Fish, Tribes, and Community: Taking Down the Nooksack Dam

Watch a timelapse of the removal of the Nooksack Middle Fork Dam Removal Project, which took place in July 2020. Removal of the dam is listed as one of NOAA Fisheries’ top recommended actions to recover Puget Sound Chinook salmon populations.

Overview of the 2022 removal of Nelson Dam, an eight-foot-high concrete structure that crossed the Naches River, the largest tributary of the Yakima River. The barrier blocked fish passage where the Yakama Nation holds treaty rights to fish for cultural, spiritual, and economic reasons. The removal was a highly collaborative effort that now opens fish passage while still providing water diversions for agriculture and urban uses.

This video, produced by FLOWPV, provides a post-construction fly-through tour of the Nelson Dam Removal Project, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in the active floodplain and learn about the project elements along the way.

To celebrate its first five years of work, Open Rivers Fund worked with film director Jason Jaacks to produce a documentary highlighting several dynamic dam removal projects and partnerships that are reshaping waterways across the American West. The film takes a look at aging dams and the problems they cause, answering a question made increasingly urgent by climate change: How can we rethink our water management to benefit all?

Produced by Jeff Chen, the "Return the Salmon Relay" tells the story of a relay event hosted by the Eklutna River Restoration Coalition in September 2022. Coalition leaders and community members gathered to return the salmon to Eklutna Lake by relaying plush salmon along the Eklutna River. The event brought attention to Coalition and community efforts to return water to the Eklutna River which has run mostly dry for 90 years. The Eklutna Dam was removed in 2018, and in 2021, the utility companies released water to the river for 2 weeks to support scientific studies. This was the first time water was returned to the river in living memory of the community. The Coalition is advocating for a long-term return of water to river to support all five species of salmon who call the Eklutna River home.

Produced by American Rivers, this is the story of the rural town of Craig, Colorado as it faces economic transition away from fossil fuel extraction and toward a possible future that leverages its natural amenities for tourism. Traditionally defined by mining, energy production, and ranching, Craig lies in the high mountain plains above the meandering Yampa River. As the town reckons with the closure of a large coal-fired power plant and surrounding mines, a growing coalition of leaders and community advocates are working to save their town and move from an extraction-based economy to one focused on recreation and tourism, centering the health and well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. Dam removal and restoration of the river are pieces of that puzzle.

Film by California Trout showcases the benefits of the Potter Valley Project to communities, farms and fish on the Eel and Russian Rivers. The project calls for the removal of Scott Dam, which blocks access for salmon and steelhead to nearly 300 miles of prime spawning and rearing habitat, and construction of new facilities to enable continued diversion of water from the Eel to the Russian River.

Scenes from the first water release on the Eklutna River after the removal of the lower dam. The release was temporary and symbolic, but an important moment nonetheless in the long effort to restore the river.    

Film by California Trout, provides overview of the effort to remove Rindge Dam and restore Southern California Steelhead.

Removal of Nelson Dam on the Naches River tributary to the Yakima River will open 309 miles of habitat for coho and Chinook salmon, improve kayaking and fishing, provide irrigation water for the City of Yakima, stimulate the economy with hundreds of new jobs, and reduce flood risk.

Film by the Conservation Fund, in partnership with the Alaska Native Village of Eklutna. Eklutna Dam, in south central Alaska, was built in the late 1920s to provide hydropower to the growing city of Anchorage. Located in traditional Eklutna Dena’ina Territory, the dam has blocked salmon runs for almost 100 years. The dam was decommissioned in the 1950s after sediment filled the reservoir and removed in 2017.  

Rattlesnake Dam was removed in the summer of 2020. Its removal restores migratory fish passage to historic spawning grounds on Rattlesnake Creek for the first time in 115 years. The project improves habitat for fish and other animals, adds new recreation opportunities, and offers other benefits to the community and Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes.

Bear River is a working river supporting agriculture and ranching. But over time, the river has suffered and so have the native Bonneville cutthroat trout. Open Rivers Fund is working with Western Native Trout Initiative to remove 13 diversions in the Bear River watershed to open up 90 miles of habitat for native trout, while improving the irrigation function the river provides.

The Watershed Education Network engages community members in Missoula, Montana to monitor Rattlesnake Creek and gather scientific data that informs creek restoration efforts.

In September 2024, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe removed Kwoneesum Dam, a 55-foot high, 425-foot long concrete and earthen dam on Wildboy Creek, which flows into the lower Washougal River, a tributary of the Columbia River. The dam was originally built to create a 9-acre recreational pond for a Camp Fire Girls summer camp, but no longer served a purpose after the camp closed in the mid-1980s. Removal of the dam supports the Tribe’s fishery restoration work, eliminates a safety hazard for 21 downstream residences, complements other efforts to revitalize the Washougal River watershed, and opens 6.5 miles of habitat for summer and winter steelhead, as well as coho, listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. This video tells the history of the dam site and documents the removal and restoration processes undertaken by the Tribe and the Columbia Land Trust.

The Cold Water Connection Campaign is a partnership between Trout Unlimited, the Wild Salmon Center, the Coast Salmon Partnership, regional tribes, and state and federal agencies working to prioritize and remove the most impactful migration barriers for salmon, steelhead and other native fish on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Video courtesy of: Trout Unlimited. Videographer: Liam Gallagher.

Produced by Mezia Creative Media, this video documents the Nez Perce Tribe's efforts to build a renewable energy network that will replace the amount of hydroelectric power supplied by the Snake River Dams. The Nez Perce and other Tribes in the region are working to restore historic salmon runs on the Snake River.  

The Tulalip Tribe Natural Resources Department leads the way in a fish restoration project in Carnation, WA. Natasha Coumou Assistant Restoration Ecologist explains why.

Water is meant to move, to flow, to meander. Tanna Engdahl, spiritual leader with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, travels to the former confluence of three creeks at the headwaters of the Washougal River. Tanna takes stock of what was lost when this confluence was dammed to form a lake for a summer camp in the 1950s, and what Columbia Land Trust and the Cowlitz Tribe stand to regain by conserving the surrounding forest, removing the dam, and restoring the Washougal River system for salmon, steelhead, wildlife, and people alike. Video produced for Columbia Land Trust by Zach Putnam Productions.