The White Salmon River after Condit dam | Oregon Field Guide
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
- In 2011, the hopes of river runners, biologists, land managers, and local tribes were staked on one unknown premise: remove the 100-year-old Condit dam and the White Salmon river would return to its natural state.
A decade later, we return to see if those hopes have been realized.
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As a lifetime fisherman and conservationist I realize the countless benefits the dams provide to our region but there is some primal emotional response to seeing a dam removed, like you are setting free a wild animal that has been kept in a cage for 100 years.
Enjoy your new nuclear power plants.
@@rafosier The dams that have been removed in WA so far have been dams that provide little to no electricity.
@@gabepurpur Yup, between the White Salmon, Elwha, and Rouge we are in the middle of one of the largest ecological experiments to ever take place. People want the big dams on the CR removed but I doubt that will ever happen in our lifetime as they have too much economic value. I have hope that we will see fish passage added to the upper Columbia. It would sure be a sight to see the "June Hogs" at Spokane Falls.
@@rafosier absolutely 💯❤nuclear
@@rafosier The cleanest, safest form of green energy there is. Let's get started.
A lot of people commenting who either do not know about this project or are Northwestern Lake property owners. Pacific Power, the owner of the dam, did a cost-benefit in the 90s and decided to take the dam out because it cost more to maintain than it would ever make in power sales. The original opponents were the Tribes because there hadn't been enough planning for wildlife protection. When the studies were done and the protection and mitigation measures were put in place, the Tribes signed off. Then it was time for the Northwestern Lake property owners to block it every way they could. They couched it in terms of "protecting our cherished way of life," but in reality they knew if Condit was removed, their lakefront properties would no longer have lakefronts. Put bluntly, they wanted Pacific Power and its customers to go on subsidizing their property values. They lost, and the dam was removed. As for water storage, if you want an effective reservoir, you put it up in the mountains where gravity can assist the pipelines, not down at 300' above sea level.
They were sold the land as lakefront. They are not in the wrong wanting to protect their investment. I don't think it was selfish of them like you make it sound. What if you had the property and were going to lose all of your lifes investments and hard work?
@@jdmartin2984 They weren't sold the land. Pacific Power owns the land to this day. They were permitted to build recreational cabins on it. I haven't seen any conveyance where Pacific Power guaranteed the dam and lake would always be there.
@@jdmartin2984 I disagree with you. Personal greed should not win over social benefit. they bought it as lakefront, so be it things change get over it
If their property deed etc states they own the property to the high water mark didn’t they just gain a whole lot of private property? Now the high water mark is much lower. Cha ching.
@redeyedmongoose2963 if you spent the money to buy water don't property, I get wanting to keep it water front. That's a lot of money, just gone. But, I do also agree. Whatever is for the greater good over the good of 1.
I had to watch this a second time because it's such a beautiful river that is healing after the dam removal. I hope the salmon recover and the trees, plants and shrubs planted continue to thrive and grow along the river. Thanks for the video OPB.
Really beautiful videography, particularly the aerial shots. It’s fantastic to see how an ecosystem can recover after a dam is removed.
A beautiful story and full of hope for a local river! So good to see a triumph for Good Old Mamma Nature!
Roseburg, Oregon is my home town.. been all over the state!!! It's beauty is sometimes paralleled, but rarely exceeded.... I love it when ever I'm able to go back.....
I’m currently working as a fire watchman in elkton. Down here the Umpqua is warm and folks fish for bass. I wonder what would happen if they removed the day up river
I feel the same way about the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. It's a beautiful place whare I was economicly thrown out of. The Park agency has to much power there.
I love watching nature repair itself. 🙏🏼❤️
Beautiful river 👍...nice to see nature coming back
I am the only person I know that has ever "inner tubed" the entire stretch of river from top down to the lake (in fact I did Husum Falls 2x ). Used heavy wetsuit, dive fins, gloves, and a helmet. Now I'd love to go back and try to do the whole thing again, but this time make it to the Columbia River where the slack water starts. Water is extremely cold
I watched the destruction of the dam on OPB, but I didn't know much about how the river had recovered until now. It's beautiful! And it will get better from now on.
Great report…beautiful river…thanks…
had a rafting trip there before the dam removal. It was my first white-water rafting trip and the most memorable. would like to go there again some day.
Beautiful story- so thankful the White Salmon is wild & free again!
Thank you for this follow-up video. I think it's important to see how our larger recent environmental changes have affected the area, and how nature is adjusting. Great to see all of those newly planted trees doing so well!
A wonderful program. A compelling story that needed to be told. Nice to hear some good things we're doing for our planet. Thanks for this effort and the fine results. Maybe more restoration projects will be inspired by this story.
This makes me happy. Yes we need dams. But we also should want natural salmon runs again
I have a home near Husum Falls, and was there when the dam was breached. It was closed to the public to view,but shorty after the blast,many y dogs and I would drive up the logging roads and walk down and see the large chunk of earth falling off. When it was save enough to walk where Northwestern Lake used to be/was/is an amazing sight to see.
Interesting! Did you take any pictures to share?
Amazing restoration job; only 10 years on and you'd never know the dam had ever been there. More like this please!
Love it, hope the fish come back like crazy
What a feel-good video, I've been down the white salmon a few times before the dam removal, what a beautiful river to raft on. I'm so glad they finally removed that god forsaken dam. The salmon thank you too!! Thanks for the video, brought back some fond memories.
I have been there once and I'm looking forward to going back its so beautiful up there
"Mountain in the Clouds", an eighties book written about the early builds of NW dams and the search for the wild salmon, was the first hardcover I bought since junior college. My bro still his it in his library. It tells the tale of early dam permits in the NW that destroyed MORE salmon value than the electricity it created. But fish are free. Electricity you can control and sell.
hug a tree, bub
So grateful for OPB and Oregon Field Guide. This video was delightful--I appreciate that the topic was looked at from multiple perspectives, and especially the segment with Yellowash Washines. Thank you for including the perspective of local tribe members.
I don't care one IOTA about the "local tribe member" not after they went and slaughtered almost 1200 Yellowstone bison because it was their "heritage". Many of them were pregnant cows. th-cam.com/video/TrmoEZsZzJE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=I-liHwt2Lh_hozZX
Am happy for You people,. The river is now what it was meant to be Free
The dam was removed,only for the river to meet the Bonneville dam, a few miles downstream of it's entrance to the Columbia.
Looks great good seeing it run free as it should be
They dammed the Dolores river in CO. back in the 80s. I was lucky to have spent a week long trip on the Delores a year before that happened.
Well done video. I'm curious to know more about the evolution of the sediment in the first year or two, and what kind of mortality did the river life experience. I guess that would have been a bummer to talk about.
I grew up fishing Northwest Reservoir and I have so many great memories of that place. Times change and hopefully the river will be a benefit to those who wanted it removed. I still close my eyes and remember how beautiful the lake was.
As a fisherman, your comment displays great ignorance
I wanna know what the confluence with the Colombia looked like with all that silt joining it.
I grew up just a bit west (on the Little White Salmon) so it is cool and nostalgic seeing this
A list of ideas that might help.
Fish Runs saving Dams and Water Shortages
Update 7/4/2021
Do you have a nearby moving river or stream? You can now place a slow speed water generator on the bottom of the stream and make power 24 hours a day. The unit is called a Waterotor made in Canada. The Waterotors won't harm fish and can be scaled up to meet the needs of small towns or cities. Make the power miles away from the small town, sell the power to the power company than use the power to make water anywhere. Atmospheric water generators can make drinking water and irrigation water, and with a Waterotor, power can be made even in remote regions of the World. You just need moving water 3 to 4 miles an hour in streams, irrigation channels, fish ladders or even waste water outlet's. Garbage treatment plants can also use the power they make burning garbage to make water with atmospheric water generators and add storage tanks to supply small towns and cities. Adding Waterotors below dams can maximize electrical power made by any dam and replace power lost if the dam has a fish ladder or channel for fish to move up and down stream. A dam can be saved for flood control by adding these powered fish ladders and channels or notching the dam and putting in a flood gate to raise and lower the river during fish runs. Now people and fish can share the river. Note using the methane from sewage treatment plants or garbage landfills might be used to generate electricity for any water making projects. You might use your own City sewage system to make filtered irrigation water for lawns and gardens they have a system like that in my my small town. Note, what to make even more power? Then by covering fish ladders and channels with spaced solar panels decreases evaporation of the water and increases the efficiency of the solar panels.
A now overdue idea, dealing with forest fires. You build and place atmospheric water generators and 100,000 to 5,000,000 gallon water tanks on hilltops to protect your town. You cover the tanks with solar panels and add wind turbines to make power anywhere. You sell the power, drinking water and irrigation water, then by adding irrigation pipes down the hillsides, you can create fire lines that lasts up to 24 hours. You make these fire lines by adding TetraKO, by Earth Clean at a 4 to 6 percent solution to the water. Turn on these stand alone units remotely, your fire trucks can work elsewhere or resupply themselves with needed water. Fire protection, drinking water, irrigation water and stand alone power for any city or town in need. Here again, Waterotor generators could be used to generate power for the hilltop water making units. These ideas all can be done today, just search TH-cam, and then tell someone.
Obrigada pelas informações. Não sabia dessas alternativas. Vou pesquisar mais para propor em pequenas cidades onde trabalho.
Really nice project. Great doc.
Wonderful news to hear the White Salmon River is free flowing again, The Great Spirit and our Mother earth is shining with joy And Our Metis French/Cree Ancestors are smiling too.Maarsii Maarsii
Beautiful exciting experiment. Snake river dams are next. I am concerned those reliant on the power and dam infrastructure will suffer. The pace of removals may exceed our ability to lesson the social and economic impacts on people. Change is always a double edged dilemma.
Thanks for sharing!! So beautiful would love to go down that river
Now for the rest of the dams!!!
🐟🐟🎣🚣♂️
I’ve paddled them former dam section. Very fun.
I almost bought one of those cabins in the late 2000s. Cheaper at the time. Kinda kicking myself that I didnt. Sure, I would have eventually lost a lake but gained a cool river.
Looks like it was a good for the local economy plus the river looks beautiful now. Maybe something like this could encourage other communities to follow suit?
Awesome video!! Thank you for sharing the progress! Nice work!
Read Mountain in the Clouds: the search for wild salmon. (I have the hardcover from the early eighties). A Seattle -Intelligencer reporter and Oberlin graduate . It calculates that the private and public dams built on ONE variance from a Federal official that didn't even have the POWER to authorize these builds (1890 to 1910) destroyed MORE Salmon and fish value that the electricity they created. BUT you can control and charge forHydro. Fish arrive and are free.
id love to see a follow up on this a number of years from now , like a decade.
Awesome!!
Wonderful! Now you just have to save the Pacific!
How was the electricity replaced?
You'd have to ask PP&L, it was their decision to decommission the dams in the first place.
The Kenai river in Alaska had a 2/5 King salmon(2 years fresh, 5 years ocean Chinook down in WA). They had 90lb fish being caught by rod many years ago. The sport guiding business gradually wiped out those 90 pounders since that was always a fish you would put in the boat.
Sadly way to many people don't realise that consistently taking out the biggest individuals leaves you with smaller and smaller fish. If fish over for example 50 pounds are beeing removed, then what is the point of the fish getting that big? Give it a few generations and they activly evolve to become smaller.
Great to see that Salmon and Steelhead have returned(at least I hope Steelhead have returned too).
where did you see that?
What about the loss of property value to the home owners with beachfront property ? Just Kidding, I don't give a shit.
I love dams but removing them is the right thing to do. Look at that beautiful river!
Awesome, now send a crew down to Southern Oregon and give us a update on the rogue river please
That’s awesome 💯👌🏽
The videos of the spawning adult salmon showed some had no adipose fins. Were they from hatcheries? Just asking!
Yes missing adipose fins means it is a hatchery origin fish. Wild and hatchery fish often stray, also wild fish are used as broodstock for reintroduction programs and the offspring of these fish are clipped but allowed to spawn naturally in the river.
The fisheries managers know that a small number hatchery fish are reaching the gravel and you cannot prevent it.
This is an old video, has there been an update?
Great story , cheers from Oz
Outstanding!
That was my favorite river to run in the state. Long drive from Seattle, but worth it. Would have loved to been able to do the lower part, but the dam was in the way, and Hussium Falls was the take out then.
What happened to the animals and plants that had moved into the lake area? Trout? Other fresh water fish? Deer, elk?
They probably died lol
The upstream fish probably came down to populate the lower bit of the river. Lake life for animals was a sacrifice for the original native river life which is more important.
I hope they keep removing as many dams as possible.
@@rockytalkndawoods3057 the Lake life was not
@@rockytalkndawoods3057 the native Lake life that had filled the niche as well as the local animals are less important than other creatures that spend most of their life at sea?
@@reginaromsey was not what?!
Artificial? River life is natural to a natural river. Native Salmon are extremely important.
That place is beautiful
bet there is some gold moved around after that
Not the right geology around there but if it gets you out on the river that's a win in my book.
When they released the water it created beds for them to spawn, the same thing gold dredgers do. If they {there too many agencies to list} would get they're heads out of their butts they might figure it out. Not to mention all the garbage, lead, mercury, fishing gear, and so on.
Completely destroy the habitat, now collect gold.
**Seems perfect... 🙄
@@kdigiacomo Have you ever seen dredging in progress or the beds it creates after the hardpacked material is loosened up? Have ever witnessed salmon spawning on the gravel beds created? I have, your ignorant to what really happens. The breaking of the dam will create new areas they can spawn in. If you think dredgers muddy the river look what mother nature does in a flood?
@@stlrsmike Nope, I live in the PNW and I've never seen a dredger and I also don't own two boats and 23 fishing poles.
My comments are sarcastic, sorry you didn't catch on. But yes I live east of Portland and I'm always on the river as much as possible.
i love to see 'em getting rid of hydro-electric power. in favor of more dirty options like windmills.
Beautiful River unt Setting
Great story. Did anyone else notice the salmon trying to jump the falls at 3:18 in the video? It’s where the kayakers are falling in..
So much love for this.
How Wonderful !
Thx to. All the Folk that made this happen !
🇺🇸☮️🕊🦊
Pure awesomeness
The White Salmon is such healthy river that the dam removal was a push. Where the salmon spawned was from the mouth of the river down to the fish hatchery, so when Bonneville dam was built the spawning area was gone. Condit dam had been built twice before with a fish ladder but both dams blew out in the respective winters. The 3rd dam built in 1912 didn`t have a fish ladder. Instead they built raceways around a mile up from the mouth of the river. The dam became the battle ground because it was the first of, I believe, 5 dam projects PP&L has/had in OR and WA and would set precedent for concrete dam removal. On a side note, the PP&L dams on the Klamath river are the ones that really need to go, but I digress. We were indeed very concerned about the contents of the lake and what it would do to the lower section. We were very surprised, in a good way, with what happened. It should also be mentioned that the recovery work done where the lake was has also been a pleasant surprise, hats off to them. I think the biggest peril the White Salmon faces now is being loved to death.
The Klamath river dams in California (Iron Gate and Copco) are being removed! Been a lot of pushback from the locals but it's out of their hands.
@@kennyboy019 about damn time.
you would think it makes sense to first target the dams on tributary river downstream of Bonneville to create a complete dam free path?
That's asinine
I like Yellowwash's perspective of the dams removal. There are hundreds of dams all over Oregon or Oreconcent
Where my spot is, it’s basically considered headwater I think. Mostly a creek from slow springs. Im just wondering if there was once Salmon in these areas and some natural catastrophe stopped it?
I would like to see what would happen if a few thousand Salmon minnows were released here. All I have now are white sucker fish.
Seriously though - What about the people who had lakefront real estate? Were they compensated when their property values were decimated? Does their new property line go all the way to the river so at least they now have "riverfront" property?
good job
would that also work for the colorado river?
Removing dams works for EVERY river!
[T/F] Some of the salmon would have to have been 'explorers' since the age of the dam would have eliminated the initial salmon cycles. Glad to see the fish coming back. How long after dying are the fish edible?
Salmon were still spawning in the lower river so they were never eliminated, simply reduced to very low numbers. Now they have the full river and a much better riverbed for redds. The salmon are inedible well before they're dead. Once they enter freshwater, they stop eating and every bit of energy comes from their flesh. Catching them soon upon returning to freshwater is the way the natives have always done it. Sportfishing for them also tends to only be productive very soon after they enter freshwater. This applies equally to the Great Lakes fisheries. The only salmon that doesn't die after spawning is the Atlantic Salmon. Steelhead (trout) will also return over multiple years to spawn.
@@TheMrMused Thank you. Very informative.
That was kinda my question here, was there a fishery at the headwaters (like the Salmon river in Idaho) or are these 'explorers' as you call them, I guess nature has to have some randomness to populate different rivers or even refresh genetic diversity. Perhaps salmon can 'smell" the water for breeding grounds and make a choice, the usual place or somewhere new?
@@TheJhtlag Smelling the water makes a lot of sense. They pass water through their gills to get O2 like we use lungs to get air O2. We have a nose ... maybe the fish have some sort of water 'taster'. They taste fresh water and maybe some of the minerals coming from the rocks and home in on them. Very interesting. Maybe has some heuristic value.
@@TheMrMused Natives used to catch Salmon at Celilo Falls after the fish had traveled for about 190 miles and 15 days up the river, so they were still good to eat after swimming that far in fresh water.
Yeah! Woo hoo! Free that river! Great video!
Salmon and steelhead still haven't found a way to swim past the nets.
yeah good luck with that..
Helping save the salmon you conduit!
Anyone else notice the fish jumping the falls @ 3:17 ? Looks like a steelhead or coho.
Good eye!
No fish are getting past that point......
golly! way to go...
joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
joy to you and me
desalination is actually pretty easy... there's lots of water in the deep blue sea.. enough for everyone... forever and ever.. if we take care of it
We only have one smallish Planet to take care of, y'all... for our Children
Any news on the dust conditions for the old lakeside residents?
If I had to choose between an artificial lake or a live river in front of my house I'd definitively choose the latter. I'd be really enthusiastic too if I lived here.
I miss my home state of Oregon. I moved to Florida when I was 16 in 1998. Florida sucks! But it is cheaper to live.
Florida sucks? Maybe you just have a bad attitude.
Anywhere can suck, it’s all about your mental approach.
Besides, you can always leave.
It is not cheaper
@@bobs3354 wah
Florida sure could use a govenor that cares about people. Now, he wants to be the US president.
@@kennyw871 You don’t think DeSantis cares about the people of Florida? Please explain?
It's a gigantic lab experiment. The data collected here will be invaluable for future dam removal projects.
Wow perfect
The largest project is the Columbia River and the snake river. Hope the awhee is next and so to return another at least 500 miles of unobstructed water to Idaho and nevada.
As wonderful as that would be, The Columbia River will likely be dammed for another hundred years or more. We need something to replace hydroelectric dams before that will happen. Lets hope it doesnt take that long! It sure would be great to explore the river in its entirety.
@@theyard6958 just looked at google earth in a more detailed way, took a lot of time but I did not see all the dams without fish ladders between the mouth of the columbia and the confluence of the snake before I posted my comment, Damm sad, pardon the pun, I may be wrong but it looks like dams with fish ladders do not have fish hatchery but dams with no fish ladders have hatcheries, seems like an I'll conceived management plan.
America, getting smart and doing the right thing...
I was glad to see the dam removal. However, the narrator of the video and possibly others involved apparently cannot do arithmetic. They stated that in some years before the dam removal there was not enough water in the river for rafting. This is as if to say that the dam was using up some of the water. When the fact is that all the water that ever entered the dam flowed through or over the dam. So now that the dam is gone, there will still be dry years for the White Salmon River.
Im so in love thank you 💘
It took 3/4 of the video to get to the important "why's" they were doing this and the final result. The first 3/4 of the film is rehashed and drawn out.
What about the fish in the lake?
Nice to fix one river. Too bad pretty much every other river in the area is currently damned, some of them in multiple places. Seattle and Portland use a lot of water and power.
Imagine if Tesla had been successful. The world would be much different. Most tech we use was created/discovered by Tesla. And stolen, for profit.
Try not to dwell so much on the negative things in life, Bub. Things like this take time, and besides, there have been many dam removals here. Also know that Washington has been the State leading the country with river restoration. We owe much of that to the wonderful Tribes that live here.
That's the beauty of hydro electric with a little help from man ( removing the dam ) mother nature had fixed itself to bad for the home owners but this seems better than dealing with the storage of radioactive waste. NIMBY.
2 years later what happen?
But are there fish to come back?
Most salmon get picked up in the ocean. Not rivers. People over regulate river when 70% of the fish died do to over fishing in international waters by Chinese, Japan and south korean.
Hush, stop telling the truth of why the ocean fisheries are dying!
Damn all dams.
Did the salmon come back
Remarkable
Why was the dam built in the first place? power production? How do you replace that power?
They are all hippies so they do not need power, or baths...
Most dams of this size do not contribute much to the power grid, by todays requirements. Especially when filled with silt and gravel. As stated in the video, the costs associated with bringing it up to standards exceeded the income generated by the electricity produced, so it was primarily motivated by economic issues.
There are currently more viable sources of renewable energy such as wind and solar. Technology that was unavailable at that time.
@@jbbuzzable I agree and disagree.... Any hydro power will generally be worth it when it comes to having a renewable energy source. If it was less expensive to blow the dam instead of making viable, the question still stands. Did the replace the lost power with something else as reliable? Solar and wind do not provide much.
@@gw10758Just to put things into perspective. PacifiCorp, the owner of the dam, has plans to add 1,150 MW of wind power in addition to upgrading the existing 1,000 MW capacity they currently have. The Condit dam could produce a maximum of 15 MW.
@@jbbuzzable Yup, that is what I read also. Only problem is that wind power is not green OR reliable.
lol this commentary is pretty darned funny. Yes, it will all come back. Unreal.