Elwha River Restoration PowerPoint Slide Text
Slide 1 National Park Service Arrowhead logo
Elwha Slide Presentation Technical Specifications
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Slide 2 Graphic: Elwha Coming Home
Slide Show Outline
Elwha Coming Home
Theme: Restoring the Elwha River watershed and renewing the cycle of salmon entwines ecosystems, communities and livelihoods together.
Introductory Slide Sequence
II. Elwha Overview
III. Strand One: Traditions
1. Klallam Tribes and the Lower Elwha Klallam people
2. Traditions, homesteaders, and American influence
IV. Strand Two: Livelihoods
1. Salmon
2. Water, energy, and 20th Century industrialism (Elwha dam history)
3. Wilderness and the human spirit
V. Strand Three: Ecosystems
1. Web of life
2. Salmon-derived nutrients
3. Research and science
4. Education
VI. River Restoration
1. History of dam removal process
2. Sediments
3. Port Angeles water treatment
4. Dam removal process
a) Elwha
b) Glines
5. Revegetation
6. Fisheries restoration
VII. Conclusion slide sequence
Slide 3 Blank slide
Notes: Blank slide, transitions automatically to next slide.
Slide 4 Animation: Introductory slide sequence
Script: none
Slide 5 Blank slide
Notes: Blank slide, transitions automatically to next slide.
Slide 6 Animation: Olympic Peninsula, Olympic National Park and Elwha River watershed facts
Script: Welcome to the Elwha River watershed on Washington state’s North Olympic Peninsula. Fed by the largest watershed in the Park, the Elwha River begins deep in the rocky peaks of the Olympic Mountains and descends over 6000 vertical feet in 45 miles to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Today, the Elwha River passes through two artificial lakes on its seaward journey, Lake Mills and Lake Aldwell, while also powering through the turbines of the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams.
Notes: Elwha Watershed Facts
Largest watershed in park
Over 300 square miles in area
19% of Olympic National Park
Runs from 6000’ to sea level in 45 miles
Slide 7 Photo: Elwha Dam aerial photo. Jet Lowe/NPS
Script: The Elwha Dam, built between 1910 and 1913 is located 4.9 miles in from the mouth of the river and creates Lake Aldwell. Lake Aldwell covers 267 acres and contains 8,100 acre feet of water.
Slide 8 Photo: Glines Canyon Dam
Script: Glines Canyon Dam was completed in 1927. Water caught behind the Glines Canyon Dam forms Lake Mills. Lake Mills covers 415 acres and contains 41,500 acre feet of water.
Slide 9 Photo: Sockeye Salmon
Script: Unfortunately, methods for fish passage were not implemented in either dam despite a Washington State law requiring that fish passage be provided when dams were constructed. Even if they had built fish passage, the slow moving lake water formed a barrier to some salmon species dependant on swift currents to make it to sea. These permanent barriers significantly impacted the Elwha River ecosystem. A short-lived fish hatchery was developed, but many miles of river habitat were closed to populations of anadromous salmon. The steep decline of the Elwha River as a native salmon nursery had begun. The intricately woven strands of the Elwha River watershed started to unravel.
Slide 10 Animation: Transition sequence
II. Strand One: Traditions
1. Klallam Tribes and the Lower Elwha Klallam people
2. Traditions, homesteaders, and American influence
Slide 11 Photo: Lake Mills
Script: For over 3,000 years people have traveled into the Olympic Mountains.
Note: Adeline Smith is an Elwha Tribal Elder and one of the few remaining Klallam language speakers.
Slide 12 Photo: Woman drying salmon and halibut.
Script: The Klallam people depended on the rivers that flowed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca for sustenance. Catching fish to roast and dry, hunting deer and elk for meat and fur…
Notes: While this is a photo of a Makah woman, the Klallam people used a similar method for drying fish. The Makah tribe’s traditional lands are west of the Klallam’s in and around Neah Bay, WA.
Slide 13 Photo: Makah woman with burden basket
Script: …gathering plants and berries found along the forested shores…
Slide 14 Photo: Two Klallam boys with bucket
Script: … and harvesting shellfish in the sandy beds at the river’s mouth.
Slide 15 Photo: Hand holding salmon carcass on cedar bow.
Script: But the river provided more than just food: the Klallam peoples’ traditions and religion depended on the fish for ceremony and story. The First Salmon Ceremony was one such tradition that opened a window between people and the Creator. They would send a fish out to sea on a raft of branches in order to pay thanks and perpetuate the salmon runs.
Note: This salmon was prepared for a First Salmon Ceremony. The quote speaks of alder as the traditional woven mat. The one shown is woven out of cedar. This image is from the film “Unconquering the Last Frontier” by Robert Lundahl and Associates, LLC 2000. www.unconquering.org
Slide 16 Photo: First Salmon Ceremony at Elwha River mouth.
Script: none
Note: This image is from the film “Unconquering the Last Frontier” by Robert Lundahl and Associates, LLC 2000. www.unconquering.org
Slide 17 Photo: Salmon and cedar bows head off to sea during the First Salmon Ceremony
Script: none
Note: This image is from the film “Unconquering the Last Frontier” by Robert Lundahl and Associates, LLC 2000. www.unconquering.org
Slide 18 Photo: REMOVED Boston Charlie
Script: Raised with the Klallam tradition of going into the mountains on a vision quest, Boston Charlie brought back many stories from his treks into the heart of the Olympics.
Note: Image courtesy of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.
Slide 19 Photo: Boston Charlie Camp
Script: Boston Charlie was over 100 years old when he and his family last visited his favorite camping place with a grand view of the Elwha watershed. Others not native to the area were also drawn to the wilderness of the Olympic Peninsula.
Slide 20 Photo: Early Port Angeles with mountains and boats
Script: In the late 1800s Port Angeles began to grow.
Slide 21 Photo: Port Angeles dock and boats
Script: The dam projects were initiated to fill a need for the growing young port town of Port Angeles. Early in the infancy of its industrial development, Port Angeles had abundant timber resources, but lacked the energy to process these resources. The city needed power, and at the turn of the 20th Century, the fast flowing rivers through narrow canyons near Port Angeles were well suited for hydro-electric power generation.
Slide 22 Photo: Asahel Curtis photo of man fishing
Script: “Go west, young man,” was the call that brought Thomas Aldwell to the Olympic Peninsula and inspired his success. This tradition of exploration brought men…
Slide 23 Photo: Elinor Chittenden with a steelhead on Elwha River
Script: …and women to the Olympic Peninsula to find their fortunes, to make a home for their families, and to seek adventure the wilds.
Slide 24 Photo: Early homestead along Elwha
Script: Homesteaders along the Elwha cleared land to set up their claims. Some raised animals, others became hunting and camping guides.
Slide 25 Photo: Early Olympic National Park entrance sign in the Elwha River area.
Script: Script: In 1935, Washington Congressman Monrad C. Wallgren sponsored a bill for the establishment of a national park on the Olympic Peninsula. A visit to the area in the fall of 1937 by President Roosevelt sealed the effort for those pressing for the park. With the Elwha River watershed at the heart of the proposed park, Congress passed the bill, and with Roosevelt’s signature, Olympic National Park was created on June 29, 1938.
Slide 26 Photo: Visitors at Elk Horn Ranger Station in Elwha Valley
Script: Visitors have enjoyed the tranquil forests and river corridor ever since.
Slide 27 Photo: Michael’s Cabin
Script: Michael’s Cabin near Humes Ranch is one remnant of the homesteading tradition…
Slide 28 Photo: Michael’s Cabin
Script: …that can still be seen today.
Slide 29 Transition Animation
IV. Strand Two: Livelihoods
1. Salmon
2. Water, energy, and 20th Century industrialism (Elwha dam history)
3. Wilderness and the human spirit
Slide 30 Photo: Sockeye salmon
Script: Livelihoods based on abundant natural resources grew out of the Elwha River watershed. Fish were available year round and people depended on the fisheries that are born of the river and its tributaries. They depended on the shellfish that lived in the silts deposited by the Elwha River along the Juan de Fuca shoreline. Today the hydroelectric dams supply less than one-half of the power used by the Nippon Industries paper mill. Water for Port Angeles comes from the river. In restoring fish populations, local residents must also be assured that ample electrical power and clean water will continue to be available to their communities.
Slide 31 Photo: Recently-hatched alevins, young salmon fry
Script: The Elwha River is a classic wild Pacific Northwest river system: slippery cobble river crossings, roaring river rapids, bears wandering in riparian forests of alder, bald eagles flying upriver and perching high in ancient black cottonwood trees, relentless autumn rains, and naturally, great salmon habitat.
Slide 32 Photo: Coho Salmon parr in Elwha River.
Script: Most of the watershed is protected by Olympic National Park. The waters run clean and cool, ready for the return of salmon after the dams are removed.
Slide 33 Graphic: Chinook Salmon
Script: The largest Northwest salmonid is the chinook, or king, salmon. Elwha chinook, considered part of the Puget Sound chinook, is listed as a federally threatened species. Chinook populations are forecasted to increase greatly with river restoration. Chinook, spawn in the main stems of large rivers. With a clear pathway, chinook will penetrate far into the Elwha’s headwaters during spring runoff.
Notes: The orange line represents furthest extent of the chinook’s range during the spring run. The summer/fall run is represented by the red line.
Slide 34 Graphic: Chum salmon
Script: Weaker swimmers than chinook, chum salmon, or dog salmon, usually travel a short way up rivers and creeks and stay close to the mouths of coastal rivers. Chum will travel to distances just beyond the locations of the current dams. When restoration is complete, scientists expect that over 18,000 chum could populate the Elwha River system.
Slide 35 Graphic: Pink Salmon
Script: Pink salmon, or humpies, will spawn in the Elwha in the early fall of odd years only. During these special years, the river could support over 100,000 pinks.
Slide 36 Graphic: Sockeye Salmon
Script: Sockeye salmon will travel up to Lake Sutherland and spawn along its gravel shores. The lake’s shoreline could support over 3,000 fish returning to spawn. Fisheries biologists anticipate that land-locked sockeye or kokanee, currently living in Lake Sutherland, will provide the source for new anadromous sockeye runs once the dams are removed.
Slide 37 Graphic: Steelhead Trout (sea-run rainbow trout)
Script: Rainbow trout, also known as steelhead when they migrate back and forth to sea, trapped behind the dams will be able to take up their natural seaward journey.
Slide 38 Graphic: Bull Trout
Script: Another threatened anadromous fish, the bull trout, will once again populate the Elwha River watershed.
Slide 39 Graphic: Coho Salmon
Script: With restoration, coho salmon, also known as silver salmon, will spawn in the small tributaries of the Elwha watershed’s distant reaches.
Slide 40 Photo: Fishing boats in Port Angeles
Script: Reestablishment of salmon populations can greatly benefit the livelihoods of people within the local fishing communities. More fish and healthier fish populations could mean sustainable income for these families.
Slide 41 Photo: Tribal member digging for clams
Script: With the removal of the dams, fine sediments trapped behind the dams will regain the freedom of motion and restore some traditional clamming areas at the mouth of the Elwha river and along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Slide 42 Photo: Pulp mill in Port Angeles
Script: Food resources provided by the Elwha are only one product of this watershed. The livelihoods of many thousands of people have depended on the Elwha as a source of power since early in the 20th Century. At one time, power from these dams served the entire north Olympic Peninsula and reached the Bremerton Naval facilities. With today’s level of energy use, the power supplies half of the energy needs of one paper mill. Once the Elwha’s electrical power producing capacity is shut down, how will it be replaced? Before we turn off the Elwha’s electrical spigot, we should look at how this power came to be.
Slide 43 Image: Book Cover, Conquering the Last Frontier
Script: In 1890 a man named Thomas Aldwell arrived in Port Angeles seeking to “try his wings” and “make his fortune.” Thomas Aldwell, a Canadian, developed a solution for generating electrical power to support local industry. Less than thirty years after the world’s first electrical hydropower plant was built in Appleton, Wisconson, Aldwell planned an electrical hydropower plant along the Elwha River. Through the success of this man’s work, early economic growth in Port Angeles prospered.
Slide 44 Photo: Vineleaf maple
Script: The view from Aldwell’s cabin along the Elwha River, near the location of the Elwha Dam site, inspired not only his vision for Port Angeles’ economic development, but also his love of nature. Along that reach of river he discovered the beauty of the natural world.
“Below the cabin was a canyon through which the Elwha River thundered and 75 feet or so in front of it was a spring of crystal clear water, overhung by vine maples. It was from this spring I made such delicious bean soup! The scintillating rays of sun were coming through the branches and sparkling on the water. My life had taken me to schools, to cities, to businesses, but suddenly that spring embodies all of life and beauty I thought I’d ever want.”