The National Park Service recently awarded the contract to remove the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha  River to Barnard Construction Company of Bozeman, MT. From the Seattle Times:

The goal is to restore the Elwha River ecosystem, especially its fabled salmon fisheries, choked off by two dams for nearly a century. The takedown of the dams will take about three years to complete. The first concrete will come out of the dams beginning just about a year from now, in September 2011.

“Oh mercy, I am so certainly happy to hear that,” said Adeline Smith, 92, an elder of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, when told over the phone of the news.

Recovery of fish runs is expected to be gradual, building over about 30 years.

“It probably won’t be in my time; it takes years for it to come back,” Smith said. “But I will be happy to see our grandchildren and their children’s children see the fish come up, and the wildlife, and everything around the river will come back, which makes me happy.”

The National Park Service signed the $27 million contract with Barnard Construction of Bozeman. The total project cost is $351 million, including a new hatchery and flood- protection levees on the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s reservation, and a new water system for the city of Port Angeles for drinking water and industrial supply — projects already completed or under way.

Information about the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe can be found at http://www.elwhainfo.org/people-and-communities/lower-elwha-klallam-tribe or the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Facebook page.

More information about Elwha River Restoration is available at the Olympic National Park website http://www.nps.gov/olym or at the Elwha River Restoration Facebook page.

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