Back to the Beach

Ma Nature continues to show she’s a badass on the Elwha River, where top to bottom changes are unfolding fast. Since the dams dropped the river has started coughing up millions of cubic yards of sediment and other debris trapped in its reservoirs since the early 1900s. According to experts on the scene the river delta, in addition to more in the way of steelhead and other anadromous fish returns, is now seeing beach and seafloor transformations. 

Via The Seattle Times:

As the dams come out, the river is expected to mobilize about one-quarter to one-third of that sand and gravel trapped in the reservoirs and about one-half to two-thirds of the fine sediment, according to Tim Randle of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which is directing management of the sediment during dam removal.

It’s the largest ever controlled sediment release in a dam-removal project anywhere in the world.

Some of the material will stay right in the lake beds. Some will settle in the river bottom. But some of it will be transported all the way to saltwater, and build up the beach and seafloor. And to some, it’s a welcome change.

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