Produced for NPS by Wings Over Watersheds
Elwha River Restoration is a National Park Service project that includes the largest dam removal in history, restoration of the Elwha River watershed, its native anadromous fish, and the natural downstream transport of sediment and woody debris.
The removal of Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha River began in mid-September 2011. Today, both dams are gone, the Lake Mills and Lake Aldwell reservoirs have drained, Elwha River flows freely from its headwaters in the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, sediment once trapped behind the dams is rebuilding critical river and nearshore habitats, vegetation is being restored in the once barren landscapes of the drained reservoirs, and anadromous salmon and trout are naturally migrating past the former dam sites for the first time in over 100 years.
See the episode entitled Undammed for a description of the role ARIS has played in the restoration effort:
http://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/nature/restorationoftheelwha.htm