The Elwha River, located on the north Olympic Peninsula approximately 100 km west of Seattle in Washington State, is the location of the largest dam removal project in the United States. Removal of two dams, Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon Dam constructed in 1912 and 1927 respectively, began in September 2011 and is nearing completion. Of the approximately 26 million m3 of sediment stored by the dams, up to 5.8 million m3 are anticipated to reach the nearshore Strait of Juan de Fuca within three years of dam removal. The rejuvenation of the sediment supply from the Elwha River to the marine environments of the Strait of Juan de Fuca is partially restoring nearshore habitats after a century of sediment starvation and coastal erosion. While removal of the Elwha dams is a world-scale ecosystem restoration event, the sediment processes of the Elwha drift cell continue to be disrupted due to shoreline armoring and are the focus of continued research and management discussion. (Photograph by Tom Roorda, Northwest Territories, Inc., caption by Anne Shaffer, Coastal Watershed Institute and David Parks, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Port Angeles, Washington, U.S.A., May 2013).
