Barely a year after the breach of Condit Dam, all of the concrete has been removed and the White Salmon flows freely. By all counts the dam removal has been a success–salmon have returned and spawned above the site, rafters and kayakers are regularly paddling the river, and the whole effort happened without major incident. A huge congratulations to the contractor, JR Merit, is certainly in order. Nicely done!

The most striking thing about the Condit Dam site today is the lack of evidence that the dam was ever there. It’s almost disorienting–the dam and its related infrastructure was a fixture of the landscape for as long as anyone can remember. When I walk around the site today I almost find myself getting lost. It’s weird and really fantastic.

While paddling through the site of the former dam is certainly an incredible experience, it’s really the salmon recovery that makes the dam removal truly exciting. When I pressed most biologists to predict when salmon might return to spawn, I usually got a conservative 3-4 year estimate. But salmon had already started spawning above and below the former dam site before crews had even finished removing the last of the concrete. The lower river sufficiently recovered from the sediment bomb of breach day for salmon to spawn downstream and upstream habitat remained in great shape. The biggest thing we’ve learned from this process? If we get out of the way and let nature do it’s thing, recovery will happen incredibly quickly. But, hey, don’t take my word for it. Ask this guy…

So what happens next? Crews still need to finish wrestling with the log jam in the Narrows and tree planting will happen in the former reservoir area. There’s lots on monitoring left to do and lose ends to tie up, but this dam removal’s just about wrapped!

Now, I know what you’re wondering. Yes, we have the complete timelapse footage of the dam removal processed and ready to go. And no, you can’t see it. Yet. (Sorry!) I’m producing a special for PBS about Condit and the timelapse footage will premiere with the show sometime this spring. Once it has aired, we’ll put both the complete show and the timelapase footage here on the site. In the meantime, just keep rewatching the footage from breach day…

Stay tuned–more updates to come!