I worked out there with the Forest Service and we would check the fish trap at the dam regularly to monitor steelhead adults passing through. Such an amazing fish and glad the dam came out as I know it was no small feat with opposing views from people that wanted it to remain and questioning whether fish could pass after removal.
Even dams that don't seem to serve a purpose to the public most likely still have a purpose. It could be as simple as flood control even when the other as built purposes are no longer used. I do agree that those who have zero purposes and it's cheap enough to remove them should be removed. If the cost of removal is excessive then leave them.
I am completely OK with removing the thousands of dams that are no longer necessary. Some dams serve vital purposes in terms of the energy they produce and the clean water they impound.
of course you are...But what many people that are for total dam removal forget is that hydro-electric power is BY FAR the cheapest and cleanest form of energy there is. EVERY form of energy has it's drawbacks...wind power kills birds and is ugly and is limited to when the wind actually blows enough to turn generators. solar power is extremely limited to sunny days (not nights). nuclear has a huge issue with disposal of spent fuel rods. Water (hyro-electric) has fish issues.
GB Zebra - Cars, we can't build but dams yes. Look at the Hoover Dam..done right, still perfect. What you don't understand is that dams must be built on perfect locations. And for the most part, all these sites have already been built upon. You just can't put a dam anywhere. If you do they will fail. Read the updated version of "Cadillac Desert". Anything you want to know about building dams is there, from site selection, rejected sites and successes and failures. Read that then report back.
@@TheWhale45 Come to Europe here we remove as much damns as possible, where is no such thing what will happen, what happen is full river of fish people doing more bussiness from rivers, its more like question of money for removal. If damn does not do profit we close and remove it, it takes years for fish to come beck, but more and more of salmon and other expensive fish come beck.
I live here. It looks nothing like the lake I grew up swimming in but no complaints here. Im an avid fisherman and the steelhead run has steadily increased every year, literally the year after they blasted this they had steelies comin up to spawn🤙
Wonderful video, I love seeing Mother Nature being allowed to resume her natural course! We have way too many dams in this country that are not only dangerous but unnecessary at this point in time. They need to come down.
If the dams come down, where do you plan on getting the replacement electricity they provide? More carbon based fuel powered generation systems? Wind and solar won't be up to the task and are more damaging to the environment than dams. And where are you going to get the water for the thirsty masses of people and animals?
@@jameshaynie4570 How much electricity was provided by the Hemlock dam? How do you define, "more damaging to the environment than dams" and with what evidence do you defend your position? Most drinking water is pumped from underground wells in my area.
@@rodshop5897 dams provide flood control, electricity, storafe for irrigation and drinking water. The push to tear down dams just so the fishing industry can make more money doesnt make sense. So why do you think that dam should come down? Do you know why that dam was built?
@@jameshaynie4570 So to correct your statement, "some dams are designed to provide flood control, some are designed to produce electricity, some are designed to create reservoirs for irrigation and drinking water." My point being that this dam did not seem to be doing any of that, so why are you against it coming down? Or are you just pushing the idea that there cannot be too much of a good thing?
@@rodshop5897 it was built to provide water and power in 1937 and included a fish ladder. The fishing industry started pushing to tear it out at the turn of the century to increase the numbers of steelhead and salmon. Tearing it out means the public has to find another source for the environmentally friendly electricity it provided and also the loss of water storage. Too many fans have been removed just to enrich the fishing industry at the expense of our environment!
Brilliant success. Unfortunately here in the UK we are lagging behind, so many of our streams abd rivers have obstructions which could and should be removed, but the process has started. Keep uo your successes!😅
Restoring river system is a 1000% more important than having fun in an artificial swimming hole.Rivers transporting sediment and cobbles freely downstream without harmful viciously contructed dams is a way to let nature run free and fish to recover their lifecycle.
To be fair both are important and plausible to have. I live near a lake that is created by damming a creek up to make the lake. The lake has become an important economic and environmental fixture of the area. Plus rivers arnt always dammed for just recreation. Plenty of times it’s to have drinking water, plenty of place in California so this. It creates reservoirs.
I'm proud this is happening in my lifetime. Are built one at a time we can take them out one at a time. We need these fish so badly they deserve our help.❤
This is heartening news indeed from the USA,from the USA which here,instead of interfering across the globe and thus causing death and misery,is setting an example which the whole world should follow!Bravo!
Oh like interfering with Hitler? Like interfering in Korea? Like interfering in Bosnia? Like interfering in Afghanistan? Yeah we need to knock that crap off. .
Wow this is an excellent video, I'm really glad to see the Hemlock dam removed and the river returned to its normal healthy state with plenty of steelhead and salmon freely migrating to their spawning habitat :-))))))) I would also like to see the Dalles dam removed. That part of the Columbia was incredible with the rapids and falls. Bring it back please :-)
I saw a dam removed in my local watershed in Pennsylvania. I was a watershed monitor for Stony Creek. One of my monitoring Stations was near the Dam. Now the stream provides a better environment for trout.
+Deschutes Maple how will you get online without power to post your stupid crap? You do realize how much power the dams on the Columbia provide the northwest? I'm sure your also one of the liberal morons that want to do away with coal and natural gas fired power plants. (and those provide 80% of the power in the United States)
I used to take the kids on deep hikes in the woods and mountains. I told them to sit and be quiet, and explained that this is all the native people ever knew. They kid me about it now.
I understand the sentiments of the gentleman talking about the kids swimming in beautiful swimming hole those are your awesome memories but that is just what they are,, the realty sir is 'that unless Mother Nature is left to nourish us all we will not have a safe n healthy environment' for those kids babies in their future'. In my opinion. Travel safely
*Always a false choice* ppl vs fish, nature in general. It's a question of values, I'd argue his kids and grandkids, to extent they stayed in the area, would be richer for resurrection of the river. Dude was totally cool tho.
I am a hardcore conservative from a ranching and logging family that said I agree basically with you, he is being very selfish and narrow minded, what about all the commercial fishing families and entire communities that depend upon them, if we continue to destroy our fish runs what becomes of them and the people they feed? This dam served no real purpose anymore and if he thinks that is the last clean swimming hole in the area then he is just lazy and not looking very hard. Fish are not "more important than people" this is about the people I mentioned but his myopic view of the world fails to recognize the people and communities his swimming hole negatively impacts.
@@deanfirnatine7814 I'm with you but I don't think he was adamant against dam removal, he was just presenting another side. No big change goes without some negatives and it's worth considering all angles.
Most realistic opinion I've heard. For the future. These projects are good things to do for the environment and all people living in the surrounding areas.
I was a avid oregon fishermen for many years. what I saw were dams that were more than 70% silted with mud holding very little water back. my favorite stream to fish in the summer was the hood river, but it had a silted little dam a couple miles up stream that kept the salmon and other fish from getting above it. there was lots of talk about taking that dam out, and I hope it was removed. the fishing was excellent and the food and night life in the city of hood was fantastic.
Time we just get out of the way, man.We built them, we can Remove the bloody dams and remove all the poisoning pellet fed hatcheries too on the Columbia River.You need power? Go nuclear. Go Hydrogen-solar hybrid, whatever. Man needs to eat, and this is free! Man build's ladders, hatcheries, pens ect. it makes each fish sickly and costly! $60.00. Ea. If you factor the costs. Save all that by getting out of the way. There are many ways to spin a turbine. If not, we destroy all that free resource, livelyhood's the reliant biodiversity, forrest critter food, healthy forests nutrients. Think food insecurity. Human population gains another billion souls every 12 years, will we worry about plugging in or eating? Prepare, It would be prudent to restore salmon, now. Restore the massive fish run's now, before we ruin this priceless resource. Ban pens that infect, degrade, poison and kill the wild healthy fish as in Georgia and Wanda Fucca straits. Orcas are sickened pcb. laiden from tainted salmon and so are your children. Extreme measures are needed, do away with pens. We do with the same with diseased food poultry and livestock bird flu, madcow ect. Reimburse, cull or sell then entirely, ban, shutter, stop all farmed salmon . Sickly diseased fish stock farm's in B.C and Washington. hatchery fish experiments cannot match the numbers unencumbered given by wild unencumbered free spawning salmon. Pellet fed fish Infect wild healthy salmon return slaughtered milked? Man just get out of the way! They will come back, multiple species,10's of tons of healthy wild salmon will return, will rebound, will feed us will sustain fisher families. Get out of the way and teaming salmon will recover by nature. Fight for a healthy food source. A sport fishing boom. Rise, recover the gift that just keeps on giving.
Interesting comments. This was a small dam that probably wasn't doing anything useful anymore. It's better to have it removed than to have people foot the bill for maintenance when it's no longer useful. I do sometimes question the removal of larger dams that provide a good amount of generation capacity, but small dams like these are too outmoded and should be removed when possible.
if it isn't useful or another dam can provide the same energy that a particular dam can produce why not consolidate them so there aren't as many structures to check every few years. Less structures government workers need to check means the structures that are standing and being useful the more through the checks and less chance of disaster of occurring.
Particularly because this dam was only built to sustain the CCC while they were operating in the area. They were putting up structures of every kind all over hell's half acre during the Depression just to put people to work. Many of these were unneeded and ultimately detrimental. But at the time, the work was serving a purpose.
10:09 - it always amazes me how opposed people are to change, yet how we all build our lives around a reliance on change. I mean look at this guy, the worst thing he could say about the change was that 'other people' couldn't swim here - he didn't personally have a single reason to oppose the project yet he clearly did. (and yes, kids are 'other people' - everyone uses the 'won't someone think of the children' argument as a last resort)
You mean more money in the fishing industry pockets. Do you know how much Salmon and Stealhead are put on grocers shelves and get discarded because they were not purchased?
@@jameshaynie4570 happy new year James,!! Yes,and soon there will be many more discarded,because there will be no one to eat them,Thanks to fauci and his gang.
@@anglosaxon244 surely you don't believe COVID and it's variants are going to kill off that many people. Fauci should be in prison along with the rest of the liberals pushing worthless vaccines that only cause variants while enriching the manufacturers that donate so heavily to their election campaigns.
@@jameshaynie4570 How is it they call us now....."purebloods".....Just a couple of years ago we where all just like that......f..k the metaverse!!..Greetings from Chile,..where 95% got the kool-aid.....soon they will put me in a museum over here....take care,be real!...and hunt the hunters!.
As many inappropriate dams were built , nobody talks about the other dams built by CCC and the WPA . A lot of dams were built simply to relieve flooding downstream , more flood control dams were built than any other type of dam .
The irony is: the sheer mass of dams result in a risk of cascade failure of flood dams. The incremental sedimentation of the flooded basins will also increase the risk of mud releases which, in worst case, cann also cascade the sedimented downstream dams. The risk rises with each year we dont remove uneccessary dams. In 50 years dams will be one of the biggest topics in china, hopefully the us and europe will have renatured most of them until then.
@@SuperGorli Great when you find another source of drinking water , agricultural uses, and hydro electric generation . Solar and wind alone wont power us . Takes more pollution to create huge lithium ion batteries than they save .
@@cpierce3277 Dams are not a problem in itself. The problem is, they were build as single structures and not embedded into a riversystem with dozens, sometimes hundrets of dams. If upstream dams are opening, donstream has to be able to manage by diverting and funneling the water. Most countries already react by rebuilding the dams in an order with widespread flood areas (reintroduction of swamps / marches). Only China is more or less doing the opposite, which i cannot really understand, since they normally have the biggest flooding events worldwide.
Maybe if they hadn't cut down everything green and replaced it with so many inefficient and destructive farms flooding wouldn't be even close to the issue it currently is
@@irenedavo3768 Hello Irene, I like that you are a person that wants to see your inherited natural features and waterways et al remain intact. The problem in today's world began with treacherous governments, now add the ruthless lust for profits which is all that corporations care about... this has become the perfect formula for natures bounty, and the natural beauty of your environment to be targeted for its mass destruction. The same shit is happening in Australia.
What about all the communities that depend on the river being dammed for commercial business like the wheat farmers in central Washington and Oregon and Idaho that would just mean more trucks and trains instead of barging the grain to Portland, but just means more wind farms being built so you can have power also
@@cheswick617 Cleanest is debatable, destruction of rivers and wildlife is a high price to pay, fortunately we have many viable, economical options today.
@@brucepoole8552 I'd agree with that Bruce, especially when it comes to growing rice. But, S. Cal look like it simply has outgrown the supply and just needs more. Today in Oregon we have multiple rivers flooding, hundreds of thousands of cfm's just blowing out.
@@brucepoole8552 Imagine the insanity that would cause here? But truly, we waste so much water 6 months out of the year. Enough to grow anything and everything in California several times over... if you had the storage.
He said “dewatered the reservoir” The proper word is “drained”. I can’t understand why people need to invent alternatives to established nomenclature. Ponderous.
Dewatering is a legit word and construction process- just not one that occurred here. Dewatering is the removal of water from solid material or soil by wet classification, centrifugation, filtration, or similar solid-liquid separation processes, such as removal of residual liquid from a filter cake by a filter press as part of various industrial processes.
Because the 'experts' thought they knew their stuff. Eventually dam removals will be like the Condit and Marmot dam removals. This way wastes to much money on stuff that will happen naturally.
it also depends on timing and fish migration at the time of 'scheduled' release of the river back to it's normal state. If there is too much sediment left in the river, it will get washed down and could fill in spawning ground downstream. It could also cloud the water substantially and suspended dirt and sand in the water can irritate the fish, their gills and their senses, leaving them disoriented as to which direction to go.
@@silentepsilon888 with how powerful some rivers are, they like don't have that much dirt suspended in them. If this was a slow moving river then yeah it's possible.
@@alex-marquette It's the silt that has built up behind the dam that is dangerous. If not properly handled in the take-down, it can damage the environment and the wildlife downstream for a long time.
As stated in the video, there was a regulation that prevented that..the water quality had to be maintained at a certain level during the removal. They had to flush/ pulse the sediment downstream in intervals. If the manpower and money are there, it is a beneficial act. No argument from me though for just blowing them and letting them reset by themselves if cost is prohibitive of a gentler removal...it’s better long term to remove it in a mess than to leave it there for another 100 years!!!
Fish aren't more important than people, they are just as important I figure. All those years that the dam was there was monument to how people and their needs were more important. His grandkids and future generations will enjoy this river much more than a swimming hole, you can find those anywhere. Now a living breathing river full of fish and wildlife around every corner is a thing of beauty to explore.
"no flooding like now if they remove those damn in michigan" Here in Michigan, we had dams that removed themselves. Lots of flooding because of that. Samford was nearly wiped off the map when those old dams failed.
A list of ideas to sam dams. 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 RUclips, and then tell someone.
So sad. To lose a swimming “ hole “ A for a “ bunch of stinking fish ! “. 60 yrs old going on 16 Dull Normal. Come on Pard ~ you can’t see what the World 🌎 has gained by removing that dam. Shame on you !!!
If they do that, then massive pulses of water will race downstream, and the dam itself will be a dangerous tangle of concrete and rebar perpetually catching debris, then releasing again.
Heavy duty compaction may seriously compromise the ability of a river to heal itself so use of modern technology to get a real reading on human caused compaction sections may be used to find other potential techniques to thoroughly restore the potential habitat, gravel beds, natural stream function, scouring, and habitat back to historical or Ancestral Knowledge levels of the natural process where man may have heightened the pristine conditions that existed before the dam was made. Excellent efforts and don't forget to leave it to beavers and or muskrats to bring back natural deep holes and riparian masters of the ecological kind!
Excellent comment. Thank you. To add clarification to your comment, I would say that fish require varied levels in a stream or river bed. They must have over-hang of banks, for shade through the hottest hours of a summer day; they require low-current, quieter areas for the attachment of eggs to rocks; and they require deep areas for protection from predatory birds. The equipment shown in this video seems to be compacting the stream bed into something resembling a paved highway. Certain of these multi-ton vehicles are even identified as road building equipment. The impression which I receive from this video is of general enthusiasm for a project which lacks a foundation in knowledge, study, and preparation. Directors and the hoards of volunteers seem to me to be not so much different from the dam enthusiasts of the 1930s. The mind set is in many ways, just the same. I am sorry for being two years late with a response. This video has been recommended in May, 2022. Thank you for your very insightful comment.
Okay, but what did you do with the old concrete, the rusty fish ladder and the sediment removed from the reservoir? Was good land turned to landfill to deal with those things? What's the rest of the story?
@@softballgunny do some research, it is all about profits for the salmon fishing industry and it is expensive to haul away all that concrete to the crusher not to mention the destruction to the environment breaking the concrete into small enough chunks to haul away.
We have learned so much since this project. What a waste of money. Now we just remove the dam and all man made structures. The river takes care of it's self, and faster than we could have imagined.
You're absolutely right...fish are more important than people. I've never seen a fish do anything to harm our environment. Humans, on the other hand, take it for granted.
Now this is EXACTLY what Baltimore state & the state of Michigan need to do!! No concrete culverts ( as in cheap as state of Michigan)!! No B.S. state of Baltimore!! Free the river/ creek completely!!! Michigan built bridges over your rivers/ creeks!! These guys have it EXACTLY correct!! Free the river/ creeks completely, period!!!
"Mountain in the Clouds" I have in hard copy, and early eighties book on early dams (1890 onwards) in the pacific north west, and the dams were largely PRIVATE and authorized by a Federal employee who "interpreted" policy one off. (No actual legislation or other LEGAL entity involved). Those dams mainly along the Columbia DESTROYED more fish value than they created in power value, but FISH are free. Hydro you get to charge money!!
Sometimes this makes sense but to think this will save the salmon and steelhead is ludicrous. The MAJOR problem with the diminishing return’s is the over fishing. Asian fishing vessel’s right off our coast’s are decimating the population. They happily accept the fines they receive as they get to keep and sell their catch at considerable profit. There needs to be harsher penalties for all….
REFORESTAR REFORESTAR árboles nativos para que VUELVA el ciclo de vida. Los árboles regulan la temperatura en la corteza TERRESTRE. Resguardan las NAPAS SUBTERRÁNEAS. Plantar árboles en las ORILLAS de los ríos que se llama SAUCE LLORÓN sus RAICILLAS don ELEMENTALES para que no se SEQUE. PRIORIDAD para todos los países del mundo. Juntos podemos. REFORESTAR REFORESTAR árboles nativos
Fish are not endangered because of dams, they are endangered by too much commercial fishing. The country needs the water and the electricity provided by dams. Quit pushing the lie for commercial fishermen and their greed!
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
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I worked out there with the Forest Service and we would check the fish trap at the dam regularly to monitor steelhead adults passing through. Such an amazing fish and glad the dam came out as I know it was no small feat with opposing views from people that wanted it to remain and questioning whether fish could pass after removal.
Dams that no longer serve a purpose ought to be removed.
Even dams that don't seem to serve a purpose to the public most likely still have a purpose. It could be as simple as flood control even when the other as built purposes are no longer used. I do agree that those who have zero purposes and it's cheap enough to remove them should be removed. If the cost of removal is excessive then leave them.
@@dundonrl When dams serve no purpose, would you be willing to pay for their upkeep to standards?
Only if it is causing a problem because taxpayers foot the bill same with removing statues
@@dundonrl No. If they're an ecological hazard then it doesn't matter what it costs to remove them, they need to go.
@@aaronleverton4221 I agree with both of you. But I strongly agree with this.
I am completely OK with removing the thousands of dams that are no longer necessary. Some dams serve vital purposes in terms of the energy they produce and the clean water they impound.
of course you are...But what many people that are for total dam removal forget is that hydro-electric power is BY FAR the cheapest and cleanest form of energy there is. EVERY form of energy has it's drawbacks...wind power kills birds and is ugly and is limited to when the wind actually blows enough to turn generators. solar power is extremely limited to sunny days (not nights). nuclear has a huge issue with disposal of spent fuel rods. Water (hyro-electric) has fish issues.
@@cheswick617 every concrete dam that they take down is a tragedy. We as a nation are not capable of building new ones
GB Zebra - That's not true but I can accept people who believe it to be.
@@blipco5 which part? That we will never be able to build new ones? Try it and see
GB Zebra - Cars, we can't build but dams yes. Look at the Hoover Dam..done right, still perfect.
What you don't understand is that dams must be built on perfect locations. And for the most part, all these sites have already been built upon.
You just can't put a dam anywhere. If you do they will fail.
Read the updated version of "Cadillac Desert". Anything you want to know about building dams is there, from site selection, rejected sites and successes and failures.
Read that then report back.
Since this was ten years ago, I'm curious to see how things are now.
@@TheWhale45 Come to Europe here we remove as much damns as possible, where is no such thing what will happen, what happen is full river of fish people doing more bussiness from rivers, its more like question of money for removal. If damn does not do profit we close and remove it, it takes years for fish to come beck, but more and more of salmon and other expensive fish come beck.
@@TheWhale45 i ment fish quantity how it was before damn :)
I’ve just found eleven RUclips videos in under a minute by searching..... you could too! 🤣
Not as good as if they had rebuilt the dam and planned a waterfront community town around it.
I live here. It looks nothing like the lake I grew up swimming in but no complaints here. Im an avid fisherman and the steelhead run has steadily increased every year, literally the year after they blasted this they had steelies comin up to spawn🤙
Bravo! Thanks for sharing and the very best of luck!!
It was good to see this Dam removed. Hopefully the plan to remove many Dams will continue to be implemented.
Wonderful video, I love seeing Mother Nature being allowed to resume her natural course! We have way too many dams in this country that are not only dangerous but unnecessary at this point in time. They need to come down.
If the dams come down, where do you plan on getting the replacement electricity they provide? More carbon based fuel powered generation systems? Wind and solar won't be up to the task and are more damaging to the environment than dams. And where are you going to get the water for the thirsty masses of people and animals?
@@jameshaynie4570 How much electricity was provided by the Hemlock dam? How do you define, "more damaging to the environment than dams" and with what evidence do you defend your position? Most drinking water is pumped from underground wells in my area.
@@rodshop5897 dams provide flood control, electricity, storafe for irrigation and drinking water. The push to tear down dams just so the fishing industry can make more money doesnt make sense. So why do you think that dam should come down? Do you know why that dam was built?
@@jameshaynie4570 So to correct your statement, "some dams are designed to provide flood control, some are designed to produce electricity, some are designed to create reservoirs for irrigation and drinking water." My point being that this dam did not seem to be doing any of that, so why are you against it coming down? Or are you just pushing the idea that there cannot be too much of a good thing?
@@rodshop5897 it was built to provide water and power in 1937 and included a fish ladder. The fishing industry started pushing to tear it out at the turn of the century to increase the numbers of steelhead and salmon. Tearing it out means the public has to find another source for the environmentally friendly electricity it provided and also the loss of water storage.
Too many fans have been removed just to enrich the fishing industry at the expense of our environment!
What an incredible project, absolutely amazing. Fantastic work here.
took too long
Brilliant success. Unfortunately here in the UK we are lagging behind, so many of our streams abd rivers have obstructions which could and should be removed, but the process has started. Keep uo your successes!😅
Great project.
Good job
Way to go
Nice work you guys kudos
well done, an amazing job....
I would be curious to see what it looks like these days, it looked like they done a hell of a job 👍
Me too! I may have to take a trip down there just to take a look.
Restoring river system is a 1000% more important than having fun in an artificial swimming hole.Rivers transporting sediment and cobbles freely downstream without harmful viciously contructed dams is a way to let nature run free and fish to recover their lifecycle.
Take a shower hippi
To be fair both are important and plausible to have. I live near a lake that is created by damming a creek up to make the lake. The lake has become an important economic and environmental fixture of the area. Plus rivers arnt always dammed for just recreation. Plenty of times it’s to have drinking water, plenty of place in California so this. It creates reservoirs.
was there ever an update to this restoration project?
I thank you for all you do...
I'm always glad to see another dam go. The ecological benefits far outweigh the economic ones. Thanks for posting this video.
I'm proud this is happening in my lifetime. Are built one at a time we can take them out one at a time. We need these fish so badly they deserve our help.❤
This is heartening news indeed from the USA,from the USA which here,instead of interfering across the globe and thus causing death and misery,is setting an example which the whole world should follow!Bravo!
Oh like interfering with Hitler? Like interfering in Korea? Like interfering in Bosnia? Like interfering in Afghanistan? Yeah we need to knock that crap off. .
Robert Wood PA Exactly!
EXCELLENT!!
do you have a picture of that important fish ??
Wow this is an excellent video, I'm really glad to see the Hemlock dam removed and the river returned to its normal healthy state with plenty of steelhead and salmon freely migrating to their spawning habitat :-))))))) I would also like to see the Dalles dam removed. That part of the Columbia was incredible with the rapids and falls. Bring it back please :-)
I saw a dam removed in my local watershed in Pennsylvania. I was a watershed monitor for Stony Creek. One of my monitoring Stations was near the Dam. Now the stream provides a better environment for trout.
Virginia Fitzpatrick
That's great news Virginia, glad to hear it!
+Deschutes Maple how will you get online without power to post your stupid crap? You do realize how much power the dams on the Columbia provide the northwest? I'm sure your also one of the liberal morons that want to do away with coal and natural gas fired power plants. (and those provide 80% of the power in the United States)
+Virginia Fitzpatrick do they let people go fishing in that creek, I doubt it.. since it would upset the natural environment..
@@dundonrl "how will you get online without power" How much power was the Hemlock dam producing?
I used to take the kids on deep hikes in the woods and mountains. I told them to sit and be quiet, and explained that this is all the native people ever knew. They kid me about it now.
I understand the sentiments of the gentleman talking about the kids swimming in beautiful swimming hole those are your awesome memories but that is just what they are,, the realty sir is 'that unless Mother Nature is left to nourish us all we will not have a safe n healthy environment' for those kids babies in their future'. In my opinion. Travel safely
*Always a false choice* ppl vs fish, nature in general. It's a question of values, I'd argue his kids and grandkids, to extent they stayed in the area, would be richer for resurrection of the river. Dude was totally cool tho.
I am a hardcore conservative from a ranching and logging family that said I agree basically with you, he is being very selfish and narrow minded, what about all the commercial fishing families and entire communities that depend upon them, if we continue to destroy our fish runs what becomes of them and the people they feed? This dam served no real purpose anymore and if he thinks that is the last clean swimming hole in the area then he is just lazy and not looking very hard. Fish are not "more important than people" this is about the people I mentioned but his myopic view of the world fails to recognize the people and communities his swimming hole negatively impacts.
@@deanfirnatine7814 I'm with you but I don't think he was adamant against dam removal, he was just presenting another side. No big change goes without some negatives and it's worth considering all angles.
Most realistic opinion I've heard. For the future. These projects are good things to do for the environment and all people living in the surrounding areas.
I was a avid oregon fishermen for many years. what I saw were dams that were more than 70% silted with mud holding very little water back. my favorite stream to fish in the summer was the hood river, but it had a silted little dam a couple miles up stream that kept the salmon and other fish from getting above it. there was lots of talk about taking that dam out, and I hope it was removed. the fishing was excellent and the food and night life in the city of hood was fantastic.
Great job, love it
Time we just get out of the way, man.We built them, we can Remove the bloody dams and remove all the poisoning pellet fed hatcheries too on the Columbia River.You need power? Go nuclear. Go Hydrogen-solar hybrid, whatever.
Man needs to eat, and this is free! Man build's ladders, hatcheries, pens ect. it makes each fish sickly and costly! $60.00. Ea. If you factor the costs.
Save all that by getting out of the way. There are many ways to spin a turbine. If not, we destroy all that free resource, livelyhood's the reliant biodiversity, forrest critter food, healthy forests nutrients.
Think food insecurity. Human population gains another billion souls every 12 years, will we worry about plugging in or eating? Prepare, It would be prudent to restore salmon, now. Restore the massive fish run's now, before we ruin this priceless resource. Ban pens that infect, degrade, poison and kill the wild healthy fish as in Georgia and Wanda Fucca straits. Orcas are sickened pcb. laiden from tainted salmon and so are your children.
Extreme measures are needed, do away with pens. We do with the same with diseased food poultry and livestock bird flu, madcow ect. Reimburse, cull or sell then entirely, ban, shutter, stop all farmed salmon . Sickly diseased fish stock farm's in B.C and Washington. hatchery fish experiments cannot match the numbers unencumbered given by wild unencumbered free spawning salmon. Pellet fed fish Infect wild healthy salmon return slaughtered milked? Man just get out of the way! They will come back, multiple species,10's of tons of healthy wild salmon will return, will rebound, will feed us will sustain fisher families.
Get out of the way and teaming salmon will recover by nature. Fight for a healthy food source. A sport fishing boom. Rise, recover the gift that just keeps on giving.
great job
Content is messed up.Make up your mind. Hemlock Dam or Trout Creek Dam, which is it?
Love it, keep moving the unnecessary dams out of natures way.
Interesting comments. This was a small dam that probably wasn't doing anything useful anymore. It's better to have it removed than to have people foot the bill for maintenance when it's no longer useful. I do sometimes question the removal of larger dams that provide a good amount of generation capacity, but small dams like these are too outmoded and should be removed when possible.
if it isn't useful or another dam can provide the same energy that a particular dam can produce why not consolidate them so there aren't as many structures to check every few years. Less structures government workers need to check means the structures that are standing and being useful the more through the checks and less chance of disaster of occurring.
Particularly because this dam was only built to sustain the CCC while they were operating in the area. They were putting up structures of every kind all over hell's half acre during the Depression just to put people to work. Many of these were unneeded and ultimately detrimental. But at the time, the work was serving a purpose.
Revelstoke dam in BC Canada is causing ALOT of problems.
10:09 - it always amazes me how opposed people are to change, yet how we all build our lives around a reliance on change. I mean look at this guy, the worst thing he could say about the change was that 'other people' couldn't swim here - he didn't personally have a single reason to oppose the project yet he clearly did.
(and yes, kids are 'other people' - everyone uses the 'won't someone think of the children' argument as a last resort)
What was the cost?
Jonathan Halsey everything
Actually jk I think it was about 2.5 million according to the dude in the video
I enjoy the Wind RIver area.
Love it
Brilliant, well done all involved
Less dams=Many more big wild salmons.---food for our grandchildren.
You mean more money in the fishing industry pockets. Do you know how much Salmon and Stealhead are put on grocers shelves and get discarded because they were not purchased?
@@jameshaynie4570 happy new year James,!!
Yes,and soon there will be many more discarded,because there will be no one to eat them,Thanks to fauci and his gang.
@@anglosaxon244 surely you don't believe COVID and it's variants are going to kill off that many people. Fauci should be in prison along with the rest of the liberals pushing worthless vaccines that only cause variants while enriching the manufacturers that donate so heavily to their election campaigns.
@@jameshaynie4570 How is it they call us now....."purebloods".....Just a couple of years ago we where all just like that......f..k the metaverse!!..Greetings from Chile,..where 95% got the kool-aid.....soon they will put me in a museum over here....take care,be real!...and hunt the hunters!.
As many inappropriate dams were built , nobody talks about the other dams built by CCC and the WPA . A lot of dams were built simply to relieve flooding downstream , more flood control dams were built than any other type of dam .
The irony is: the sheer mass of dams result in a risk of cascade failure of flood dams. The incremental sedimentation of the flooded basins will also increase the risk of mud releases which, in worst case, cann also cascade the sedimented downstream dams. The risk rises with each year we dont remove uneccessary dams. In 50 years dams will be one of the biggest topics in china, hopefully the us and europe will have renatured most of them until then.
@@SuperGorli Great when you find another source of drinking water , agricultural uses, and hydro electric generation . Solar and wind alone wont power us . Takes more pollution to create huge lithium ion batteries than they save .
@@cpierce3277 Dams are not a problem in itself. The problem is, they were build as single structures and not embedded into a riversystem with dozens, sometimes hundrets of dams. If upstream dams are opening, donstream has to be able to manage by diverting and funneling the water. Most countries already react by rebuilding the dams in an order with widespread flood areas (reintroduction of swamps / marches). Only China is more or less doing the opposite, which i cannot really understand, since they normally have the biggest flooding events worldwide.
I just hope there's a way to put Beaver back in there I'm sure there were beaver in that system so that could be the Final Fix
Very interesting how many people are for removing damns yet when there are major floods people are gonna be like well that damn really helped
And don't forget the dry years. So many.
Maybe if they hadn't cut down everything green and replaced it with so many inefficient and destructive farms flooding wouldn't be even close to the issue it currently is
@@Arrica101 there is a reasonable amount of deforestation. Clearly in this case cutting down the Forrest was not the issue
@@Arrica101 Go buy your 10 dollar coffee and cry in your prius. No farms equals no food baby!
@@Arrica101 do you know how many trees are cut down and how many acres are cleared to build your "wonderful" wind turbines and solar fields?!
The right thing to do and for the good of all the people.
Why dose it take so long to get the ok to remove these dams ?
Right on, I'm sure when folks see the results, they will see that it is for the best.
How intelligent that the people were to remove the Salmon impeding dams.
Hello
@@irenedavo3768 Hello Irene, I like that you are a person that wants to see your inherited natural features and waterways et al remain intact. The problem in today's world began with treacherous governments, now add the ruthless lust for profits which is all that corporations care about... this has become the perfect formula for natures bounty, and the natural beauty of your environment to be targeted for its mass destruction.
The same shit is happening in Australia.
So much effort and energy when nature is sometimes easier, take a look at marmot dam removal.
Now what about removing all the dams on the Columbia River and making it a true river again?
casienwhey - Won’t happen.
What about all the communities that depend on the river being dammed for commercial business like the wheat farmers in central Washington and Oregon and Idaho that would just mean more trucks and trains instead of barging the grain to Portland, but just means more wind farms being built so you can have power also
how about you get on your bicycle and convert it to a generator? Hydro power is BY FAR, THE cleanest, and cheapest form of energy there is.
@@cheswick617 Cleanest is debatable, destruction of rivers and wildlife is a high price to pay, fortunately we have many viable, economical options today.
Fuck you
seeing dams removed puts a swelling feeling in my chest but when a dam goes up i dont feel that good.
I'm glad you don't need fresh water or clean power.
@@StereoSpace People also need healthy ecosystems lol
Which Pinchot park is the original? I live in PA and we have one here too
Logan Bedard - This is the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, not a park.
I noted that as well but the PA forest is newer if I recall.
I thought swimming holes referred more to rivers than ponds
Here in California in spite of the drought we need to follow this success story
California needs more water storage not less.
@@bob_frazier California needs to use less water
@@brucepoole8552 I'd agree with that Bruce, especially when it comes to growing rice. But, S. Cal look like it simply has outgrown the supply and just needs more. Today in Oregon we have multiple rivers flooding, hundreds of thousands of cfm's just blowing out.
@@bob_frazier pipeline from oregon to so cal ?
@@brucepoole8552 Imagine the insanity that would cause here? But truly, we waste so much water 6 months out of the year. Enough to grow anything and everything in California several times over... if you had the storage.
He said “dewatered the reservoir”
The proper word is “drained”.
I can’t understand why people need to invent alternatives to established nomenclature.
Ponderous.
Dewatering is a legit word and construction process- just not one that occurred here. Dewatering is the removal of water from solid material or soil by wet classification, centrifugation, filtration, or similar solid-liquid separation processes, such as removal of residual liquid from a filter cake by a filter press as part of various industrial processes.
Im happy this is happening...
How is the property rights affected by the lake removal?
Hmmm. Stagnant mosquito filled pools, or natural rivers. Tough choice 😂
why was the channel not allowed to reestablish itself
Because the 'experts' thought they knew their stuff.
Eventually dam removals will be like the Condit and Marmot dam removals.
This way wastes to much money on stuff that will happen naturally.
it also depends on timing and fish migration at the time of 'scheduled' release of the river back to it's normal state. If there is too much sediment left in the river, it will get washed down and could fill in spawning ground downstream. It could also cloud the water substantially and suspended dirt and sand in the water can irritate the fish, their gills and their senses, leaving them disoriented as to which direction to go.
@@silentepsilon888 with how powerful some rivers are, they like don't have that much dirt suspended in them. If this was a slow moving river then yeah it's possible.
@@alex-marquette It's the silt that has built up behind the dam that is dangerous. If not properly handled in the take-down, it can damage the environment and the wildlife downstream for a long time.
As stated in the video, there was a regulation that prevented that..the water quality had to be maintained at a certain level during the removal. They had to flush/ pulse the sediment downstream in intervals. If the manpower and money are there, it is a beneficial act. No argument from me though for just blowing them and letting them reset by themselves if cost is prohibitive of a gentler removal...it’s better long term to remove it in a mess than to leave it there for another 100 years!!!
Fish aren't more important than people, they are just as important I figure. All those years that the dam was there was monument to how people and their needs were more important. His grandkids and future generations will enjoy this river much more than a swimming hole, you can find those anywhere. Now a living breathing river full of fish and wildlife around every corner is a thing of beauty to explore.
GOOD!
You created such a thoughtful, inspiring video; why did you have to spoil it two minutes before the end with the ranting of some narrow-minded local?
Isn't terrible to hear an opposing view? If only we all agreed with every opinion you had there would finally be order! Have a good day comrade
This is all fine & dandy, until it just flows out into the ocean unchecked as a waste of fresh water during our permanent drought.
I like videos like this. There is still hope for the US.
That material must have been very fertile .
I’m thinking Farmers must have lined up for some of that.
It's dead as , but doesn't take long to come back to life once you get worms and microbes back into it
no flooding like now if they remove those damn in michigan
"no flooding like now if they remove those damn in michigan" Here in Michigan, we had dams that removed themselves. Lots of flooding because of that. Samford was nearly wiped off the map when those old dams failed.
@@rodshop5897yyes sir, i think ur problem is the damn removed themselves
@@hksp Yep, exactly. Didn't stop the flood at all.
Great.
A list of ideas to sam dams.
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 RUclips, and then tell someone.
So sad.
To lose a swimming “ hole “
A for a “ bunch of stinking fish ! “.
60 yrs old going on 16 Dull Normal.
Come on Pard ~ you can’t see what the World 🌎 has gained by removing that dam.
Shame on you !!!
THAT STEELHEAD APPEARS TO HAVE 2 TUBE TAGS IN IT TOO.
How about flooding during high rain season, they could of just left it without maintenance if would of fell apart on it's own
If they do that, then massive pulses of water will race downstream, and the dam itself will be a dangerous tangle of concrete and rebar perpetually catching debris, then releasing again.
Heavy duty compaction may seriously compromise the ability of a river to heal itself so use of modern technology to get a real reading on human caused compaction sections may be used to find other potential techniques to thoroughly restore the potential habitat, gravel beds, natural stream function, scouring, and habitat back to historical or Ancestral Knowledge levels of the natural process where man may have heightened the pristine conditions that existed before the dam was made. Excellent efforts and don't forget to leave it to beavers and or muskrats to bring back natural deep holes and riparian masters of the ecological kind!
Excellent comment. Thank you. To add clarification to your comment, I would say that fish require varied levels in a stream or river bed. They must have over-hang of banks, for shade through the hottest hours of a summer day; they require low-current, quieter areas for the attachment of eggs to rocks; and they require deep areas for protection from predatory birds. The equipment shown in this video seems to be compacting the stream bed into something resembling a paved highway. Certain of these multi-ton vehicles are even identified as road building equipment. The impression which I receive from this video is of general enthusiasm for a project which lacks a foundation in knowledge, study, and preparation. Directors and the hoards of volunteers seem to me to be not so much different from the dam enthusiasts of the 1930s. The mind set is in many ways, just the same.
I am sorry for being two years late with a response. This video has been recommended in May, 2022. Thank you for your very insightful comment.
Its always interesting to me ; How for profit & private corporations in up with the dams ? ...
Do you use tap water & electricity? Thank a dam.
Okay, but what did you do with the old concrete, the rusty fish ladder and the sediment removed from the reservoir? Was good land turned to landfill to deal with those things? What's the rest of the story?
They usually crush the concrete and turn it into road base. Not sure what they do with the steel.
@@softballgunny do some research, it is all about profits for the salmon fishing industry and it is expensive to haul away all that concrete to the crusher not to mention the destruction to the environment breaking the concrete into small enough chunks to haul away.
ive been here before and after the removal
Nowhere near the fight there was over Condit, thankfully.
I grew up here swimming and catching salamanders and fishing. I know this was good but it makes a huge hole in my hart.
We have learned so much since this project. What a waste of money. Now we just remove the dam and all man made structures. The river takes care of it's self, and faster than we could have imagined.
Next they might as well tear out the bridges and roads so the buffalo can return 😂
get rid of all dams!
humans in the dry west could use that water. it is a win for trout!
The end game is no electricity, watch'em.
7:50 i rember that they used us as free labor :/
who?
Hopefully most of these unnecessary dams will be removed. These valuable watersheds are better than any manmade fish hatchery.
You're absolutely right...fish are more important than people. I've never seen a fish do anything to harm our environment. Humans, on the other hand, take it for granted.
Now this is EXACTLY what Baltimore state & the state of Michigan need to do!! No concrete culverts ( as in cheap as state of Michigan)!!
No B.S. state of Baltimore!!
Free the river/ creek completely!!! Michigan built bridges over your rivers/ creeks!!
These guys have it EXACTLY correct!! Free the river/ creeks completely, period!!!
"Mountain in the Clouds" I have in hard copy, and early eighties book on early dams (1890 onwards) in the pacific north west, and the dams were largely PRIVATE and authorized by a Federal employee who "interpreted" policy one off. (No actual legislation or other LEGAL entity involved). Those dams mainly along the Columbia DESTROYED more fish value than they created in power value, but FISH are free. Hydro you get to charge money!!
Watching April 2021
Sometimes this makes sense but to think this will save the salmon and steelhead is ludicrous. The MAJOR problem with the diminishing return’s is the over fishing. Asian fishing vessel’s right off our coast’s are decimating the population. They happily accept the fines they receive as they get to keep and sell their catch at considerable profit. There needs to be harsher penalties for all….
Yes, fish ARE more important than people, much more ... there are too many people around for them to be of any importance ...
yeah, you sure can't swim in a river, need the damn dam :s
Hour and a Half? It only takes an hour max to drive from here to Portland. Unless your driving like an Oregonian!!
God forbid allitle snow on the road.
I wanted to jump off the dam and bridge, but the fish also need to have fun.
I can understand the old fart's nostalgia for things that have outlived their usefulness.
mhh some beaver dam are greater - a very small one :-)
REFORESTAR REFORESTAR árboles nativos para que VUELVA el ciclo de vida. Los árboles regulan la temperatura en la corteza TERRESTRE. Resguardan las NAPAS SUBTERRÁNEAS. Plantar árboles en las ORILLAS de los ríos que se llama SAUCE LLORÓN sus RAICILLAS don ELEMENTALES para que no se SEQUE. PRIORIDAD para todos los países del mundo. Juntos podemos. REFORESTAR REFORESTAR árboles nativos
😊
life itself
Well, why do you think environmentalists are lying to you? Lying about what exactly?
They should remove all dams from the rivers. Restore the salmon runs.
Andrew Villanueva - The large dams won’t be temoved. These little ones are of no great importance.
@@GH-oi2jf l guess you didn't care about bring back the king salmon fishery in California.
Just me but the intire Columbus River needs to be rid of dam's.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
how ignurt
10:11 conservation and restoration Trump nostalgia.
There is no access to Mt Saint Helens from the Columbia Gorge. Do your damn research.
Fish are not endangered because of dams, they are endangered by too much commercial fishing. The country needs the water and the electricity provided by dams. Quit pushing the lie for commercial fishermen and their greed!