@devonthenatureguy: Okay everyone 😅 I was super excited to be there and so there might be some things that l left out or wasn't clear on in the moment, so here it is again This is the Elwha River on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, and what happened here is one of the most remarkable ecological stories of the last hundred years. Before the dams, all five species of Pacific salmon ran this river— historically around 400,000 fish returning every year. The chinook grew to 100 POUNDS because they had access to 145 miles of habitat all the way into the Olympic Mountains glaciers. The Lower Elwha Klallam people built their entire civilization around this river for thousands of years. Then in 1910 (finished in 1913), folks built a dam 4.9 miles from the river mouth—without fish ladders, by the way, in direct violation of a state law requiring them since 1890. A second dam followed in 1927. Salmon lost 97% of their habitat overnight. Populations crashed from 400,000 fish a year down to roughly 3,000. The chinook shrank from 100 pounds to barely 20. The tribe never stopped fighting for full removal. After decades of advocacy, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act in 1992. Demolition finally began in 2011—at the time the largest dam removal in American history. Both dams were gone by 2014. within weeks, salmon were passing the old dam sites tor the tirst time in a century. Within a few years, eight migratory fish species had moved into habitat no living member of their population had ever seen. Scientists measured an increase in spawning gravel as trapped sediment finally moved downstream again, the banks revegetated, the birds came back. АННННН ECOSYSTEM REJUVENATION This story directly inspired the Klamath River dam removals—four dams across California and Oregon, completed October 2024. Same story in a way. Tribal advocacy. Dams coming down. Salmon returning! Life wants to recover. It just needs us to remove some obstacles, get out of the way, and trust the river. (and of course actively aid the recovery) #elwhariver #salmon #biology #Science #olympicpeninsula

Devon the Nature Guy

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Wednesday 30 September 2026 02:23:38 GMT