Of Birds and Dams
November 26, 2014
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving had me waking up to a very wet morning at the Elwha Campground in Olympic National Park. Before heading down to Salem for the family gathering I had three stops to make. First, I wanted to see where the upper dam had been removed on the Elwha River. Second, I wanted to see the view from Hurricane Ridge. Last, I wanted to make a stop at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge to see the birds on the auto tour. That would be another full day on this trip.
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| Elwha River, Olympic National Park, WA |
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| Elwha River |
The Elwha River story is an exciting one for environmentalists and nature lovers. In 2012, two dams were removed from the Elwha, freeing up the river to run unfettered from its headwaters in the Olympic Range to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Apparently salmon and trout have already returned to waters where they haven't been seen in one hundred years. See, exciting, right?
It's going to take some time for the river to recover from the damage done by the dams. One hundred years of silt deposits have built up behind the dams. The Elwha was gray the day I visited, not from the overcast sky but from all the silt in the water. It was very reminiscent of how the rivers looked after Mt. St. Helens blew its top. The river was running pretty high, but what shoreline could be seen was covered in gray mud. This shifting of soil is an important aspect of a river's role in the ecosystem. The Colorado River used to be known for its muddy waters before it was dammed, and one of the many negative impacts of the damming of that river has been the loss of sandy beaches in the Grand Canyon. Large runoffs are now being implemented occasionally in part to try to build those beaches back up, but on the Elwha the solution of simply removing the dams seems like the more straight-forward solution.
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| Elwha River, Olympic National Park, WA |
I guess I'm more of a nature lover than an environmentalist. I am ecstatic about what's happened with the Elwha and a few other rivers that have been recently freed of their dams, but I also recognize that some dams are important to our current society. As much as I would love to see the Bonneville, Hoover and O'Shaughnessy dams removed, how would the power and water the dams and their reservoirs provide be replaced? Mind you, I hope to see it in my lifetime, but I suspect I won't and that's the price we pay for our urban electronic lifestyles. I do hope, however, that this is a harbinger of a new movement to rid our lands of each and every dam that we can find a way to live without. I suspect that we only need a fraction of the hundreds of dams that exist today. Actually, I suspect we can find a way to live without any of them, but it will take decades to sort that out, if we ever do. For now, I'll be happy with each individual victory, like what we've seen on the Elwha and what I hear is coming to the Klamath, where four dams are planned for removal to restore that wonderful river to its former glory.
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| Elwha River (formerly Lake Mills), Olympic National Park, WA |
I drove up to see the remains of the Glines Canyon Dam (just out of frame to the left in the above photo). I enjoyed the stunning view, but the irony wasn't lost on me that this view won't even be possible once the damage done by the dam has been corrected. This hillside will be covered in trees that obscure what I'm sure will one day be a shoreline of dense forest, the bends in the river and the view itself blocked by tall trees.
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| Elwha River, Olympic National Park, WA |
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| Elwha River, Olympic National Park, WA |
Before leaving the Elwha River Valley, I made a short hike up to Madison Falls. It's a nice little waterfall in a lush forest setting. It was a nice little detour before heading up to Hurricane Ridge.
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| Madison Falls, Olympic National Park, WA |
It turned out that I wouldn't make it up to Hurricane Ridge, the road was closed for the winter. Doh. I drove up as far as I could hoping to at least get a few photos from higher ground, but I didn't end up with anything worth keeping. So, I headed back down 101 on the East side of the Olympic Peninsula toward Olympia, where 101 ends by merging into I-5 South. I love the fact that 101 ends in a Southerly direction after having driven it for a thousand miles North. How many highways do that?
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| The Olympic Range, Port Angeles, WA |
The East side of the peninsula has proven to be a great stretch for me for seeing bald eagles. They seem to like the shoreline of Hood Canal which 101 also happens to run down. This year I caught three bald eagles flying around over the highway, they seemed to just be horsing around.
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| Bald Eagle -- Lilliwaup, WA |
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| Bald Eagle -- Lilliwaup, WA |
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| Bald Eagle -- Lilliwaup, WA |
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| Bald Eagle -- Lilliwaup, WA |
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| Bald Eagle -- Lilliwaup, WA |
I made it to Ridgefield at about 3:00. That would give me enough time for the auto tour, but I wouldn't be able to do any hiking.
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| Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA |
Aside from hosting a lot of bird life at various times of the year, Ridgefield is an area of scenic beauty. That's not always the case. While the central valley reserves have their moments, for the most part I spend my time there shooting animals with my 250mm lens hoping the backgrounds won't be too ugly. At Ridgefield, my wide angle lens gets almost as much use as the 250.
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| Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA |
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| Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA |
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| Northern Shoveler |
I took a lot of photos of wildlife, but the is the light just wasn't very good for close ups. I found myself having to choose between blurry shots with little ISO or grainy shots with a lot of ISO. My wide angle seemed to be enjoying the challenging light situations, though, so I ended up with a lot more interesting broad shots than close ups of birds and nutria. I'm not complaining, I love what this 17-40mm lens can do.
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| Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA |
I drove straight down to Salem after the auto tour. Thanksgiving, after all, was just around the corner.
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