With Dam Gone, Goldsborough Creek (WA) Salmon Numbers Rising Steadily - Seattle Times

[hatrack]

SHELTON, Mason County — For more than a century, salmon followed Goldsborough Creek as it passed through the grounds of a sawmill, into the middle of Shelton and toward the woods beyond — before bumping smack into a 30-foot-high wall called the Goldsborough Dam. And for decades, the salmon runs limped along, blocked from prime spawning grounds by the manmade barrier of wood and concrete.

Then, five years ago, with the rumble of bulldozers and backhoes, the dam was taken down. Today the descendants of those earlier salmon now splash through a series of riffles and gradual stair steps where the dam once stood, free to pass on to spawn in a 25-mile network of streams. Along the way, scientists are getting a glimpse of what can happen when a dam, albeit a small one, is demolished: As fish gradually reclaim their former habitat, Goldsborough Creek is becoming a more important source of salmon for the southern tip of Puget Sound.

Though small, this dam is a harbinger of things to come in the Northwest. Seven dams in Washington and Oregon, including two big dams on the Elwha River in Olympic National Park, are slated for demolition in the next five years. That's an unprecedented burst of activity. At the same time, debate still rages over tearing down huge dams on the Snake River.

"This is the kind of project that I'd like to see a lot more of," said Fred Goetz, a fish biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which helped remove the dam. "If we can get human structures out of the way, the natural habitat is much more effective at sustaining itself."

EDIT

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003498356_dam28m.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Oh, goody! Now we can overfish and pollute them to death!

[Dead_Parrot]

2. Cool

There is far too much renewable electricity being generated in WA and OR. Nice to see it being demolished.