, I mean- Dave Parks: So right here was there shore face, prior to dam

0:42

removal. Mendel Skulski: Wow . . . wow.

0:44

Dave Parks: Yeah. So prior to the dam removal, this was the-we

0:48

would be in about 10 feet of water right here and the beach

0:54

ended right there, former shoreline.

0:57

Mendel Skulski: This is something like 400 or 500 feet

0:59

of sandbar sedimentation has come in the last six years.

1:05

Anne Shaffer: [The riverbed] was raised by three meters and then

1:09

pushed off 100 meters. So the actual river mouth is 100 meters

1:13

North of where it was and then deposited this delta of about

1:18

100 acres. Mendel Skulski: That's interesting.

1:21

Adam Huggins: In that protective nook. Mendel Skulski: Okay, perfect. Ok what's the best? Best to have

1:27

the mic in the nook and then... Adam Huggins: Oh my goodness, yes. That's a great spot.

1:31

Mendel Skulski: [Laughs] There we go. [Only the steady, synthy music underscores now]

1:34

Anne Shaffer: So there are a few, there like a fistful of

1:37

lessons, that have come from the Elwha. And the two that I try to

1:42

impart every time I talk to somebody about the project is:

1:48

these projects take a long time. They take a long time-they

1:53

shouldn't-they're-it's not rocket science, this isn't, but

1:56

they do. So-so you can't give up. You just can't.

2:00

Music: [Music deepens with popping before dropping into an

2:16

intense, chilling electronic song with ecoing snaps and

2:18

seagulls] Introduction voiceover: Broadcasting from Vancouver, British

2:23

Columbia, on the unseeded territories of the Musqueam,

2:26

Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples, this is Future

2:30

Ecologies, where your hosts, Adam Huggins and Mendel Skulski,

2:35

explore the future of human habitation on planet earth

2:38

through ecology, design, and sound.

2:53

Mendel Skulski: Before the break, you heard Adam and I getting introduced to the Pacific Northwest's newest

2:58

beach. It's located at the mouth of the Elwha River, which is on

3:02

the northern end of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.

3:07

Elwha's scenario is actually quite different from the

3:10

Klamath. This whole battle took place inside of a national park,

3:13

plus the nearshore, with a very different set of stakeholders.

3:18

It wasn't a case of farmers versus fishermen. In fact, in

3:22

some ways, it may have been much simpler. But still, the dam

3:26

removal wasn't settled practically until the walls came

3:28

down. In this episode, we'll move from the uncertain future

3:32

of the Klamath River to a watershed in the midst of

3:35

recovery, examining what it took to reach dam removal, and what

3:39

happened afterwards. Music: [Water over riverrocks washes over previous music]

3:49

Mendel Skulski: Our tour guides were Anne Shaffer: Anne Shaffer: I'm Anne Shaffer, I'm the lead scientist and

3:54

executive director of the Coastal Watershed Institute...

3:58

Mendel Skulski: ...and her husband, Dave Parks:

4:00

Dave Parks: I'm Dave Parks. I'm a geologist with the Washington

4:03

Department of Natural Resources and a cooperator with the

4:07

Coastal Watershed Institute. Music: [Cyclical, tapping music underscores] Mendel Skulski: The Elwha River was host to two dams, known as

4:13

the Elwha and the Glines Canyon Dams. Both were built in the

4:17

early 20th century in the hydroelectric craze which swept

4:20

North America, and they were demolished in 2012 and 2014, at

4:25

the conclusion of a bitter, multi-decade fight for their

4:28

removal. The Elwha Dam was constructed between 1910 and

4:32

1914, six years before the existence of the Federal Power

4:36

Commission, so the Elwha Dam predated the requirement for an

4:40

operating license. It didn't, however, predate the laws

4:43

requiring fish passage; it just ignored them.

4:51

Music: [Music shines through with brighter tonal chords] Mendel Skulski: And construction was shoddy. The dam was built on

4:56

gravel, not bedrock. The lower section blew out after a heavy

5:00

rain in 1912. In case you don't already know, the Elwha

5:04

Watershed is the homeland of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, a

5:08

sovereign nation recognized by the US Federal Government. The

5:12

1912 failure of the Elwha Dam is known to the Klallam as "the day

5:16

the fish were in the trees"-several homes were

5:18

destroyed in the flood. And despite this, the dam was a

5:22

financial success. The owners of the Elwha Dam courted investors

5:26

to build a second dam, further upriver. The Glines Canyon Dam

5:30

was built by 1927. While the Elwha Dam put the Klallam under

5:34

personal peril, the Glines Canyon Dam delivered spiritual

5:38

violence: flooding the valley where it was said, the creator

5:41

pulled the Klallam from the Earth. Music: [A mournful nighttime howl or birdcall is heard, then

5:46

the music is replaced with only undercurrents of water and

5:48

dripping] Adam Huggins: First: Darkness.

5:56

Music: [Angelic tones, like stained glass and summertime join in the following audio]

6:01

Adam Huggins: Then slowly: Orange. There is only Orange and

6:03

Music: [Deep synthy tones harmonize the angelic ones]

6:09

the taste of Salt, the taste of Yearning. Your whole world is a

6:14

sphere; jostled gently by the current, but your Waters are

6:19

still. Your body is not still, you wiggle and stretch, testing

6:25

your limits, pining to be free

6:31

Adam Huggins: Beyond your sphere, your eyes resolve the

6:33

movements of others. Your Sisters, your Brothers,

6:39

thousands of siblings, quietly growing in the cold water, in

6:43

the gravel bed, biding their time.

6:45

[Music resolves into a meloncholy piano] Mendel Skulski: As early as the 1960s the effect of the Elwha

6:56

and Glines Canyon Dams on salmon populations was already clear.

7:00

As with the Klamath Dams, the opportunity for any sort of

7:03

change would come with a cycle of FERC relicensing. Remember,

7:07

all dams need to be periodically relicensed by the Federal Energy

7:11

Regulatory Commission, or FERC, for short.

7:15

Ryan Hilperts: As the relicensing date was coming up,

7:17

there was this-there was this coalition of people that came

7:20

together in favor of making recommendations for the salmon

7:25

to be returned. And so, it was the Sierra Club, the Friends of

7:28

the Earth, Seattle Audubon and Olympic Park associates, which

7:32

is an organization, that's a citizen organization that's

7:35

interested in preserving and helping out the Olympic Park.

7:40

They collaborated together to intervene in the FERC

7:44

relicensing so it didn't just get to be a rubber stamp

7:48

operation, these-these groups of activists and people had made a

7:52

coalition and they intervened there. And so it sparked a big

7:56

debate and so it was through, the through the 80s that that,

8:00

as the licensing process was happening, there was this big

8:03

debate being built about whether or not the dams could be made

8:07

reasonable for ecological health or if they should be taken out

8:10

altogether. Music: [Heavy beat with echoing claps starts underscoring]

8:20

Mendel Skulski: That's Ryan Hilperts. She's an instructor at

8:23

the School of Environmental Studies at the University of

8:26

Victoria, and director of the Red Fish School of Change. You

8:30

may recall her voice from the top of part one, speaking about

8:33

restory-ing landscapes, as a way to build our relationships with

8:36

the places around us, but more on that later. In the lead up to

8:41

the demolition of the Elwha Dams, Ryan researched the

8:43

relationship between community engagement and the long term

8:46

success of large-scale ecological restoration projects.

8:50

Generations had passed since the dams had been built. Locals on

8:54

the Olympic Peninsula had grown up with the reservoirs and had

8:57

fond memories of swimming and fishing on these young lakes,

9:01

the electricity the dams provided had supported the

9:03

regional industry through the 20th century: forestry

9:06

especially. Ryan Hilperts: I did get the sense that . . . that there's a

9:10

bit of a cultural shift happening on the Olympic

9:12

Peninsula. And people have lived who have lived there for

9:15

generations had the-had the memories in their families of

9:20

the Park's annexation of a lot of private land. And, you know,

9:27

so, so, aside from the whole Elwha project, the National Park

9:31

well, you know, it wasn't always just a national park, people

9:33

live there. And as the National Parks' boundaries sort of

9:36

expanded over the years, they would, they bought a bunch of

9:40

inholdings in the park. And people have opinions about that,

9:44

you know, and so I think there's a bit of that, there's a thread

9:47

of that that was a part of what people felt in opposition. And

9:51

then also, you know, in the 90s, logging on the peninsula, was a

9:57

really important industry and then through the 90s there was

9:59

this whole thing that happened with the Spotted Owl in the

10:02

forest [Spotted Owl cry] there, it's on the endangered species

10:04

list and it created-the creation of the Northwest Forest Plan and

10:09

really severely impacted the logging industry on the

10:12

peninsula. And there's a perception here, I think a

10:16

pretty accurate perception, that those changes came about from

10:21

federal agencies and organizations, of people,

10:27

environmental organizations, people who don't actually live on the Olympic Peninsula who live in Seattle, and live in

10:31

Washington, DC, and organize for conservation purposes. And I

10:36

think people on the Peninsula in the 90s and into the 2000s . . .

10:41

still felt that they were in the crosshairs of-of that struggle

10:45

over what can be done on the land.

10:49

Mendel Skulski: Tensions over the removal of the dams eventually grew into a national, partisan battle. Many people of

10:55

Port Angeles felt threatened by the changes called for by

10:57

environmentalists. They appeared as outsiders, happy to cast

11:01

opinions about a cloudy coast, they may never have visited,

11:04

homesteads and lands had once been annexed and absorbed into

11:08

Olympic National Park, and the memory of that loss had not yet

11:11

Ryan Hilperts: And people love the Peninsula because they love

11:11

faded. the place and they love the land and they love the forest and

11:22

they engage with the land, you know. And then the park is

11:26

a-park is a magnet for people from all these other places to

11:29

come. And it's managed by people from other places and people who

11:32

work the park. Some of them stay there for their whole careers,

11:36

but a lot of you know the Parkies, in Port Angeles, come

11:39

in seasonally, and leave so there's a bit of a-I don't want

11:44

to over characterize that divide-but-but there is a bit of

11:48

a divide there that I think . . . breeds a bit of a . . .

11:54

suspicion or . . . resentment is kind of a strong word, but just

12:00

protectiveness of autonomy that's challenged by having big

12:04

federal agency control, like a majority of the land that's near

12:07

where you live. Music: [Silence, then a gentle trickling of a riffle Adam Huggins: Weeks have passed. The Yolk is gone. Your egg,

12:28

dissolved. The light of the shallows beckons. You and your

12:33

fellow fry have developed a taste for insects humming at the

12:37

water's surface. Life is easy and playful. The water is sweet

12:42

and fresh. After only days, a few impatient siblings head

12:47

downriver into the unknown. [Bubble noise] You will stay for

12:50

a few months. Some may linger for several years.

12:59

Music: [Trickling riffle gives way into an upbeat electronic beat] Mendel Skulski: But after decades of debate, the National

13:08

Park Service finally came out in favor of dam removal in the

13:11

early 1990s. Ryan Hilperts: Some of the arguments that were really

13:14

effectively made were that the cost of bringing it up to code

13:18

essentially, out, you know, outweighed any of the benefits

13:24

of having the dams in place. They weren't, by that point,

13:27

they weren't producing very much electricity for the North

13:29

Olympic Peninsula. They had originally been built to help

13:33

kind of prop up this timber industry. And they were

13:38

supplying electricity to the mills and things like that. And

13:40

at this-by this point in history, that power was coming

13:44

from someplace else, and there wasn't as much, as much need for

13:48

them. So there's-there were pragmatic reasons that it didn't

13:51

make sense to upgrade the dams.

13:54

Mendel Skulski: Then in 1992, president George H.W. Bush

13:58

signed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act.

14:02

With that, came federal authorization to identify a path

14:05

to full restoration of the river.

14:10

Music: [Upbeat electronic beat breaks through] Mendel Skulski: Rivers are the link between land and sea. No

14:17

ecosystem could ever be considered simple, but rivers

14:19

present uniquely challenging restoration projects. Rivers

14:23

pass sediment, wood, and nutrients downstream, dropping

14:26

debris along their banks-home to staggering biodiversity. And

14:30

some nutrients return to the l nd, in the form of salmon and

14:33

ther anadromous fish migrating p the river to spawn and die.

14:37

Music: [Upbeat music then fades into riffle trickling noises]

14:52

Adam Huggins: You and your fellow fry learn quickly in the

14:55

clear, cold, sweet waters of your home. For now, you look

15:00

more like a tiny glimmer of silver than the King Salmon you

15:03

will become. To survive until then, you must be fast. The

15:08

Goals will not reach you behind boulders, the mouths of hungry

15:11

Bass and Sculpins can't chase you under branches. Gifts of

15:15

safety from upriver. Floods threatened to wash you away

15:19

before your time, but you find refuge in the many side

15:22

channels. Life is dangerous, but the river provides.

15:26

Mendel Skulski: At the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula,

15:40

just across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Vancouver Island,

15:43

Port Angeles is 15 minutes from the Elwha River. Living and

15:47

working in Port Angeles since the early 1990s, Anne Schaefer

15:50

and Dave Parks have been studying the Elwha nearshore,

15:53

where the river meets the ocean.

15:56

Music: [Gentle wind and waves backdrop the audio] Anne Shaffer: The first time I heard about the dam removal

15:59

project, we were living in Seattle, and I think I don't

16:04

even remember who I'd heard about it from. But I was

16:08

interested in doing a study looking at the estuary prior to

16:11

the dam removal happening. This was-this was prior to the actual

16:16

enabling legislation, which was in 1992. And one of my first

16:21

recollections of the project was arguing with the project

16:25

manager, Brian Winter, at the National Park, who, and I'll

16:30

never forget it, stated, quote, unquote, "that the near shore

16:33

was not a part of the project". And so from that day forward, it

16:38

was a very keen focus of mine, as a marine biologist, to-to

16:44

really get a handle and some vision on the near shore aspect

16:49

of the dam removal project. Mendel Skulski: Biodiversity flourishes at boundaries, where

16:54

different environments blur together. The nearshore is no

16:58

exception. Anne Shaffer: And the nearshore system is such a critical

17:02

component to all the species that are at the heart of the

17:05

rest-or ecosystem restoration project.

17:08

Mendel Skulski: The nearshore is a place for young anadromous

17:10

fish to adapt from river life to the open ocean. It's hosts to

17:14

incredible numbers of algae, invertebrates and plants. And

17:18

it's the foundation of the food web for many birds; the

17:22

jurisdiction for dam removal had been defined by the borders of

17:25

the Olympic National Park, which does not include the river mouth

17:28

and the nearshore. Despite that, Anne knew that categorically

17:32

ignoring the estuary would be a glaring omission in the project,

17:36

and a huge missed opportunity for research.

17:39

Anne Shaffer: There were elements to it that nobody was looking at, and one of the most basic questions of what is the

17:46

relative contribution of the river and the bluffs to the

17:50

sediment dynamics of the littoral system? And nobody

17:53

could answer that, which is shocking when you think about

17:56

the scale of the project and that was going to unfold and in

17:59

the important thing to remember with the Elwha project is it's a

18:02

sediment project. And so when you release two dams, you do

18:07

restore the fish passage aspect but that's not the critical

18:11

ecosystem component to it, it's the real linking of the

18:14

hydrodynamic processes, and that translates to the nearshore as

18:19

well. Adam Huggins: When you say, you say, "littoral", you're not

18:21

meaning literally? Anne Shaffer: The littoral system.

18:25

Dave Parks: Littoral: L-I-T-T-O-R-A-L. Music: [Electronic swaying music enters]

18:32

Mendel Skulski: The littoral system essentially means: the

18:35

shoreline. It includes the waters of the intertidal and the

18:38

shallow edge of the ocean. Music: [Holds a slightly, discordant tone, rising in pitch

18:55

before fading into a triumphant piano] Adam Huggins: One night-restless-you feel a call

19:05

for change. Tail first, by moonlight. You let the current carry you.

19:16

You wind downriver past eddies, over riffles, rapids, and falls.

19:21

Music: [Piano fades under and plays steadily with riverwater

19:23

sounds] Adam Huggins: You notice a new taste . . . No.

19:28

An old taste. The first taste: Salt. You've reached the

19:35

estuary, where Sweetwater meets the Sea. You'll rest here a

19:39

while, learn to eat crustaceans and grow.

19:45

Music: [Piano plays with some small oceanic noises and long, sustained tones, then into watery noises]

19:55

Anne Shaffer: So many of the species that are central to the

19:59

nearshore ecosystem restoration project have life history phases

20:03

that are literally dependent on the nearshore. So the juvenile

20:08

salmon that are outmigrating from the river, use the near

20:11

shore to rear, to feed, to rest, and to transition into their

20:15

marine and offshore phases. There are smelt species that are

20:19

anadromous that will migrate along the shoreline and then

20:22

come up the river to spawn, there are lamprey species that

20:25

are very critical to the ecosystem of the watershed. And

20:29

then there are also smelt species that will use the

20:32

shoreline for migration and spawning-they actually spawn on

20:35

intertidal beaches, as do Sand Lance-and those are collectively

20:39

called forage fish, and forage fish are the basis, for again,

20:43

our coastal system, everything from, you know, salmon to killer

20:48

whales depend on them. So and, without the nearshore, we don't

20:52

have the species, we just don't have them. Mendel Skulski: The nearshore, the estuary is built out of

20:57

sediment, erosion in the watershed, which ends up at the

21:01

river mouth as silt and sand. The amount of sediment at the

21:05

nearshore is in equilibrium; it's replenished by the river

21:09

and washed away by the tides. When a dam is built, this

21:13

balance is lost; sediment accumulates behind the dam and

21:17

the beautiful, complex nearshore ebbs away.

21:21

Anne Shaffer: It's a key component to the ecosystem. It's

21:23

its own zone in the ecosystem, and without it, the rest of the

21:28

watershed doesn't function. Mendel Skulski: Of course, to understand the estuary and the

21:33

pressures put upon it by the dam, it takes significant

21:35

resources: time, personnel, and of course, funding.

21:41

Music: [Deep, echoing electronic music with snaps is recalled]

21:43

Mendel Skulski: Anne and Dave made a personal commitment to study the nearshore and the Klallan were doing the same. But

21:49

as long as funding remained uncertain, no university would

21:52

spare a grad student. There was no institutional support to

21:56

study the Elwha nearshore. Music: [Music fades back to running water]

21:59

Anne Shaffer: Enabling legislation was enacted in 1992.

22:02

That legislation was actually the resolution of a lawsuit by

22:08

the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe against the Olympic National

22:11

Park for violating their Treaty Trust Responsibility. The dam

22:15

removal legislation was a settlement of that lawsuit. So

22:19

that was enacted in 1992, and then it took 25 years of

22:24

planning and political, you know, shenanigans, and it was a

22:29

long, long process, it took 13 appropriations. And for those of

22:35

us that worked on the project over its entirety, we never knew

22:39

if or when the project was actually going to happen.

22:42

Mendel Skulski: Then in 2009, the Obama administration issued

22:46

an economic stimulus package, which included $54 million for

22:50

the Olympic National Park, much of which was earmarked for the

22:54

dam removals. From there, the race was on, to collect as much

22:58

baseline data as possible. Anne Shaffer: But as soon as the final pieces of funding dropped

23:05

into place, everybody was out here. So a lot of the data sets

23:10

start about two years before the dam removal. And there, we

23:13

started getting a lot of the nearshore data. So then you

23:16

start seeing some of these other richer data sets. And so that

23:21

was really what did it-it was-it was that last gap in the

23:25

funding, when that dropped into place, bam, everybody was out

23:28

here. Mendel Skulski: Most of what we know about the state of the

23:31

river prior to dam removal comes from only 18 months of data

23:35

between the stimulus package and the start of demolition.

23:38

Finally, almost exactly a century after they were built,

23:43

the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams were carefully broken apart.

23:47

Once again, the Elwha River flowed free and 100 years of

23:51

sediment was released. Anne Shaffer: And I have to say ever since that project, every

24:00

time I hear a jackhammer, [Jackhammer rattles away] I

24:03

just, it just warms my heart, [Laughs] you know which I've

24:06

never had that attitude before, so.

24:11

Music: [Deep, clacking tones from the depths echo into

24:13

silence] Adam Huggins: You make your rounds through the shallows and

24:22

sandbanks: patterns that shift, but always repeat. You notice

24:26

some krill in the shallows, but they're not worth your while. A

24:30

shimmer catches your eye, a school of smelt, you flank them,

24:35

deftly into a corner and snatch one to make your meal. It dawns

24:40

on you that you no longer fit as easily into the side channels,

24:44

under the branches, or behind the boulders. It hardly matters.

24:49

Predators rarely bother you these days. You've grown, and

24:53

your power has grown with you. Your estuary once so large and

24:58

Labyrinthine has softened in its mystery, your next move is upon

25:03

you, and you venture out into the depths.

25:09

Music: [The same tones are sounded again, gently underscoring] Mendel Skulski: And just as soon as the dam came down, the fish

25:19

were back. Dave Parks: As soon as, as soon as you pull the dam out, those

25:26

the fish are in there, just how fast these habitats become used.

25:32

They they make use of the available habitat very quickly.

25:36

Some within, literally within hours-

25:38

Anne Shaffer: -We've seen a transition. And almost

25:41

immediately, we saw this whole new . . . It was like Christmas.

25:46

Mendel Skulski: Animals that had never been seen before in the nearshore were suddenly being documented. Fish like hooligan,

25:51

redside shiner and lamprey. Anne Shaffer: Now the sense is, my intuition, just from working

25:57

out here for so long-and the data are starting to show

26:00

it-things seem to be stabilizing. Mendel Skulski: But the story of a river renewal is almost as

26:05

nuanced as the river itself.

26:07

Anne Shaffer: But the other feature that dominates, and this

26:11

is what we've seen from our sampling, that dominates the

26:13

system are the hatcheries. We have two hatcheries that operate

26:17

in the Lower Elwha. One's operated by the Lower Elwha

26:20

Klallam Tribe, and they release Coho and Steelhead, and then the

26:24

other is the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

26:27

hatchery and they release upwards of 2 million.

26:30

Mendel Skulski: And the return of the nearshore has created habitat for more than just fish and shorebirds. The Pacific

26:36

Northwest's newest beach has become a quick hit with the

26:39

local human population. Anne Shaffer: As this delta evolves and grows-it's grown by

26:46

just about 80 acres-it's become very popular for people, and

26:50

it's basically become a dog park. And so now we're having

26:53

this intersection between the evolving and restoring

26:58

ecosystem- Adam Huggins: -and canines-

27:03

Anne Shaffer: -and people that own them. Music: [Dogs barking, then pointed synth music fades in]

27:07

Mendel Skulski: It's all too easy to think of ecosystem

27:09

restoration as a time machine, a way to turn back the clock and

27:14

undo the damage we've sown in our Industrial Age. But that's

27:18

not how dynamic systems work. The conditions are different

27:22

now. And change, begets change.

27:25

Anne Shaffer: The thing that we really have to now again, we're

27:28

having to manage for, is because this has become such a

27:31

destination. Now, like I say, immediately what's happening is

27:34

people are challenging it again. So in ways that I don't think

27:38

they would have otherwise because there is such a nice

27:41

beach here and it, you know, it does have the caché, the Elwha

27:45

caché. So now we are seeing, you know, extra development, extra,

27:49

you know, increase in real estate rates.

27:53

Mendel Skulski: The near shoreprovides all sorts of ecosystem services, some of which have direct impacts to

27:58

human capital. A healthy near shore comes with flood

28:01

protection and short breaks, making coastal development that

28:05

much more appealing. Music: [Music breaks through before dropping and flattening

28:17

into a deep twinkling night like the depths of the sea]

28:20

Adam Huggins: Out at sea, the world is deep and boundless.

28:25

Your juvenile years are a distant memory. you've traveled,

28:30

seen wonders, monsters, and sights beyond imagination. You

28:35

rise towards the waves and feel a small tug inside of you. A

28:41

magnet in your mind, your blood pulses with new hormones, and

28:46

you can feel them rebuilding your body one cell at a time.

28:50

You recall a faraway taste. You're going home.

29:09

Music: [Low, profound tones underscore] Mendel Skulski: In as much as ecosystem restoration is a human

29:22

project, the measure of its success lives in the minds of

29:26

people, especially those who call that land home. This kind

29:30

of success is not based on data points, and checklists, and

29:34

mandates. It's sustained by the stories we tell our personal

29:38

connection to our world. Ryan Hilperts explains:

29:41

Music: [Deep, pulsing music from Part 1: Swimming Upstream is recalled] Ryan Hilperts: As we build relationships with each other

29:43

through story, we build relationship with place through

29:46

story. And, you know, the places where people are building

29:51

stories. And building relationship with place I think

29:55

is, this sort of like, the connective tissue of of what the

30:00

potential focal restoration can be, you know, in the, in the: we

30:04

build a web and a reciprocity with land when we and water when

30:11

we-when we know it in the way that it's a character in our

30:14

stories and we're a character in its story.

30:17

Music: [Resonant, acoustic notes begin and reverberate] Mendel Skulski: Realistically, major projects such as dam

30:25

removals, require huge budgets, planning and clear definitions.

30:29

These projects can only be taken on by government-scale entities.

30:33

Their approach to restoration is necessarily bureaucratic and

30:37

technological, and it seems like the only way to marshal the

30:39

people and the resources required. Ryan Hilperts: That's not to say that people who work

30:43

professionally in restoration, don't have stories with place,

30:47

you know, but if we, but if we can see the restoration in the

30:50

way it excludes people who aren't engaged with it

30:53

professionally, then-then we lose this opportunity to build

30:57

all that: that web of support for a place, for communities to.

31:03

Mendel Skulski: So, focal community engagement means

31:05

talking about the land, making art about the land, and above

31:09

all, getting as many people as possible to have experiences

31:13

with the land. Ryan Hilperts: Partnerships with unlikely partners I think is

31:19

important. So, partnerships with elementary schools, and

31:23

environmental education programs, and math classes,

31:31

and-you know-organizations for new immigrants, like refugee

31:35

support agencies, I mean, thinking outside of the box of

31:39

just your conservation groups, to, to think about who, who

31:46

cares for this place now and who will care for this place like,

31:50

you know, finding ways to have all the different kinds of

31:54

knowledge and all the different kinds of wisdom and all the

31:56

different kinds of stories be a part of how decisions get made

32:01

about restoration is probably what we should be aiming for.

32:05

Because diversity is better. Yeah, and it's we can't be-it's

32:10

like you can really put that on a checklist for restoration.

32:25

Music: [Soft, resonant acoustic notes play, before a wave washes over and somber piano from music from Part 1: Swimming Upstream

32:29

is recalled] Mendel Skulski: So, with so much uncertainty, what's the story

32:38

with the Klamath now? Adam Huggins: Well, the dams are still there. And salmon

32:43

populations have reached historic lows in recent years.

32:47

But even though the Klamath Basin restoration agreement fell

32:49

apart after Congress blocked it, it looks like the dams might

32:53

still come out. Ironically, though, some of the concessions

32:57

and measures to protect farmers and irrigation districts-that

33:00

were a big part of that deal-they died with it in

33:03

Congress. And without those measures, many of the

33:07

constituents of the representatives that torpedoed

33:09

the deal are going to suffer. You might say that ideology

33:14

trumps self-interest in this case. Erica Terrence: It is a really interesting political

33:17

phenomenon, and it hasn't completely played itself out,

33:19

right? Like some of those guys are still in office. But there

33:22

was a lot of frustration on the part of these Federal Irrigation

33:25

Districts that were trying really hard to bridge this gulf

33:29

between communities, and, you know, here, all these people

33:32

overcame their differences and went to Congress people and

33:35

said, here, we did it for you. Adam Huggins: And even though Congress passed, there was still

33:39

so much momentum for dam removal, that the primary

33:42

stakeholders sat down again to figure out how to at least take

33:44

the dams out, which resulted in the Klamath Hydroelectric

33:48

Settlement Agreement. Erica Terrence: So now, there is an amended Klamath Hydroelectric

33:51

Settlement Agreement, which is the KHSA you were talking about,

33:55

and basically what happened, you know, there was a lot of

33:59

campaigning political pressure put on PacifiCore that owns the

34:02

dams, to the point where PacifiCore eventually said, this

34:07

is not worth the bad press, we'll take dams out. So what we

34:12

did as a mechanism, you know, the legislation failed in

34:15

Congress. So who's gonna actually do the work? Who's

34:18

going to take the dams out? It's not going to be the feds. It's

34:21

not going to be tribes. So who is it going to be? And what they

34:25

ended up doing was forming a corporation, right? That could

34:28

take liability, that could accrue the funds, you know, and

34:33

handle the money. And that's what happened. So now we have

34:35

this Klamath River Renewal Corperation, which is crazy, but

34:38

kind of cool, too. I mean, it is this corporate model, right?

34:43

It's like a corporation built those dams and a corporation's

34:45

gonna take those dams down! Adam Huggins: There's still one last major hurdle to clear. The

34:51

FERC still has to sign off on the agreement. And right now,

34:55

four out of the five FERC commissioners are Trump

34:58

appointees. Not the high profile ones that show up in our news

35:02

feeds. But still, it's enough to make me concerned that a sort of

35:06

pro-dam ideology could prevail again.

35:08

Erica Terrence: I think it is a worry, but what we've heard or

35:11

had telegraphed, even out of the Trump administration,

35:13

interestingly, is that they won't block it.

35:16

Adam Huggins: So if everything goes smoothly, then the dam

35:20

should be coming out in 2021.

35:22

Erica Terrence: You know, there's a lot of ways to remove a dam. One of them is to like, clean everything up afterwards,

35:28

right? Remove all the sediment and remove all the rebar and

35:32

concrete and another one is just to like kind of blast it, leave

35:35

the rubble and then that becomes like part of your stream

35:38

structure, right. Music: [Bubbly water jet washes over then a steady clapping

35:40

track plays] Erica Terrence: You know, we don't really understand . . .

35:45

how to restore a system. And a lot of times the best solution

35:49

is the simplest solution. You know, when you put large, woody

35:52

debris in a stream, which we do deliberately to enhance fish

35:55

habitat, you often don't fret too much about the placement of

35:59

the logs. Which you used to do, you used to try to like fix it

36:02

in permanently with rebar and yeah, and the stream is gonna

36:06

blow it out in the high water anyway and put it where it wants

36:09

to. And then it might blow it a mile or two downstream and then

36:12

you have these things, we call them "catcher mitts" that catch

36:14

other wood, which is good, we want that. But you might as well just let the stream decide and it's

36:19

probably a similar story with all the rubble from the dam,

36:22

right? It's cheaper to do it that way. Adam Huggins: Is that-is that what's gonna happen?

36:25

Erica Terrence: It looks very likely that's what's gonna happen.

36:27

Adam Huggins: Ah! So this is more the Rambo approach [Laughs]-

36:31

Erica Terrence: -yeah [Laughs]- Adam Huggins: -to dam removal. [Laughs] the Elwha was so

36:35

controlled that I watched videos of it. Erica Terrence: Yeah! I loved atching the videos of the

36:36

Music: [Warm, glowing notes play over the steady track]

36:38

lwha. This like, soothing, like ah, it can work, lo

36:50

Erica Terrence: No one has, in the history of the world, has

36:52

really done a dam removal this big, and they're still building

36:55

them in BC and China, much larger, right? So conceivably,

36:59

someday, we will be taking those out. But at this point the Elwha

37:03

is the biggest in the record books and then the Klamath will

37:06

be that much bigger, still. Music: [Steady clap track and intermittent glowing notes conti

37:15

ue, an auditory riffle pl Mendel Skulski: And that's it for our two part series on dams.

37:19

We'll be back in a couple of weeks. If you live near a river,

37:21

Adam Huggins: ...and make some stories together.

37:22

dammed up or otherwise, please take some time to get to know

37:26

it Mendel Skulski: If you'd like to see the photo that Anne took of

37:30

Adam and I in our driftwood recording studio, check out our

37:33

Instagram @futureecologies.

37:35

Adam Huggins: Please tell everyone you know, subscribe,

37:38

rate, and review the show wherever podcasts can be found.

37:42

It really helps us get the word out. Mendel Skulski: In this episode, you heard Anne Schaffer, Dave

37:47

Parks, Ryan Hilperts and Erica Terrence.

37:50

Adam Huggins: This has been an independent production of Future Ecologies. Our first season is supported in part by the

37:56

Vancouver foundation. If you'd like to help us make the show,

37:59

you support us on Patreon. We have a whole series of mini

38:03

episodes available to our supporters. To get access to

38:06

these, head over to patreon.com/futureecologies.

38:10

Mendel Skulski: You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and iNaturalist, the handle is always

38:16

futureecologies. Adam Huggins: Special thanks to Jose Isordia, Christy Johnston

38:21

Monroe Cameron, Mendel Skulski: Nicole Jahraus, Ilana Fonariov,

38:24

Adam Huggins: Schuyler Lindberg, Vincent van Haaff, and Andrjez

38:28

Kozlowski. Mendel Skulski: Music in this episode was produced by

38:31

Radioactive Bishop, Kieran Fearing, and Sunfish Moonlight.

38:36

You can find a full list of musical credits, show notes, and

38:40

links on our website: futureecologies.net. Music: [Auditory riffle returns and music fades to silence]