Return to Us: Restoring Alaska’s Eklutna River

I don’t know why YouTubes algorithm has directed me to all the dam demolitions videos but it’s wonderful.. I feel like I’m watching an “Earth Healing” taking place.. so many. It’s wonderful. Love hearing all the stories from those that are affected to those that helped undertake the demo to those that remember hearing from their families how it used to be. I hope there are updates of how it’s going over the years of rehabilitation

These river restorations are a glimmering light in a bleak world.

These dam removal documentaries are one of the few things that makes me feel positive about the future.

amazing video! I hope that the waters of the Eklutna will one day run again

Fantastic! Bring down the dams, let rivers flow free and the salmon return

How wonderful to hear of a victory and restoration of our Mother 🌎. TY to all those who worked so hard to bring back the Eklutna!

Great to see dams coming down ! And the salmon come back , outstanding ! 👌✔️

The amount the sediment moved in the explosion clip is insane.

I can’t explain why I feel emotional about releasing a river and healing what was done without understanding and powered by greed…

Hopefully more of these dam removals are done in USA and Canada

We the people. Thank you for all that you do...

BEAUTIFUL story of hope and live! Undam them all!

Do they plan on passing buckets over the larger damn forever? The removal of the smaller damn didn't do much as there's another larger damn upstream blocking all the water

I've never understood how companies were allowed to just abandon structures when they were done using them. When you're done, you take it down. Why do the people always have to fight and pay for the cleanup?

I remember when the lake was just about full before Anchorage built that big waterline along the Glenn Highway.

How the salmon gonna get past thunderbird falls? 🤷‍♂️.

Did they take the dam down then build a berm to then re dam the river?

So gratifying to see. Now, for the Snake and Columbia dams.

hook a hose up big enough for fish n pipe water back to the river!!

Great work We farm salmon incorrectly. If they were slimy eels that no one ate or cared about I don't think dams and riparian water sheds would be as much of a concern. But these are SALMON. It's so bad today that over 50% of our annual consumption of salmon comes from farm raised fish fed on cat food with dye added to make the meat look like salmon meat. It completely lacks the nutritional profile of a wild salmon. it's crap fish, tilapia. the proper way to farm a fish that is anadromous is to supercharge the entirety of the watershed with micro hatchery efforts. As riparian habitat is reclaimed (by the removal of a dam for instance), we must leverage our technology to the salmon's benefit. What I mean by this is rather than just open up the water way and allow the salmon to repopulate the upper watershed spawning grounds naturally, which could take centuries to fully recharge the run, use the technology of a mitigation hatchery to select wild fish for fertilizing / hatching out to the alevin stage (egg sack attached) and then release them high up in the natal spawning grounds of the water shed. Here's a good example of what Im talking about. Say you have a valuable (culturally and $$$) spring run of kings that is 'present' in the river, but not strong. They're only spawning in one tributary of 3 possible tributaries in the watershed. So, use nets or a water wheel to siphon off a hundred pairs of fish to select for reseeding one of the other tributaries in order to bolster the run. (you'll net around a million fertilized eggs) Spawn them out artificially in a mitigation hatchery but get them into the proposed natal spawning grounds of the unused tributary as soon as they are hatched out, before you anesthetize them, jam a wire in their nose and clip a fin. minimal human handling! You'll have to repeat this effort for a full cycle (4 years) to establish the run in that tributary, but now more fish are making use of the riparian environment and the total run should grow stronger. Repeat with other species and with the remainder of the tributaries that will support a spawning salmon within the water shed. (streams and such) One species helps the other. The issue with salmon spawning beds silting in is not an issue of logging roads but rather a lack of a million pairs of salmon tails excavating the gravel beds to MAKE them suitable for egg laying and fertilization. So, chum salmon, coho, pinks etc, while not as marketable as a king are equally important to the upper riparian environment. Their tails help the creation and maturation of spawning beds high up in the river watershed. Their eggs and fry and smolts all become part of the larger riparian food chain that is so important to growing large healthy salmon prior to their journey to the sea. Can you have too many salmon return to a river? how long do you want to wait to realize your recovery efforts? Opening up a river with no further human interaction is the slowest possible path to restoration that you can take. We need to intelligently leverage our technology to supercharge these natural salmon nurseries. that's how salmon farming should be done moving forward. It will benefit everyone, the tribes, the commercial guys, the recreational fishermen, the salmon and the riparian habitat that will benefit from actually having marine resources reach high up into the river system again. Thanks for reading