As the world's largest dam removal takes shape, restoration ecologists are poised to transform a landscape

[sl8]

https://www.science.org/content/article/historic-dam-removal-poses-challenge-of-restoring-both-river-and-landscape

AFTER THE FLOOD

As the world’s largest dam removal takes shape, restoration ecologists are poised to transform a landscape

19 OCT 2023 2:00 PM ET BY WARREN CORNWALL



The Iron Gate Dam is one of four structures slated for demolition along the Klamath River. PAUL ROBERT WOLF WILSON

Standing on an outcrop of volcanic rock, Joshua Chenoweth looks across the languid waters of California’s Iron Gate Reservoir and imagines the transformation in store for the landscape. In early 2024, operators will open the floodgates on the 49-meter-high dam that blocks the Klamath River, allowing the more than 50 million tons of water it impounds to begin to drain. Once it’s gone, heavy equipment will dismantle the structure. All that will remain of the 11-kilometer-long reservoir that filled the valley for 60 years will be steep-sided slopes coated in gray mud, split once again by a free-flowing river.

Within months, however, that sediment will be covered with a fine, green carpet of seedlings and colorful splashes of flowers, many planted by Chenoweth’s team. Eventually, if all goes as hoped, patches of Gary oak, desert gooseberry, and mock orange will take hold and a lush ribbon of cottonwood, willow, and ash trees will line the banks of the river. Beneath their boughs, salmon that last migrated through this valley more than a century ago will return.

[...]

It bears the marks of a mythic creation story—a barren moonscape brought to life. But it’s tantalizingly within reach for Chenoweth, a restoration ecologist who has spent his career devising ways to transform once-submerged ground into thriving forests, meadows, and marshes.

More than a decade ago, he oversaw efforts to restore native ecosystems in Washington’s Olympic National Park after two dams were removed along the Elwha River. Chenoweth learned important lessons there. But his current project will be his biggest test yet. Next year, he’ll be confronted with nearly 1000 hectares of bare ground stretching along 36 kilometers of the Klamath and its tributaries, after authorities remove Iron Gate and three other dams in California and Oregon.

[...]

[2naSalit]

1. Finally!

After decades of fighting to get this dam removed, it's about time they got on with it. Of course there will be restoration ecologists waiting to get started. I am glad it's finally going to happen. Now they need to removed the four upper Salmon River dams above the Columbia River. Rocky Mountain ecosystems are dying because of them, they should have been removed decades ago.

[niyad]

2. KNR

[3Hotdogs]

3. Fukkin commies wanna ruin everything that made America great.

Next to go will be the Hoover Dam, named after one of our greatest American presidents.

[masmdu]

4. That is definitely NOT the "world's largest dam".

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. They're claiming it's the largest dam REMOVAL project.

Fascinating story though.

Made me think of this song...

?si=3y1iiF4ceFMjrV_d

[Ursus Rex]

7. Maybe they meant "world's largest removal of dam" but in more headline-y terms

... gotta make it fit the header, after all.

[Farmer-Rick]

5. I recently visited a valley in TN that has been farmed for centuries

It was beautiful, mainly because it was so close to the mountains. But also the valley was all mowed, fenced off, cut back, stripped of trees and looked like one huge manicured lawn. It was lovely in a very clean and antiseptic way. There also was cattle grazing and keeping everything short and neat.

Contrast that with my valley. Trees of all different colors clumped throughout. Patches of pasture with grasses changing from green to yellow, red and purple brown. Fences lined with green cedar trees and streams winding in and out of fields and woods.

I like my valley better because it's more like what you would get if human kind would stay out of the terraforming business. But also because it felt alive. Birds and insect chirping to each other. Deer and turkey peeking out from the trees. There also are sheep and goats grazing on the pasture.

We can certainly make a clean and sterile environment. But the messy stuff with all the life is much more healthy. Good to see mother nature being allowed back into parts of California.