00:00:09.940 --> 00:00:13.419
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:37.310 --> 00:00:44.180
This morning, I
came, I saw, and I

00:00:44.180 --> 00:00:50.920
was conquered, as everyone would
be, who sees for the first time

00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:53.650
this great feat of mankind.

00:00:58.670 --> 00:01:01.868
Ten years ago, the place
where we are gathered,

00:01:01.868 --> 00:01:07.126
was an unpeopled,
forbidding desert.

00:01:07.126 --> 00:01:09.560
In the bottom of
a gloomy canyon,

00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:11.780
whose precipitous
walls rose to a height

00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:14.320
of more than a
thousand feet, flowed

00:01:14.320 --> 00:01:16.250
a turbulent, dangerous river.

00:01:16.250 --> 00:01:20.074
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:01:21.986 --> 00:01:26.550
We are here to celebrate the
completion of the greatest

00:01:26.550 --> 00:01:32.240
dam in the world, rising
726 feet above the bedrock

00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:36.009
of the river and altering the
geography of a whole region.

00:01:36.009 --> 00:01:39.362
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:01:46.068 --> 00:01:50.430
The people of the
United States are proud,

00:01:50.430 --> 00:01:57.115
with the exception of the
few who are narrow-visioned.

00:01:57.115 --> 00:02:00.931
This great dam won
universal approval.

00:02:00.931 --> 00:02:04.562
This is an engineering
victory of the first order,

00:02:04.562 --> 00:02:09.380
another great achievement
of America resourcefulness,

00:02:09.380 --> 00:02:12.710
American skill, and
American determination.

00:02:12.710 --> 00:02:16.203
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:10.936
Now, this is either-- this
is the tape from [INAUDIBLE].

00:03:10.936 --> 00:03:14.550
It recently came to
[INAUDIBLE] left it

00:03:14.550 --> 00:03:16.990
and then just kept them
after the [INAUDIBLE].

00:03:16.990 --> 00:03:26.070
But yeah, [INAUDIBLE] a little
quieter compared to this.

00:03:26.070 --> 00:03:28.840
Any words of inspiration
for aspiring young artists

00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:30.287
that have a big dam canvas?

00:03:32.910 --> 00:03:33.990
Go for it.

00:03:33.990 --> 00:03:35.830
But do it bigger and better.

00:03:35.830 --> 00:03:37.550
Definitely do it
bigger and better.

00:03:37.550 --> 00:03:39.380
It's like, great,
25 years ago, we

00:03:39.380 --> 00:03:41.303
did a couple of
painted cracks on dams.

00:03:41.303 --> 00:03:42.960
Passe, it's all been done.

00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:49.030
And take it a step further, just
something really impressive.

00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:51.620
I don't know what that'd be,
but I'll come up with something.

00:03:55.090 --> 00:03:58.000
Inspiration can be a
pretty dangerous thing.

00:03:58.000 --> 00:03:59.770
Michael's advice
haunted me for months

00:03:59.770 --> 00:04:01.500
after we interviewed him.

00:04:01.500 --> 00:04:04.610
What sort of lunatic repels
off a 200-foot dam with a paint

00:04:04.610 --> 00:04:06.990
bucket alone in the
middle of the night just

00:04:06.990 --> 00:04:08.500
to make a statement?

00:04:08.500 --> 00:04:10.340
Anyway, I'm getting
way ahead of myself.

00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:11.640
We'll get back to that.

00:04:11.640 --> 00:04:12.780
My name's Ben, by the way.

00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:15.309
I'll be your narrator.

00:04:15.309 --> 00:04:17.850
It was kind of embarrassing how
little I knew about dams when

00:04:17.850 --> 00:04:19.800
I started working on this film.

00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:21.779
I used to sneak inside
their overflow tunnels

00:04:21.779 --> 00:04:24.480
once in a while to take photos
of my friend skateboarding.

00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.370
So the extent of my
knowledge about dams

00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:28.620
mostly had to do with how
to avoid getting arrested

00:04:28.620 --> 00:04:30.070
while crawling inside them.

00:04:30.070 --> 00:04:33.570
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:40.010 --> 00:04:43.510
Dams don't just blend in as part
of the landscape to me anymore.

00:04:43.510 --> 00:04:45.690
Knowing what I know now,
it's impossible for me

00:04:45.690 --> 00:04:48.990
to look at dams the same way
I did a few years ago, or even

00:04:48.990 --> 00:04:51.020
rivers, for that matter.

00:04:51.020 --> 00:04:54.100
Dams and hydropower represent
a pivotal part of US history.

00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:55.920
There's no denying that.

00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:58.610
But just like any other
resource development in the US,

00:04:58.610 --> 00:04:59.720
we took it too far.

00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:03.220
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:05:08.050 --> 00:05:13.670
There are 75,000 dams over
3-feet high in the United

00:05:13.670 --> 00:05:15.150
States.

00:05:15.150 --> 00:05:17.820
That's equivalent to
building one every day

00:05:17.820 --> 00:05:21.170
since Thomas Jefferson was the
president of the United States.

00:05:21.170 --> 00:05:24.882
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:05:26.010 --> 00:05:28.260
Dams have been a common part
of the American landscape

00:05:28.260 --> 00:05:29.710
for centuries.

00:05:29.710 --> 00:05:31.430
Most early communities
were established

00:05:31.430 --> 00:05:33.030
on the banks of
rivers so dams could

00:05:33.030 --> 00:05:35.320
be built to divert river
flows to water wheels

00:05:35.320 --> 00:05:36.142
to run machinery.

00:05:39.100 --> 00:05:41.590
Around the time Edison had
the light bulb dialed in,

00:05:41.590 --> 00:05:43.250
the first
hydroelectric power was

00:05:43.250 --> 00:05:46.610
being generated on the
US side of Niagara Falls.

00:05:46.610 --> 00:05:48.590
At one point, nearly
half the country's power

00:05:48.590 --> 00:05:51.540
was being fed by
hydro power alone.

00:05:51.540 --> 00:05:54.100
As America's dependency
on electricity grew,

00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:55.800
new dams were being
built so fast,

00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:59.850
that the engineering technology
struggled to keep up.

00:05:59.850 --> 00:06:02.120
One of the worst
disasters in US history

00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:05.390
occurred in 1889, when
Pennsylvania's Southfork Dam

00:06:05.390 --> 00:06:07.430
failed with no warning.

00:06:07.430 --> 00:06:10.490
The city of Johnstown was
leveled with 20 million tons

00:06:10.490 --> 00:06:13.840
of water, taking 2,200 lives.

00:06:13.840 --> 00:06:16.577
The flood is still referred
to as a natural disaster,

00:06:16.577 --> 00:06:18.410
despite the fact that
there's really nothing

00:06:18.410 --> 00:06:20.940
natural about impounding
a river behind a poorly

00:06:20.940 --> 00:06:23.610
constructed wall.

00:06:23.610 --> 00:06:25.250
In the late 1800s,
the government

00:06:25.250 --> 00:06:26.830
was faced with a
tough choice when

00:06:26.830 --> 00:06:29.690
they began to realize that every
major fishery in the country

00:06:29.690 --> 00:06:31.090
was at risk.

00:06:31.090 --> 00:06:34.210
Either start regulating the
impact of harvest pollution

00:06:34.210 --> 00:06:37.000
and dams on wild fish
or mitigate that loss

00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:39.090
by trading nature for science.

00:06:39.090 --> 00:06:42.720
The answer was the National
Fish Hatchery system.

00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:45.669
In 1902, the Reclamation
Act was passed by Congress

00:06:45.669 --> 00:06:47.210
to promote the
settlement of the West

00:06:47.210 --> 00:06:49.260
through the development
of irrigation projects

00:06:49.260 --> 00:06:51.640
to support small family farms.

00:06:51.640 --> 00:06:53.500
This well-intentioned
mission devolved

00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:56.300
into the Bureau of Reclamation,
whose short-sighted projects

00:06:56.300 --> 00:06:58.460
began a legacy of
resource abuse,

00:06:58.460 --> 00:07:01.310
transporting and impounding
absurd amounts of water

00:07:01.310 --> 00:07:03.890
to support unsustainable
desert agriculture

00:07:03.890 --> 00:07:06.310
and sprawling urban development.

00:07:06.310 --> 00:07:08.230
The mighty waters
of the Colorado

00:07:08.230 --> 00:07:10.630
were running unused to the sea.

00:07:10.630 --> 00:07:15.926
The day we translate them into
a great national possession.

00:07:18.700 --> 00:07:21.520
In 1913, a seven-year
environmental battle

00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:24.480
led by the legendary Sierra
Club founder John Muir

00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:26.970
ended in vain when Congress
gave the green light

00:07:26.970 --> 00:07:29.210
to flood a national park.

00:07:29.210 --> 00:07:31.350
Yosemite's stunning
Hetch Hetchy Valley

00:07:31.350 --> 00:07:33.110
was dammed to
provide water storage

00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:34.360
for the city of San Francisco.

00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:43.990
On March 12, 1928, 12 hours
after a safety inspection

00:07:43.990 --> 00:07:45.890
by its engineer,
William Mulholland,

00:07:45.890 --> 00:07:49.320
California St. Francis Dam
broke free from its foundation,

00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:53.650
sending a wall of LA's water
supply plowing downstream.

00:07:53.650 --> 00:07:55.860
Mulholland was cleared
of any wrongdoing,

00:07:55.860 --> 00:07:59.020
but felt personally responsible
for the dam's failure.

00:07:59.020 --> 00:08:01.910
I envy the dead, said
Mulholland at a court hearing.

00:08:01.910 --> 00:08:03.410
Don't blame anyone else.

00:08:03.410 --> 00:08:06.260
If there was an error in human
judgement, I was the human.

00:08:06.260 --> 00:08:09.732
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:13.590
During the Great
Depression, reclamation

00:08:13.590 --> 00:08:16.010
began the two most ambitious
engineering efforts

00:08:16.010 --> 00:08:18.980
in US history-- the
Hoover Dam, on the border

00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:21.600
of Arizona and Nevada,
and the Grand Coulee Dam,

00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:23.230
in eastern Washington.

00:08:23.230 --> 00:08:25.890
Both projects created
thousands of coveted jobs

00:08:25.890 --> 00:08:31.190
and were proudly embraced by the
public as national treasures.

00:08:31.190 --> 00:08:33.580
By the time Coulee's
generators went online,

00:08:33.580 --> 00:08:36.679
the US hydro power system was
feeding an insatiable demand

00:08:36.679 --> 00:08:38.780
for electricity to
build airplanes, ships,

00:08:38.780 --> 00:08:40.345
and bombs for World War II.

00:08:40.345 --> 00:08:44.220
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:08:44.220 --> 00:08:46.290
If the era of dams
had a golden age,

00:08:46.290 --> 00:08:48.370
it was the following 20 years.

00:08:48.370 --> 00:08:51.230
The Army Corps of Engineers,
the Bureau of Reclamation,

00:08:51.230 --> 00:08:52.800
and the Tennessee
Valley Authority

00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:54.440
were the government's
dream team.

00:08:54.440 --> 00:08:56.360
If it flowed, it was dammed.

00:08:56.360 --> 00:08:59.290
Any river left unharnessed was
considered a dangerous torrent

00:08:59.290 --> 00:09:00.880
with wasted potential.

00:09:00.880 --> 00:09:03.480
30,000 private and federal
dams were completed

00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:10.524
between 1950 and 1970.

00:09:10.524 --> 00:09:11.940
By that point, the
Yellowstone was

00:09:11.940 --> 00:09:16.070
one of very few unaltered
watersheds left in the nation.

00:09:16.070 --> 00:09:18.070
When the Bureau of
Reclamation began running out

00:09:18.070 --> 00:09:20.050
of ideal locations
to build dams,

00:09:20.050 --> 00:09:21.730
shit started getting weird.

00:09:21.730 --> 00:09:24.340
Massive dams were proposed
in Grand Canyon National

00:09:24.340 --> 00:09:27.500
Park and Utah's Dinosaur
National Monument.

00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:29.510
Led by environmentalist
David Brower,

00:09:29.510 --> 00:09:32.180
the Sierra Club worked quickly
to rally a massive outcry

00:09:32.180 --> 00:09:34.100
of public disapproval.

00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:36.820
But while Brower's attention
was focused elsewhere,

00:09:36.820 --> 00:09:39.250
reclamation's new secret
weapon was quietly

00:09:39.250 --> 00:09:41.380
flooding a little
known national treasure

00:09:41.380 --> 00:09:43.223
with very little opposition.

00:09:43.223 --> 00:09:45.850
If he'd have known how
beautiful that area was,

00:09:45.850 --> 00:09:48.170
he would have fought
it tooth and nail.

00:09:48.170 --> 00:09:50.560
Brower now says that that was
the biggest mistake he ever

00:09:50.560 --> 00:09:51.060
made.

00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:56.650
In 1973, the
Endangered Species Act

00:09:56.650 --> 00:09:59.590
was said into motion by
President Nixon, a bold move

00:09:59.590 --> 00:10:01.990
to protect endangered
species from extinction

00:10:01.990 --> 00:10:04.960
as a consequence of
economic development.

00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:07.640
Any dam contributing to
the demise of a species

00:10:07.640 --> 00:10:10.780
could now be held
accountable by law.

00:10:10.780 --> 00:10:13.220
In 1976, the Bureau
of Reclamation

00:10:13.220 --> 00:10:15.390
set up a claims office
in eastern Idaho

00:10:15.390 --> 00:10:18.000
to divvy up $300 million
to the communities

00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:21.820
in the flood path of their
newly completed Teton Dam.

00:10:21.820 --> 00:10:24.330
As its reservoir filled
for the very first time,

00:10:24.330 --> 00:10:28.290
the 300-foot earthen dam started
to liquefy and calf away,

00:10:28.290 --> 00:10:29.930
taking 11 lives downstream.

00:10:33.110 --> 00:10:36.310
During an interview with the
High Country News in 1995,

00:10:36.310 --> 00:10:39.060
Clinton-appointed Bureau of
Reclamation Commissioner Dan

00:10:39.060 --> 00:10:42.340
Beard stated that the
Bureau's future isn't in dams.

00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:45.290
The era of dams is over.

00:10:45.290 --> 00:10:48.930
In 1997, the
162-year-old Edwards Dam,

00:10:48.930 --> 00:10:51.650
on Maine's Kennebec River,
became the first major dam

00:10:51.650 --> 00:10:53.930
removal in US history.

00:10:53.930 --> 00:10:56.490
River conservation
organization American Rivers

00:10:56.490 --> 00:11:00.580
declared 2011 the year of the
river as multiple dam removal

00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:03.900
projects began, including
the largest in US history

00:11:03.900 --> 00:11:06.964
on Washington's Elwha River,
in Olympic National Park.

00:11:06.964 --> 00:11:10.130
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:11:16.510 --> 00:11:20.360
We are here today to say free
that beautiful Elwha River.

00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:22.610
Let her run free.

00:11:22.610 --> 00:11:25.720
We're here to say welcome
back to the salmon.

00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:28.400
We want you to live free again.

00:11:28.400 --> 00:11:31.060
There are a grand total in
that pool over there-- someone

00:11:31.060 --> 00:11:36.810
counted them yesterday--
73 salmon, not 72, not 74.

00:11:36.810 --> 00:11:38.560
I love people with
fisheries and wildlife.

00:11:38.560 --> 00:11:42.670
They're exactly 73, Governor.

00:11:42.670 --> 00:11:46.650
So to those we say,
we want 73,000 more.

00:11:46.650 --> 00:11:47.470
Welcome back.

00:11:47.470 --> 00:11:48.270
Come on back.

00:11:48.270 --> 00:11:49.730
That's what this
day is all about.

00:11:49.730 --> 00:11:53.223
[APPLAUSE]

00:12:01.706 --> 00:12:03.360
But see a lot of
people don't realize

00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:05.466
how deep this is,
really deep this is,

00:12:05.466 --> 00:12:07.757
until you get right here at
the edge and you look over.

00:12:10.500 --> 00:12:13.960
Yeah, I mean, it was
knowing that today

00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:16.380
was the last day of
our final operations

00:12:16.380 --> 00:12:19.855
up here on the dam was-- yeah,
it's a little reflective.

00:12:23.380 --> 00:12:26.930
You come into a plant, and as
you learn to operate and spend

00:12:26.930 --> 00:12:30.530
time with them,
you learn to listen

00:12:30.530 --> 00:12:34.870
to certain sounds that are not
normal, certain vibrations that

00:12:34.870 --> 00:12:37.160
are not typical.

00:12:37.160 --> 00:12:40.390
But this machine, for as
many years as it's ran,

00:12:40.390 --> 00:12:43.980
we would block load it, and
she'd just run and run, smooth.

00:12:43.980 --> 00:12:46.140
And I think she'd have
kept on running just

00:12:46.140 --> 00:12:49.790
for years and years.

00:12:49.790 --> 00:12:51.180
June 1st was a big day.

00:12:51.180 --> 00:12:52.850
That was hard.

00:12:52.850 --> 00:12:53.850
I'll be honest with you.

00:12:53.850 --> 00:12:56.610
To shut down two perfectly
good running power plants,

00:12:56.610 --> 00:12:59.400
it wasn't easy.

00:12:59.400 --> 00:13:03.090
We as a country right
now are infatuated

00:13:03.090 --> 00:13:05.030
with tearing things down.

00:13:05.030 --> 00:13:09.930
It's not just a enterprise to
blow something up and build

00:13:09.930 --> 00:13:11.630
something new and grander.

00:13:11.630 --> 00:13:15.080
I mean, we're removing
these for good.

00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:17.140
And we're not just
taking dams out,

00:13:17.140 --> 00:13:19.130
but we're having to
relocate families.

00:13:19.130 --> 00:13:22.100
And they're losing their jobs.

00:13:22.100 --> 00:13:25.420
Yeah, I probably have
some personal feelings

00:13:25.420 --> 00:13:29.678
towards, especially,
being a hydropower guy.

00:13:29.678 --> 00:13:34.360
So I think there is a
very intentional movement

00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:37.550
by various groups in her
country to remove every dam.

00:13:37.550 --> 00:13:41.100
There's no doubt about that.

00:13:41.100 --> 00:13:44.846
We're all anxious to see, was
this thing really worth it?

00:13:44.846 --> 00:13:49.360
Was it worth the $370 million
to the American taxpayer

00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:50.710
to do this?

00:13:50.710 --> 00:13:52.960
Did it really make a difference?

00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:59.140
And if in 10 or 20 years down
the road, we look back and say,

00:13:59.140 --> 00:14:01.241
nothing really
changed that much,

00:14:01.241 --> 00:14:02.740
then I think we're
all going to come

00:14:02.740 --> 00:14:04.730
to some similar conclusions.

00:14:04.730 --> 00:14:07.944
And only time's going to tell
us if that's going to be true.

00:14:07.944 --> 00:14:10.070
What's your gut say?

00:14:10.070 --> 00:14:11.870
What's my gut say?

00:14:11.870 --> 00:14:15.400
I'd just as soon
not say anything.

00:14:15.400 --> 00:14:19.320
That says a lot, though.

00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:21.452
I'm not running
for politics money.

00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:30.240
I made a statement about
taking out Elwha dam

00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:33.120
in my first months in office.

00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:35.690
And it caused a lot of trouble.

00:14:35.690 --> 00:14:37.520
President Clinton took
me aside and said,

00:14:37.520 --> 00:14:43.050
[INAUDIBLE], what's all this
talk about removing dams?

00:14:43.050 --> 00:14:46.060
When I first moved to the
state of Washington in 1991,

00:14:46.060 --> 00:14:48.254
I was told, got to get
involved with the Elwha Dam

00:14:48.254 --> 00:14:48.920
Removal Project.

00:14:48.920 --> 00:14:51.056
It's going to
happen any year now.

00:14:51.056 --> 00:14:54.230
So 20 years later, it's
actually happening.

00:14:54.230 --> 00:14:59.650
The dams, both of them, were
illegal to start with, because

00:14:59.650 --> 00:15:03.860
of existing legislation
which stated, essentially,

00:15:03.860 --> 00:15:09.260
that any dam built had to have
passage for migrating salmon.

00:15:09.260 --> 00:15:13.540
All the species of wild fish
that have ever lived in Elwha

00:15:13.540 --> 00:15:14.520
are still there.

00:15:14.520 --> 00:15:15.960
Biologists know that.

00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:18.390
The adult Chinook salmon
still beating their head

00:15:18.390 --> 00:15:21.000
against the bottom of
the dam a century later.

00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:23.780
They're still trying to get
upstream in Olympic National

00:15:23.780 --> 00:15:24.430
Park.

00:15:24.430 --> 00:15:26.860
Taking a dam out and
opening up a watershed,

00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:28.750
reconnecting it with
the fish that were there

00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:30.630
for hundreds of
thousands of years,

00:15:30.630 --> 00:15:31.983
it's a very powerful experience.

00:15:34.875 --> 00:15:36.500
There's three things
that come to mind,

00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:38.480
is hope, humility,
and happiness--

00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:40.670
the hope of recovery in
a lot of these places,

00:15:40.670 --> 00:15:42.220
the humility when
you go to places

00:15:42.220 --> 00:15:44.940
like Southwest Alaska
and other places,

00:15:44.940 --> 00:15:47.150
where you see the
abundance, and just

00:15:47.150 --> 00:15:50.670
a basic spiritual happiness
that you can't find in-- I can't

00:15:50.670 --> 00:15:51.920
find in a lot of other things.

00:15:51.920 --> 00:15:55.140
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:15:57.450 --> 00:16:00.700
It was the elders that
kept the memory alive.

00:16:00.700 --> 00:16:04.380
It was the elders that passed
that knowledge, the knowledge

00:16:04.380 --> 00:16:07.970
of this river in its origin.

00:16:07.970 --> 00:16:10.170
They don't forget.

00:16:10.170 --> 00:16:12.800
They don't move on.

00:16:12.800 --> 00:16:15.300
They remember, and
they persistently

00:16:15.300 --> 00:16:18.142
seek restoration
of what was once.

00:16:21.040 --> 00:16:23.964
It's an answer to our
ancestors' prayers.

00:16:26.690 --> 00:16:28.637
And I'm just grateful
that we're able to see

00:16:28.637 --> 00:16:29.845
it happening in our lifetime.

00:16:32.406 --> 00:16:33.530
So that's what we're doing.

00:16:33.530 --> 00:16:36.260
We're saying thank you for
making sure that the fish come

00:16:36.260 --> 00:16:38.470
back and sustain the people.

00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:47.920
The people of the
lower Elwha, they

00:16:47.920 --> 00:16:52.470
entered into a
treaty in 1855 that

00:16:52.470 --> 00:16:55.790
gave the word of
the United States

00:16:55.790 --> 00:16:59.450
that they would be able to
continue their way of life

00:16:59.450 --> 00:17:02.910
and to live off the
abundant resources

00:17:02.910 --> 00:17:05.260
of that free-flowing river.

00:17:05.260 --> 00:17:08.530
Although the US
Constitution says

00:17:08.530 --> 00:17:11.980
that treaties are the
supreme law of the land,

00:17:11.980 --> 00:17:17.810
the people of the lower
Elwha saw only injustice

00:17:17.810 --> 00:17:21.540
for about 100 years.

00:17:21.540 --> 00:17:27.680
But there is a healing now,
because that is changing.

00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:33.630
All of Indian country
is here in spirit,

00:17:33.630 --> 00:17:38.086
and their eyes are focused upon
the people of the lower Elwha.

00:17:38.086 --> 00:17:41.558
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:17:57.926 --> 00:18:01.398
[MACHINERY NOISE]

00:18:32.230 --> 00:18:35.220
Where had they come from?

00:18:35.220 --> 00:18:37.740
The answer sounds
like a fairy tale,

00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:40.320
the far reaches of the sea.

00:18:40.320 --> 00:18:41.780
How had they arrived?

00:18:41.780 --> 00:18:43.630
Another fairy tale.

00:18:43.630 --> 00:18:46.570
By swimming against one of the
most powerful rivers on earth,

00:18:46.570 --> 00:18:51.330
past eight deadly dams, all
the way up from the Pacific.

00:18:51.330 --> 00:18:54.420
Why had they made such
an insane journey?

00:18:54.420 --> 00:18:56.010
Another wonder.

00:18:56.010 --> 00:18:58.530
These colored stones
and clear currents

00:18:58.530 --> 00:19:02.250
so high and far from the
sea once gave them life.

00:19:02.250 --> 00:19:05.250
So they'd become mountain
climbers, literal mountain

00:19:05.250 --> 00:19:09.110
climbers, though they possess
no legs, hooves, feet.

00:19:09.110 --> 00:19:12.100
They'd climbed the Rockies
to the pebbles of their birth

00:19:12.100 --> 00:19:16.900
by swimming home at the
certain cost of their lives

00:19:16.900 --> 00:19:18.905
in order to create
tiny, silver offspring.

00:19:18.905 --> 00:19:22.110
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:19:27.930 --> 00:19:32.160
I just want to welcome you
folks to Grand Coulee Dam.

00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:35.780
This is the largest producer
of hydro electricity in North

00:19:35.780 --> 00:19:39.160
America and the largest concrete
structure in North America.

00:19:39.160 --> 00:19:40.670
For many years,
it was the largest

00:19:40.670 --> 00:19:44.400
in the world-- 250,000
gallons of water

00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:47.250
a second going through
each of the big pen stocks.

00:19:47.250 --> 00:19:49.130
And when it's really
cranking good,

00:19:49.130 --> 00:19:51.540
it will actually vibrate
through the bedrock.

00:19:51.540 --> 00:19:54.080
You can sometimes feel
it clear cross the river.

00:19:54.080 --> 00:19:57.140
So you just really know
there's a lot of power there.

00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:05.260
There are those that would
take out every dam just

00:20:05.260 --> 00:20:07.950
to save a couple of salmon.

00:20:07.950 --> 00:20:10.340
There are those that think
that the Native Americans got

00:20:10.340 --> 00:20:11.130
a raw deal.

00:20:11.130 --> 00:20:12.880
And some of them,
of course, would

00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:15.780
like to go back and have
their native salmon runs

00:20:15.780 --> 00:20:17.430
and live off the land.

00:20:17.430 --> 00:20:18.800
But things progressed.

00:20:21.525 --> 00:20:25.260
The Elwha, the Condit,
they were old dams,

00:20:25.260 --> 00:20:27.500
obsolete in terms of efficiency.

00:20:27.500 --> 00:20:29.370
So if we want to
selectively take out

00:20:29.370 --> 00:20:30.990
some of those
older, smaller dams,

00:20:30.990 --> 00:20:33.320
not really a problem there.

00:20:33.320 --> 00:20:35.300
We can do that
resource of fisheries.

00:20:35.300 --> 00:20:38.920
But this dam, I can't conceive
of anybody really seriously

00:20:38.920 --> 00:20:42.860
wanting to take this dam out.

00:20:42.860 --> 00:20:46.030
A dam for salmon is
essentially lack of access,

00:20:46.030 --> 00:20:48.980
when their basic life history
requires the juvenile fish

00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:50.700
to go out to the ocean
and the adult fish

00:20:50.700 --> 00:20:52.283
to come back to their
spawning stream.

00:20:52.283 --> 00:20:56.160
So anything that blocks
a river, like a dam does,

00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:58.740
is end of story in
terms of their ability

00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:00.933
to access part of the
world that they need

00:21:00.933 --> 00:21:02.141
to complete their life cycle.

00:21:04.850 --> 00:21:07.470
Some people still define
the Pacific Northwest region

00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:09.480
as anywhere salmon can swim.

00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:11.300
It's a romantic thing
to say, but that

00:21:11.300 --> 00:21:14.570
would mean the territory has
been cut in half by dams.

00:21:14.570 --> 00:21:17.500
At one point, the Colombian
Snake River, shown here in red,

00:21:17.500 --> 00:21:19.560
were the most productive
wild salmon fisheries

00:21:19.560 --> 00:21:21.150
in the lower 48.

00:21:21.150 --> 00:21:25.780
Now the runs hover around
8% of their former glory.

00:21:25.780 --> 00:21:28.300
Every fish that passes this
window at Bonneville Dam

00:21:28.300 --> 00:21:31.020
has to find and negotiate
an elaborate passage

00:21:31.020 --> 00:21:33.060
to move upstream.

00:21:33.060 --> 00:21:35.500
The only chance for their
offspring to get to the ocean

00:21:35.500 --> 00:21:37.210
is if the dams are
spilling water.

00:21:37.210 --> 00:21:39.200
But that equates
to wasted power,

00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:40.950
so you'll commonly
see juvenile fish

00:21:40.950 --> 00:21:42.890
being transported
in barges and trucks

00:21:42.890 --> 00:21:45.650
downstream past the dams.

00:21:45.650 --> 00:21:48.810
Tens of thousands of now
endangered Snake River sockeye

00:21:48.810 --> 00:21:51.040
used to make the
900-mile journey to spawn

00:21:51.040 --> 00:21:53.030
in Idaho's Redfish Lake.

00:21:53.030 --> 00:21:57.770
In 1992, only one fish made
it home past all eight dams.

00:21:57.770 --> 00:22:00.170
If you equate the number
of Snake River sockeye that

00:22:00.170 --> 00:22:03.100
have returned in the 20 years
since to the amount of money

00:22:03.100 --> 00:22:10.310
spent on recovery efforts,
it comes to $9,000 per fish.

00:22:10.310 --> 00:22:12.410
The rivers are
run like missions.

00:22:12.410 --> 00:22:15.120
Every aspect of their flow
is controlled by computers

00:22:15.120 --> 00:22:17.090
in a Portland office.

00:22:17.090 --> 00:22:19.320
During spring runoff, when
the rivers are cranking,

00:22:19.320 --> 00:22:22.120
there's actually a surplus of
energy in the grid at times,

00:22:22.120 --> 00:22:24.150
leaving wind-generated
power with nowhere

00:22:24.150 --> 00:22:26.790
to go and no one to pay for it.

00:22:26.790 --> 00:22:29.320
Seeing thousands of wind
turbines generating power

00:22:29.320 --> 00:22:32.230
in the Columbia Gorge with
no impact on salmon runs

00:22:32.230 --> 00:22:34.190
and water quality
definitely raises

00:22:34.190 --> 00:22:36.230
the question as to
how hydro power could

00:22:36.230 --> 00:22:38.325
be marketed as green energy.

00:22:38.325 --> 00:22:40.940
One thing's were sure, though,
the pro-dam crowd seems

00:22:40.940 --> 00:22:42.530
a little threatened by it.

00:22:42.530 --> 00:22:46.380
It's like Beanie Babies,
the fad of Beanie Babies.

00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:48.130
Everybody had to
have Beanie Babies.

00:22:48.130 --> 00:22:51.960
Well, wind is a fad, that
everybody has to have wind.

00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:54.059
And then you buy all
of these Beanie Babies,

00:22:54.059 --> 00:22:55.600
and you load up the
shelf, and you've

00:22:55.600 --> 00:22:57.640
got all of these Beanie Babies.

00:22:57.640 --> 00:22:59.150
And what are they good for?

00:22:59.150 --> 00:23:01.420
Well, not much.

00:23:01.420 --> 00:23:02.700
And that's the same with wind.

00:23:02.700 --> 00:23:03.604
It's just a fad.

00:23:06.270 --> 00:23:08.290
It's really hard to have
a balanced conversation

00:23:08.290 --> 00:23:10.450
on the subject of
dams, versus salmon.

00:23:10.450 --> 00:23:12.730
One of the most outspoken
pro-dam politicians

00:23:12.730 --> 00:23:16.180
in the country refused all of
our requests for interviews.

00:23:16.180 --> 00:23:18.280
Well, one of them reluctantly
let us in, and then

00:23:18.280 --> 00:23:21.160
not so reluctantly
asked us to leave.

00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:22.780
I can't say I really
blame these guys

00:23:22.780 --> 00:23:24.200
for not wanting to talk to us.

00:23:24.200 --> 00:23:26.283
But I couldn't help but
wonder what their rhetoric

00:23:26.283 --> 00:23:27.697
would sound like.

00:23:27.697 --> 00:23:30.030
Lucky for us, we heard they
were throwing a little party

00:23:30.030 --> 00:23:31.930
to introduce a bill
that would prohibit

00:23:31.930 --> 00:23:33.760
federal funding
from ever being used

00:23:33.760 --> 00:23:36.450
for dam removal or the
study of dam removal

00:23:36.450 --> 00:23:38.744
unless explicitly
authorized by Congress.

00:23:41.980 --> 00:23:43.290
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:23:43.290 --> 00:23:45.700
Thank you for your
leadership on this issue.

00:23:45.700 --> 00:23:48.390
Thank you especially
for holding this hearing

00:23:48.390 --> 00:23:51.640
to examine and
expose the continuing

00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:54.910
drive of the environmental
left to destroy

00:23:54.910 --> 00:23:57.330
our nation's system of dams.

00:23:57.330 --> 00:23:59.570
Some people seem
to have forgotten

00:23:59.570 --> 00:24:01.810
that before the era
of dam construction,

00:24:01.810 --> 00:24:05.700
the endless cycle of withering
droughts and violent floods

00:24:05.700 --> 00:24:08.160
constantly plagued
our watersheds.

00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:11.490
Our dams tamed these
environmentally devastating

00:24:11.490 --> 00:24:11.990
events.

00:24:11.990 --> 00:24:16.080
They turned deserts into
oases and laid the foundation

00:24:16.080 --> 00:24:18.650
for a century of
growth and prosperity

00:24:18.650 --> 00:24:20.730
for the American West.

00:24:20.730 --> 00:24:25.520
But over the last few decades, a
radical and retrograde ideology

00:24:25.520 --> 00:24:27.550
has seized our public policy.

00:24:27.550 --> 00:24:29.510
It springs from
the bizarre notion

00:24:29.510 --> 00:24:32.140
that Mother Earth
must be restored

00:24:32.140 --> 00:24:35.100
to her pristine,
prehistoric condition,

00:24:35.100 --> 00:24:38.010
even if it means restoring
the human population

00:24:38.010 --> 00:24:41.850
to its pristine,
prehistoric condition.

00:24:41.850 --> 00:24:43.770
They're not satisfied
with merely blocking

00:24:43.770 --> 00:24:45.250
construction of new dams.

00:24:45.250 --> 00:24:50.110
They're now seeking to destroy
our existing facilities.

00:24:50.110 --> 00:24:53.810
We'll be required to stretch
and ration every drop of water

00:24:53.810 --> 00:24:57.930
and every watt of electricity
in their bleak and stifling

00:24:57.930 --> 00:25:00.880
and dimly lit homes,
homes in which gravel

00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:04.980
has replaced green lawns and
toilets constantly back up.

00:25:04.980 --> 00:25:08.490
To me, these glaring hypocrisies
destroy their credibility

00:25:08.490 --> 00:25:13.240
and reveal an unabashedly
neolistic agenda.

00:25:13.240 --> 00:25:16.520
This is the kind of
lunacy that we are facing.

00:25:16.520 --> 00:25:18.380
As you deal with
these people, you

00:25:18.380 --> 00:25:21.160
begin to realize
we are literally

00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:24.740
dealing with the lunatic
fringe of our society.

00:25:24.740 --> 00:25:28.050
And they are in charge of our
public policy on these issues,

00:25:28.050 --> 00:25:30.460
because we let them.

00:25:30.460 --> 00:25:31.960
We're not going to
let them anymore.

00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:35.376
[APPLAUSE]

00:25:40.260 --> 00:25:42.560
As tempting as it was to
stay and high five all

00:25:42.560 --> 00:25:45.410
our new pro-dam friends, there
was a place just a few miles

00:25:45.410 --> 00:25:48.320
away that I wanted to visit.

00:25:48.320 --> 00:25:51.680
Just 57 years ago at this
spot on the Columbia River,

00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:53.350
the Army Corps of
Engineers committed

00:25:53.350 --> 00:25:55.811
what today would be called
an act of cultural genocide.

00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:04.075
As Sherman Alexie, a Spokane
Coeur d'Alene Indian, says,

00:26:04.075 --> 00:26:08.030
the salmon are the Eucharist
of the tribes, the Eucharist,

00:26:08.030 --> 00:26:10.330
like the blood and
body of Christ.

00:26:10.330 --> 00:26:13.200
It's that serious a symbol.

00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:17.440
And to run the dams in
a way that wipes out

00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.830
their culture, their
spirituality, and their revenue

00:26:20.830 --> 00:26:23.480
is like there being a
federal bureaucracy that

00:26:23.480 --> 00:26:26.920
removes the cattle from ranches
and tells cowboys that they're

00:26:26.920 --> 00:26:27.856
doing them a favor.

00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:38.400
This is Celilo Falls, the
age-old fishing grounds

00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:40.290
of the Columbia River Indians.

00:26:43.140 --> 00:26:47.240
Here is a fisherman
swinging his net,

00:26:47.240 --> 00:26:51.220
gathering fish for
the salmon feast

00:26:51.220 --> 00:26:55.360
given to welcome the spring.

00:26:55.360 --> 00:26:59.580
And my dad woke me up,
and it was dark yet.

00:26:59.580 --> 00:27:00.460
Come on, Sonny.

00:27:00.460 --> 00:27:00.960
Let's go.

00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:03.442
The fish are coming.

00:27:03.442 --> 00:27:08.550
He took me outside the
tent, and he said, listen.

00:27:08.550 --> 00:27:11.510
It sounded like 1,000
people with an ore beating

00:27:11.510 --> 00:27:13.984
on the water.

00:27:13.984 --> 00:27:15.400
It was salmon
coming up the river.

00:27:20.150 --> 00:27:25.260
The Celilo Falls was the
grandest rendezvous place

00:27:25.260 --> 00:27:29.910
for our people and Plateau
tribes, in general.

00:27:29.910 --> 00:27:35.240
It mattered not whether you was
Yakama, [INAUDIBLE] whatever

00:27:35.240 --> 00:27:38.400
you were, it didn't matter.

00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:39.580
You was a part of it.

00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:48.530
The mist and the
roar of that water

00:27:48.530 --> 00:27:55.430
is just-- I think about it
right now, and I can hear it.

00:27:55.430 --> 00:27:59.630
I'd say maybe that's one of
my great things in my memory,

00:27:59.630 --> 00:28:03.900
is when I think about it,
I can actually hear it.

00:28:07.260 --> 00:28:10.930
This is the first and
unfortunately the last time

00:28:10.930 --> 00:28:14.615
that we will ever have
a film of this ceremony.

00:28:14.615 --> 00:28:18.120
As you will see, the
great [INAUDIBLE] dam,

00:28:18.120 --> 00:28:21.630
which is being built
several miles below here,

00:28:21.630 --> 00:28:25.820
will soon back up
over these falls.

00:28:25.820 --> 00:28:28.800
They will cover the
great fishing grounds,

00:28:28.800 --> 00:28:32.060
and the way of life
the Indians have had

00:28:32.060 --> 00:28:34.720
here will disappear forever.

00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:38.185
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:29:06.930 --> 00:29:08.508
Celilo Falls was gone.

00:29:12.280 --> 00:29:15.090
So how do you think I felt?

00:29:15.090 --> 00:29:19.340
I knew what was there, and
I knew what they'd done.

00:29:19.340 --> 00:29:22.290
Sometimes I get out, and
I look over that place

00:29:22.290 --> 00:29:26.550
and I can still see where
some things should be,

00:29:26.550 --> 00:29:27.958
and they're not there no more.

00:29:31.710 --> 00:29:36.440
The wind has changed, because
of the platte surfaces coming up

00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:39.360
to Columbia.

00:29:39.360 --> 00:29:42.660
The temperatures of the
waters have changed.

00:29:42.660 --> 00:29:44.910
The dead water makes
it harder for the fish

00:29:44.910 --> 00:29:48.060
to get up and down.

00:29:48.060 --> 00:29:51.530
And now all it is is a big
body of water, is all it is.

00:29:51.530 --> 00:29:53.660
It means nothing to me.

00:29:53.660 --> 00:29:57.180
All it means is
what they took away.

00:29:57.180 --> 00:29:59.960
What these dams have
done, they've completely

00:29:59.960 --> 00:30:03.400
torn my country apart.

00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:07.090
This is not the same country
as it was that we remember.

00:30:07.090 --> 00:30:10.499
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

00:30:18.800 --> 00:30:21.340
Dating back more than
10,000, years, Celilo

00:30:21.340 --> 00:30:23.550
was one of the oldest
continuously-inhabited

00:30:23.550 --> 00:30:28.420
communities in North America
until it was flooded in 1957.

00:30:28.420 --> 00:30:30.290
At one point, the Army
Corps of Engineers

00:30:30.290 --> 00:30:33.330
offered to lower the water
backed up behind the Dalles Dam

00:30:33.330 --> 00:30:36.080
long enough for the tribes
to see the falls again just

00:30:36.080 --> 00:30:37.600
for a day.

00:30:37.600 --> 00:30:41.460
There was a resounding
no from elders

00:30:41.460 --> 00:30:47.180
that they could not live through
seeing them flooded again.

00:30:47.180 --> 00:30:50.230
There were some elders that
have never even been back there,

00:30:50.230 --> 00:30:54.200
because it was so devastating,
like a death, is what

00:30:54.200 --> 00:30:56.070
they called it, like a funeral.

00:30:56.070 --> 00:30:59.043
And they could not
go through it again.

00:30:59.043 --> 00:31:02.494
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

00:31:15.830 --> 00:31:18.260
Just upstream from Celilo,
where the Snake River

00:31:18.260 --> 00:31:19.910
meets the Columbia,
you'll find what

00:31:19.910 --> 00:31:21.910
many agree are the
most ill-conceived

00:31:21.910 --> 00:31:25.850
and environmentally
destructive dams in America.

00:31:25.850 --> 00:31:28.610
Fed by 23 major
tributaries, the Snake River

00:31:28.610 --> 00:31:32.590
was once the gateway to 5,500
miles of pristine, wild fish

00:31:32.590 --> 00:31:35.570
habitat in Idaho alone.

00:31:35.570 --> 00:31:37.120
The four lower Snake
dams were built

00:31:37.120 --> 00:31:39.570
by the Army Corps of
Engineers in the 60s,

00:31:39.570 --> 00:31:43.470
with the stated purpose of flood
control irrigation, navigation,

00:31:43.470 --> 00:31:45.950
recreation, and hydro power.

00:31:45.950 --> 00:31:48.630
Combined, the dams
only generate about 4%

00:31:48.630 --> 00:31:50.490
of the region's energy.

00:31:50.490 --> 00:31:52.200
These are run-of-river
dams, which

00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:54.930
means they provide little
to no water storage.

00:31:54.930 --> 00:31:57.170
That also means they're
physically incapable of flood

00:31:57.170 --> 00:32:01.400
control, and it cancels out
their need for irrigation.

00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:04.420
The main purpose of all four
dams was river navigation,

00:32:04.420 --> 00:32:06.370
so a giant system
of locks allows

00:32:06.370 --> 00:32:10.251
barges to haul goods up
and down stream to port.

00:32:10.251 --> 00:32:12.250
It's hard to ignore the
simple fact that there's

00:32:12.250 --> 00:32:13.990
a perfectly good
railroad spanning

00:32:13.990 --> 00:32:16.130
the entire length of
the shipping corridor

00:32:16.130 --> 00:32:18.132
from Lewiston to Portland.

00:32:18.132 --> 00:32:20.710
If area farmers continue
a recent progression

00:32:20.710 --> 00:32:22.580
toward shipping
their grain by rail,

00:32:22.580 --> 00:32:26.400
it'll be hard to deny that
barging is unnecessary.

00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:28.480
The lower Snake is
technically open to the public

00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:29.480
for recreation.

00:32:29.480 --> 00:32:31.960
But I'd heard stories of boaters
being harassed for simply

00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:34.090
trying to paddle downstream.

00:32:34.090 --> 00:32:36.642
I wanted to see first hand if
there was any truth to that.

00:32:36.642 --> 00:32:39.100
So I managed to talk my friend
Travis into one of the worst

00:32:39.100 --> 00:32:40.610
ideas I've ever had.

00:32:40.610 --> 00:32:42.424
But I'll get back
to that in a minute.

00:32:42.424 --> 00:32:44.090
In the meantime, I
want to introduce you

00:32:44.090 --> 00:32:45.810
to this fellow who
randomly walked up

00:32:45.810 --> 00:32:47.820
to the mic at a public
meeting and managed

00:32:47.820 --> 00:32:50.330
to simultaneously end
his career and blow

00:32:50.330 --> 00:32:51.510
every mind in the room.

00:32:51.510 --> 00:32:52.950
I'm Jim Waddell.

00:32:52.950 --> 00:32:56.490
I'm not sure I have a question,
but I want to tell something.

00:32:56.490 --> 00:32:58.870
I'm with the Army
Corps of Engineers.

00:32:58.870 --> 00:33:02.050
I'm hearing all this stuff
about the lower Snake dams.

00:33:02.050 --> 00:33:04.880
And here I am, I know.

00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:07.460
I probably know better,
as a civil engineer,

00:33:07.460 --> 00:33:09.940
better than anybody in this
country about those dams.

00:33:09.940 --> 00:33:14.280
And given what I knew, I just
couldn't sit there any longer.

00:33:14.280 --> 00:33:17.068
And I'm going to get fired for
what I'm about to tell you.

00:33:17.068 --> 00:33:18.852
[LAUGHTER]

00:33:18.852 --> 00:33:21.220
But it's time.

00:33:21.220 --> 00:33:24.040
Those dams are a travesty.

00:33:24.040 --> 00:33:26.390
They always have
been, from the day

00:33:26.390 --> 00:33:31.290
that Congress first authorized
those, it's been a sham.

00:33:31.290 --> 00:33:36.290
Part of what I did was to
manage and lead the Lower Snake

00:33:36.290 --> 00:33:38.710
Feasibility Study.

00:33:38.710 --> 00:33:40.990
In 1995, the Army
Corps was forced

00:33:40.990 --> 00:33:44.150
to address the environmental
impact of the lower Snake dams

00:33:44.150 --> 00:33:47.430
when the Snake River sockeye
was listed as endangered.

00:33:47.430 --> 00:33:52.390
Their answer was the $35 million
Lower Snake Feasibility Study.

00:33:52.390 --> 00:33:53.720
I read the thing.

00:33:53.720 --> 00:33:54.830
I worked on this thing.

00:33:54.830 --> 00:33:59.260
And based on that, I believe
those dams need to come out.

00:33:59.260 --> 00:34:01.160
On the Snake River,
for Snake River salmon,

00:34:01.160 --> 00:34:03.740
it's four dams too many.

00:34:03.740 --> 00:34:06.940
I mean, the taxpayers and the
people of Washington and Oregon

00:34:06.940 --> 00:34:09.449
are not getting a good
deal out of those dams.

00:34:09.449 --> 00:34:14.889
They're losing fish, and the
economics are not helping them.

00:34:14.889 --> 00:34:17.250
So anyway, it comes
time for a decision.

00:34:17.250 --> 00:34:20.469
The colonel sits down with
each one of us separately.

00:34:20.469 --> 00:34:22.139
I read the first paragraph.

00:34:22.139 --> 00:34:25.739
And basically, what it says is
that my recommendation, based

00:34:25.739 --> 00:34:27.590
on this document,
was that we should

00:34:27.590 --> 00:34:30.605
pursue congressional
authorization to breach

00:34:30.605 --> 00:34:31.105
the dams.

00:34:36.290 --> 00:34:38.319
Travis checked out
the Army Corps website

00:34:38.319 --> 00:34:39.860
and found a friendly
little page that

00:34:39.860 --> 00:34:42.489
detailed how to pass through
the Snake River lock system

00:34:42.489 --> 00:34:44.790
if you're in a
non-motorized craft.

00:34:44.790 --> 00:34:47.497
This is where my
terrible idea was born.

00:34:47.497 --> 00:34:49.330
I wanted to see what
the Army Corps had once

00:34:49.330 --> 00:34:52.179
billed as some sort of
recreational utopia.

00:34:52.179 --> 00:34:54.420
Everyone we spoke to in
Lewiston confirmed that it

00:34:54.420 --> 00:34:56.159
was a seriously bad idea.

00:34:56.159 --> 00:34:58.890
Even this piece of art seemed
like some sort of bad omen,

00:34:58.890 --> 00:35:01.910
as if every canoe in the state
had been retired as a memorial

00:35:01.910 --> 00:35:04.790
to a lost river.

00:35:04.790 --> 00:35:06.900
Our plan was to kayak
through all four locks,

00:35:06.900 --> 00:35:09.220
from Lewiston, Idaho,
to Pascoe, Washington,

00:35:09.220 --> 00:35:12.340
where our truck was parked,
about 100 miles away.

00:35:12.340 --> 00:35:15.050
It seemed almost wrong to
call this seemingly dead body

00:35:15.050 --> 00:35:16.720
of water a river.

00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:18.590
Usually, if you stop
paddling on a river,

00:35:18.590 --> 00:35:20.330
you still move downstream.

00:35:20.330 --> 00:35:22.570
Here, not so much.

00:35:22.570 --> 00:35:24.330
Day one sucked.

00:35:24.330 --> 00:35:25.910
Usually, when it's
100 degrees out,

00:35:25.910 --> 00:35:27.660
you just look for a
tree to sit under.

00:35:27.660 --> 00:35:30.000
But they were all under water.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:33.430
I was feeling pretty grumpy when
Travis turned the camera on me.

00:35:33.430 --> 00:35:35.410
I think he wanted me to
admit that my idea was

00:35:35.410 --> 00:35:37.070
a legend among bad ideas.

00:35:37.070 --> 00:35:40.590
But I wasn't ready to give him
the pleasure of knowing that.

00:35:40.590 --> 00:35:43.720
My nerves were wearing on me as
we approached the dam, mainly

00:35:43.720 --> 00:35:45.760
because I'm a pessimist,
but also because I

00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:47.860
can't swim for shit,
and I kept imagining

00:35:47.860 --> 00:35:49.880
getting sucked through
a turbine and pureed

00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:53.430
like an out-migrating salmon.

00:35:53.430 --> 00:35:55.390
There was hardly
anybody in the district

00:35:55.390 --> 00:35:57.802
that would even
talk to me anymore.

00:35:57.802 --> 00:35:59.760
Anybody that thinks we
should breach these dams

00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:01.830
is obviously a communist
and doesn't belong

00:36:01.830 --> 00:36:03.280
to be working around here.

00:36:03.280 --> 00:36:08.610
So I've been branded as not
loyal to the organization.

00:36:08.610 --> 00:36:11.750
I kind of feel like
I failed at my job,

00:36:11.750 --> 00:36:14.450
because here I was in
charge of this study.

00:36:14.450 --> 00:36:17.920
And in spite of my best
efforts, I let $35 million

00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:23.160
worth of research
end up ignored.

00:36:23.160 --> 00:36:26.400
As a public servant, that's our
job, is to make hard decisions.

00:36:26.400 --> 00:36:27.890
I happened to end
up with somebody

00:36:27.890 --> 00:36:31.620
that didn't have the
fortitude or the strength

00:36:31.620 --> 00:36:33.852
to take that decision
and go forward with it.

00:36:38.420 --> 00:36:41.940
I think we can have
a win-win situation.

00:36:41.940 --> 00:36:45.350
Remove those dams, save
the taxpayer money,

00:36:45.350 --> 00:36:50.300
improve a habitat, put more
dollars back in this community,

00:36:50.300 --> 00:36:53.260
because people will come
here to use this river.

00:36:53.260 --> 00:36:56.770
And not only is it
important to the ecosystem,

00:36:56.770 --> 00:37:02.080
it's amazing, just amazing
that they come 900 miles

00:37:02.080 --> 00:37:05.020
into the Snake River system.

00:37:05.020 --> 00:37:10.250
And it'd be a lot
of teardrops of joy

00:37:10.250 --> 00:37:13.556
that see that River
running again.

00:37:13.556 --> 00:37:16.440
It's the largest
possible salmon recovery

00:37:16.440 --> 00:37:21.090
venture of which humanity
is capable, would be simply

00:37:21.090 --> 00:37:23.120
the removal of those four dams.

00:37:23.120 --> 00:37:24.530
Nobody's ever heard of it.

00:37:24.530 --> 00:37:26.370
Nobody's ever been there.

00:37:26.370 --> 00:37:31.080
It has to become
a national issue.

00:37:31.080 --> 00:37:33.600
The Snake River is
a public waterway.

00:37:33.600 --> 00:37:37.870
Our tax dollars pay to maintain
these locks and these dams.

00:37:37.870 --> 00:37:40.570
The Lower Snake Feasibility
Study was ignored,

00:37:40.570 --> 00:37:45.010
and Jim Waddell's recommendation
to breach the dams was removed.

00:37:45.010 --> 00:37:46.740
Despite hundreds
of millions a year,

00:37:46.740 --> 00:37:49.190
not one of the four endangered
or threatened Snake River

00:37:49.190 --> 00:37:50.956
salmon species has
been de-listed.

00:37:55.060 --> 00:37:58.070
There is a great good here that
belongs to the American people

00:37:58.070 --> 00:38:01.070
that's being stolen
from the American people

00:38:01.070 --> 00:38:06.300
by a very small, corrupt branch
of the federal government.

00:38:06.300 --> 00:38:08.330
The Army Corps website
said to pull the cord

00:38:08.330 --> 00:38:10.660
to speak with a lock
master upon arrival.

00:38:10.660 --> 00:38:13.150
But we couldn't
find it anywhere.

00:38:13.150 --> 00:38:15.580
The last thing I wanted to
do was get out of my kayak,

00:38:15.580 --> 00:38:19.540
but I knew our window was
about to close any minute.

00:38:19.540 --> 00:38:22.390
I found a couple of workers that
told me how to find the cord,

00:38:22.390 --> 00:38:24.777
but also warned me that
security was on the way.

00:38:27.460 --> 00:38:29.690
Right as I was about to
pull the elusive cord,

00:38:29.690 --> 00:38:31.582
we made some new friends.

00:38:31.582 --> 00:38:32.390
Ho.

00:38:32.390 --> 00:38:33.290
Hey, how's it going?

00:38:33.290 --> 00:38:34.290
Not too bad.

00:38:34.290 --> 00:38:38.860
You guys were actually thinking
of getting through, is that it?

00:38:38.860 --> 00:38:39.968
Yeah.

00:38:39.968 --> 00:38:41.180
You can't.

00:38:41.180 --> 00:38:41.680
Why not?

00:38:41.680 --> 00:38:43.624
You're not motorized.

00:38:43.624 --> 00:38:46.800
But the Snake system clearly
says that unmotorized--

00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:50.160
[INAUDIBLE] I just heard
that with the operator.

00:38:50.160 --> 00:38:52.360
That's the definitive answer.

00:38:52.360 --> 00:38:53.700
That's federal law.

00:38:53.700 --> 00:38:56.553
It's our legal right to
be able to go through it.

00:38:56.553 --> 00:38:58.820
[INAUDIBLE]

00:38:58.820 --> 00:39:00.930
Don't take my photo.

00:39:00.930 --> 00:39:01.570
Why?

00:39:01.570 --> 00:39:05.070
Because photos are prohibited
on the top of the dam.

00:39:05.070 --> 00:39:06.860
We're not on the top of the dam.

00:39:06.860 --> 00:39:08.000
You know what?

00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:10.442
You're being pretty
combative, and I don't know

00:39:10.442 --> 00:39:11.650
how to deal with you anymore.

00:39:11.650 --> 00:39:12.500
I'm not being combative.

00:39:12.500 --> 00:39:14.666
I'm trying to talk to you
about what the law clearly

00:39:14.666 --> 00:39:15.260
states here.

00:39:15.260 --> 00:39:20.140
I gave you exactly
what the specifics are.

00:39:20.140 --> 00:39:24.076
[INAUDIBLE]

00:39:25.552 --> 00:39:28.380
Oh, I think we should get
the sheriff to come down,

00:39:28.380 --> 00:39:30.560
don't you?

00:39:30.560 --> 00:39:32.700
And just like that,
I was off the hook.

00:39:32.700 --> 00:39:36.470
Travis had come up with
an idea worse than mine.

00:39:36.470 --> 00:39:38.930
Despite the depressing
reality of the situation,

00:39:38.930 --> 00:39:41.735
I couldn't stop laughing, as two
police cars and an Army Corps

00:39:41.735 --> 00:39:44.110
security truck were trying to
figure out how to pull over

00:39:44.110 --> 00:39:47.410
two kayaks from a nearby road.

00:39:47.410 --> 00:39:49.100
One of the more
excited cops deleted

00:39:49.100 --> 00:39:51.470
the video of the conversation
you're about to hear,

00:39:51.470 --> 00:39:53.720
but he didn't notice the
fuzzy microphone sticking out

00:39:53.720 --> 00:39:54.580
of my life jacket.

00:39:54.580 --> 00:39:56.865
OK, do you guys understand
that this is federal?

00:39:56.865 --> 00:39:57.740
Do you guys get that?

00:39:57.740 --> 00:39:58.255
[INAUDIBLE]

00:39:58.255 --> 00:40:00.380
I understand you guys may
or may not be terrorists.

00:40:00.380 --> 00:40:01.800
That's not up for me to decide.

00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:02.780
But it's a big deal.

00:40:02.780 --> 00:40:05.930
[INAUDIBLE] This isn't
go to the local jail.

00:40:05.930 --> 00:40:06.430
Right.

00:40:06.430 --> 00:40:09.640
This is he calls the
federal investigators,

00:40:09.640 --> 00:40:11.249
and they arrest you guys.

00:40:11.249 --> 00:40:13.040
And then they arrest
you for taking photos.

00:40:13.040 --> 00:40:13.969
That's espionage.

00:40:13.969 --> 00:40:16.510
But don't recreational vehicles
take photos through the locks

00:40:16.510 --> 00:40:17.551
when they cruise through?

00:40:17.551 --> 00:40:19.159
Yeah, they're not supposed to.

00:40:19.159 --> 00:40:19.950
I'll tell you what.

00:40:19.950 --> 00:40:21.205
Let's just cut that crap.

00:40:21.205 --> 00:40:22.330
You guys know you recorded.

00:40:22.330 --> 00:40:23.510
It on there.

00:40:23.510 --> 00:40:24.920
I'm not going to delete it.

00:40:24.920 --> 00:40:26.160
There's no sense in that.

00:40:26.160 --> 00:40:27.931
Well, he has a right
to seize the camera.

00:40:27.931 --> 00:40:29.855
Well, it sounds
like a silly crime.

00:40:29.855 --> 00:40:30.820
It's true.

00:40:30.820 --> 00:40:31.785
It's terrorism stuff.

00:40:31.785 --> 00:40:33.980
Homeland security
is just no joke.

00:40:33.980 --> 00:40:35.610
No, we don't want to elevate it.

00:40:35.610 --> 00:40:37.390
You guys understand,
this is federal.

00:40:37.390 --> 00:40:38.310
Yeah, we got it, yeah.

00:40:38.310 --> 00:40:39.810
This is their rules
and regulations.

00:40:39.810 --> 00:40:41.810
This is their river.

00:40:41.810 --> 00:40:45.241
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

00:40:50.110 --> 00:40:52.220
The more the layers
peeled off this story,

00:40:52.220 --> 00:40:54.880
the deeper I wanted to go.

00:40:54.880 --> 00:40:56.900
There's one particularly
divisive issue

00:40:56.900 --> 00:40:58.610
when it comes to dams
that no one seems

00:40:58.610 --> 00:41:02.000
to want to talk about, and
that's fish hatcheries.

00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:03.642
But before we
tackle that beast, I

00:41:03.642 --> 00:41:05.100
think it's really
important to have

00:41:05.100 --> 00:41:07.390
a little appreciation for
one of the species that

00:41:07.390 --> 00:41:08.400
deserves our respect.

00:41:12.310 --> 00:41:16.970
You cannot have a creature come
in from the ocean and enter

00:41:16.970 --> 00:41:20.770
the extreme state of
vulnerability that is spawning

00:41:20.770 --> 00:41:25.460
in shallow water unless the
people in that watershed agree

00:41:25.460 --> 00:41:28.089
to greet this wild creature
with great compassion

00:41:28.089 --> 00:41:28.755
and sensitivity.

00:41:33.210 --> 00:41:35.570
I think most people have
heard of a rainbow trout

00:41:35.570 --> 00:41:38.600
or had one wiggle out of
their hands at some point.

00:41:38.600 --> 00:41:40.530
But few have had the
honor and privilege

00:41:40.530 --> 00:41:43.090
of meeting a Steelhead.

00:41:43.090 --> 00:41:45.380
These highly respected
sea-run Rainbows

00:41:45.380 --> 00:41:48.220
have been severely
impacted by West Coast dams

00:41:48.220 --> 00:41:52.400
and eliminated entirely
from some watersheds.

00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:54.310
It's not uncommon
for a fly fisherman

00:41:54.310 --> 00:41:56.770
to go weeks or even a
season without feeling

00:41:56.770 --> 00:41:58.430
the pull of the Steelhead.

00:41:58.430 --> 00:42:00.460
But their devotion to
these storied creatures

00:42:00.460 --> 00:42:04.040
seems to fuel them.

00:42:04.040 --> 00:42:06.770
There's a uniquely cold
stretch of water in Oregon,

00:42:06.770 --> 00:42:08.370
where a pod of
these wild Steelhead

00:42:08.370 --> 00:42:12.230
have gathered for ages
to rest before spawning.

00:42:12.230 --> 00:42:15.130
These particular fish have
a special friend named Lee,

00:42:15.130 --> 00:42:17.770
who lives about 30 feet away.

00:42:17.770 --> 00:42:20.000
Lee is their guardian,
and he's kept notes

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:22.510
on everything that happens
in and around the river

00:42:22.510 --> 00:42:25.760
for nearly 12 hours a day,
for six months a year,

00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:27.250
for more than 13 years.

00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:33.790
Well, this pool
is known to a lot

00:42:33.790 --> 00:42:38.230
of local people as the dynamite
hole, because of the two,

00:42:38.230 --> 00:42:40.460
possibly three, human
generations when

00:42:40.460 --> 00:42:44.780
dynamite was readily available,
and no one else was up here.

00:42:44.780 --> 00:42:48.460
And it was used in
this pool, possibly

00:42:48.460 --> 00:42:52.120
as much is two, sometimes
three, times a year.

00:42:52.120 --> 00:42:53.620
And of course, for
every dynamiting,

00:42:53.620 --> 00:42:56.540
there are probably 20 or
30 snaggings or nettings

00:42:56.540 --> 00:42:59.500
or you name it.

00:42:59.500 --> 00:43:02.690
To mess with fish that have
passed through the gauntlet

00:43:02.690 --> 00:43:05.730
that these fish are gone
through after they're

00:43:05.730 --> 00:43:08.840
up here and home
free, it just seems

00:43:08.840 --> 00:43:10.558
like it's ridiculous to me.

00:43:14.170 --> 00:43:17.700
Well, one of the things that
never ceases to amaze me

00:43:17.700 --> 00:43:22.460
is how curious these fish
are about everything.

00:43:22.460 --> 00:43:25.850
I think the curiosity
that I see possibly

00:43:25.850 --> 00:43:28.410
represents their
feelings of vulnerability

00:43:28.410 --> 00:43:31.230
at being in this pool,
which is, compared

00:43:31.230 --> 00:43:33.530
to the Pacific Ocean, a puddle.

00:43:33.530 --> 00:43:37.750
And they sometimes respond
idiosyncratically to people.

00:43:37.750 --> 00:43:41.430
Some people put these
fish in a conniption fit.

00:43:41.430 --> 00:43:44.820
Some people have very little
effect on them whatsoever.

00:43:44.820 --> 00:43:47.580
And I'd be willing to
bet that these fish have

00:43:47.580 --> 00:43:49.330
as fine an
appreciation of what's

00:43:49.330 --> 00:43:51.230
going on around
this pool as I do,

00:43:51.230 --> 00:43:54.912
and perhaps finer, probably
finer in a lot of ways.

00:43:54.912 --> 00:43:58.216
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

00:44:01.520 --> 00:44:04.150
The things that
have influenced me

00:44:04.150 --> 00:44:09.510
in life besides a blind accident
are things of great amusement.

00:44:09.510 --> 00:44:12.850
One of the more amusing stories
that I read about Steelhead

00:44:12.850 --> 00:44:14.990
fly fishing was by Gary Snyder.

00:44:14.990 --> 00:44:16.950
And he said something
like, well, we

00:44:16.950 --> 00:44:20.400
started fly fishing on the
Russian River for Steelhead.

00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:23.170
Then we started taking
the points off our hooks.

00:44:23.170 --> 00:44:25.560
Then we started taking the
lines flies of our hooks.

00:44:25.560 --> 00:44:28.610
And finally, we just
decided to go swimming.

00:44:28.610 --> 00:44:32.160
And there's something
very amusing about that,

00:44:32.160 --> 00:44:36.460
but very meaningful
and true, too.

00:44:36.460 --> 00:44:39.070
I think I needed
something to open

00:44:39.070 --> 00:44:42.850
my eyes to the beauty
of the North Umpqua

00:44:42.850 --> 00:44:46.250
and these emblematic
fish that run her.

00:44:46.250 --> 00:44:49.680
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

00:44:55.560 --> 00:44:59.310
It would be nice to think
that these fish know me,

00:44:59.310 --> 00:45:02.370
because I've been watching
them and their parents now

00:45:02.370 --> 00:45:03.770
for 13 years.

00:45:03.770 --> 00:45:08.890
But I think I would just be
playing a game with myself.

00:45:08.890 --> 00:45:14.760
Having Parkinson's has made
me, to a certain degree,

00:45:14.760 --> 00:45:20.480
more aware of the fact that this
will have to come to an end,

00:45:20.480 --> 00:45:23.270
perhaps sooner than I otherwise
would have liked it to.

00:45:26.560 --> 00:45:30.450
It's wonderful to
have an opportunity

00:45:30.450 --> 00:45:34.680
to do something as positive
as this is and as simple

00:45:34.680 --> 00:45:37.180
as this is.

00:45:37.180 --> 00:45:39.762
That is a great gift to me.

00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:49.810
Well, I sometimes wonder
what the final day

00:45:49.810 --> 00:45:53.220
will be like for me here.

00:45:53.220 --> 00:45:56.810
I think that someone will
come along and continue

00:45:56.810 --> 00:45:58.860
to stay with these fish.

00:45:58.860 --> 00:46:00.830
Because one thing is clear.

00:46:00.830 --> 00:46:03.400
It's too easy to
get here for there

00:46:03.400 --> 00:46:06.430
not to be a human presence here
at all times, from this point

00:46:06.430 --> 00:46:08.070
on.

00:46:08.070 --> 00:46:08.980
And there will be.

00:46:08.980 --> 00:46:10.080
I'm confident of that.

00:46:13.230 --> 00:46:15.400
Wild fish are the real deal.

00:46:15.400 --> 00:46:17.600
We still have them, thank God.

00:46:17.600 --> 00:46:20.940
And hopefully, we always will.

00:46:20.940 --> 00:46:23.390
The great beauty
of wild fish is we

00:46:23.390 --> 00:46:26.800
don't have to do a
goddamn thing for them

00:46:26.800 --> 00:46:29.716
except to leave
them the hell alone.

00:46:29.716 --> 00:46:33.202
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

00:47:02.504 --> 00:47:03.920
[INAUDIBLE] Since
they've been put

00:47:03.920 --> 00:47:06.480
through the chemical
bath and [INAUDIBLE],

00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:08.130
they are not fit for
human consumption.

00:47:08.130 --> 00:47:09.860
So we can't eat them.

00:47:09.860 --> 00:47:12.622
They are going to be processed
into fish fertilizer,

00:47:12.622 --> 00:47:14.955
like that stuff that maybe
your folks put on the garden.

00:47:14.955 --> 00:47:16.130
You dump it out.

00:47:16.130 --> 00:47:18.110
It's really gross-looking
and [INAUDIBLE]

00:47:18.110 --> 00:47:20.074
It's interesting
keeping death row.

00:47:20.074 --> 00:47:22.040
[INAUDIBLE]

00:47:22.040 --> 00:47:22.815
They are big.

00:47:22.815 --> 00:47:24.356
[INAUDIBLE] that's
why you kill them,

00:47:24.356 --> 00:47:25.814
so they don't go
out into the wild?

00:47:25.814 --> 00:47:26.924
No, no , no, no, no, no.

00:47:26.924 --> 00:47:27.860
That's not why we kill them.

00:47:27.860 --> 00:47:29.540
We kill them because
there's no habitat for them.

00:47:29.540 --> 00:47:31.040
So we produce them
here, and they're

00:47:31.040 --> 00:47:33.547
coming back to where
they were hatched, OK?

00:47:33.547 --> 00:47:35.130
And we're taking the
eggs out of them,

00:47:35.130 --> 00:47:38.830
and we are producing
15 million salmon

00:47:38.830 --> 00:47:41.700
to provide to the commercial
fisheries and native tribes

00:47:41.700 --> 00:47:43.090
catching.

00:47:43.090 --> 00:47:46.140
The reservoir flood out lots
of their natural habitat.

00:47:46.140 --> 00:47:48.170
So we are a mitigation
facility, making up

00:47:48.170 --> 00:47:49.174
for the loss of habitat.

00:47:53.290 --> 00:47:55.400
Just like their wild
cousins, hatchery salmon

00:47:55.400 --> 00:47:57.810
sacrifice themselves
for the next generation

00:47:57.810 --> 00:47:59.450
by returning home to spawn.

00:47:59.450 --> 00:48:01.435
But for these Columbia
River hatchery fish,

00:48:01.435 --> 00:48:03.144
home is a
government-run factory,

00:48:03.144 --> 00:48:05.060
where they're beaten to
death and artificially

00:48:05.060 --> 00:48:08.210
spawn, to create a very
expensive illusion of a salmon

00:48:08.210 --> 00:48:10.910
run.

00:48:10.910 --> 00:48:13.590
Historically, hatcheries
have been used as a way

00:48:13.590 --> 00:48:17.690
to justify trying to rebuild
the fish runs without actually

00:48:17.690 --> 00:48:21.330
dealing with the root causes of
their decline, habitat change

00:48:21.330 --> 00:48:22.940
overfishing and
dam construction.

00:48:22.940 --> 00:48:26.600
It's a lot easier to basically
adopt the philosophy of, oh,

00:48:26.600 --> 00:48:28.276
we'll just make more fish.

00:48:28.276 --> 00:48:32.140
So I call it a type of
a whack theory, where

00:48:32.140 --> 00:48:36.930
the question is, how many
fish do people want to whack.

00:48:36.930 --> 00:48:39.190
And we'll try to produce
those and bring them back.

00:48:39.190 --> 00:48:44.087
But that isn't the same
as saving the salmon.

00:48:44.087 --> 00:48:45.920
Bonneville Power rate
payers who are saddled

00:48:45.920 --> 00:48:48.360
with an $800 million
a year burden

00:48:48.360 --> 00:48:50.470
to fund the Columbia
hatchery system.

00:48:50.470 --> 00:48:52.270
This is now the largest
fish and wildlife

00:48:52.270 --> 00:48:54.750
program in the United States.

00:48:54.750 --> 00:48:57.080
We're spending a lot of
money trying to get it right.

00:48:57.080 --> 00:49:03.820
But it's a business operation,
and it's a big business.

00:49:03.820 --> 00:49:05.804
Hatchery fish tend
to suck at life

00:49:05.804 --> 00:49:07.780
and equate to a bad
return on investment,

00:49:07.780 --> 00:49:09.029
for a handful of reasons.

00:49:09.029 --> 00:49:11.070
And I don't think you have
to be a fish biologist

00:49:11.070 --> 00:49:12.742
to understand why.

00:49:12.742 --> 00:49:14.200
If you're raised
in a concrete pool

00:49:14.200 --> 00:49:16.670
with no predators, where
delicious brown pellets

00:49:16.670 --> 00:49:18.790
mysteriously rain
down from the sky,

00:49:18.790 --> 00:49:20.220
chances are you'll
be pretty naive

00:49:20.220 --> 00:49:22.632
when you're flushed out of
the tube into the real world.

00:49:22.632 --> 00:49:24.460
If you took a bunch
of suburban kids

00:49:24.460 --> 00:49:26.180
and dropped them off in the
middle of the Congo jungle

00:49:26.180 --> 00:49:27.730
and told them to
walk to the coast,

00:49:27.730 --> 00:49:29.710
they're going to be
not very well suited

00:49:29.710 --> 00:49:31.434
to survival in that habitat.

00:49:31.434 --> 00:49:34.880
They release millions
and millions of smolts.

00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:38.786
Very, very, few of them
come back, very few.

00:49:38.786 --> 00:49:41.824
They're no different than
industrial agriculture.

00:49:41.824 --> 00:49:44.170
It's a disaster in the end.

00:49:47.050 --> 00:49:48.250
So it is true.

00:49:48.250 --> 00:49:51.320
I was a critic of
BPA's fish programs,

00:49:51.320 --> 00:49:55.490
and now I operate
BPA's fish programs.

00:49:55.490 --> 00:49:57.510
We have hatchery
legal obligations

00:49:57.510 --> 00:50:00.460
to provide hatchery
production to support harvest.

00:50:00.460 --> 00:50:02.560
So the question is,
how do we do that

00:50:02.560 --> 00:50:06.780
in the smartest possible way so
we're not impairing wild fish?

00:50:06.780 --> 00:50:09.010
That's an age-old
question that we continue

00:50:09.010 --> 00:50:11.230
to address and
try to resolve, is

00:50:11.230 --> 00:50:14.775
where is that balance between
providing hatchery stock that

00:50:14.775 --> 00:50:17.500
can be fished and
harvested without harming

00:50:17.500 --> 00:50:21.980
the native population
fish that are there.

00:50:21.980 --> 00:50:24.660
If you load up a stream
with lots of hatchery fish,

00:50:24.660 --> 00:50:27.452
the wild fish that are still
in it can be out-competed.

00:50:27.452 --> 00:50:29.910
If you look at, say, the rivers
of New England, of the fish

00:50:29.910 --> 00:50:32.150
farm escapees and
hatchery fish outnumber

00:50:32.150 --> 00:50:35.330
the wild fish in their
own rivers 100 to 1 or so.

00:50:35.330 --> 00:50:37.200
Anybody outnumbered
100 to 1 is going

00:50:37.200 --> 00:50:38.730
to have a hard time holding on.

00:50:38.730 --> 00:50:41.830
If we keep piling hatchery fish
on top of the salmon recovery

00:50:41.830 --> 00:50:44.350
efforts, we're
crippling our chances

00:50:44.350 --> 00:50:46.266
to really recover these systems.

00:50:46.266 --> 00:50:47.990
Now, the second
problem is they tend

00:50:47.990 --> 00:50:51.060
to breed with the wild fish
that are in that watershed.

00:50:51.060 --> 00:50:54.160
And that's shown to reduce their
ability to produce offspring.

00:50:54.160 --> 00:50:57.190
The wild fish are
genetically diverse,

00:50:57.190 --> 00:50:59.980
whereas a hatchery clone,
it's a bunch of first cousins,

00:50:59.980 --> 00:51:01.340
fucking first cousins.

00:51:01.340 --> 00:51:03.710
So you end up with
a bunch ba-deeps.

00:51:03.710 --> 00:51:07.360
They're immediately being
inbred out of existence.

00:51:07.360 --> 00:51:10.970
It really is like trying
to replace Bach, Beethoven,

00:51:10.970 --> 00:51:13.940
and Mozart with Yanni,
Yanni, and Yanni.

00:51:13.940 --> 00:51:16.170
No diversity.

00:51:16.170 --> 00:51:20.640
There is this deep
psychological need or desire

00:51:20.640 --> 00:51:22.120
to control nature.

00:51:22.120 --> 00:51:26.910
And I think dams and
hatcheries are the same thing.

00:51:26.910 --> 00:51:28.680
The whole purpose
of the $300 million

00:51:28.680 --> 00:51:32.630
Elwha Dam removal project was
to restore wild fish runs.

00:51:32.630 --> 00:51:34.770
But instead of letting
things happen naturally,

00:51:34.770 --> 00:51:37.230
16 million went to the
Elwha Klallam tribe

00:51:37.230 --> 00:51:38.990
to build a new fish
hatchery and start

00:51:38.990 --> 00:51:41.380
pumping the Elwha full
of manufactured salmon

00:51:41.380 --> 00:51:43.130
and Steelhead.

00:51:43.130 --> 00:51:45.530
The one common element
is to build the dam,

00:51:45.530 --> 00:51:46.980
we've got to put a hatchery in.

00:51:46.980 --> 00:51:49.188
Well, to take it out, we've
got to put a hatchery in.

00:51:49.188 --> 00:51:51.880
It makes you kind of wonder
what the real purpose

00:51:51.880 --> 00:51:53.754
behind the desire
for hatcheries are

00:51:53.754 --> 00:51:55.170
and if there are
other reasons why

00:51:55.170 --> 00:51:59.284
they tend to be very popular,
than the good of the fish.

00:52:02.010 --> 00:52:04.380
I don't like to openly
oppose something

00:52:04.380 --> 00:52:08.360
that the tribe
has a right to do.

00:52:08.360 --> 00:52:10.780
But in this case, I feel like
they're making a mistake.

00:52:15.150 --> 00:52:18.090
We're here to celebrate the
largest dam removal project

00:52:18.090 --> 00:52:21.720
in US history, an
extraordinary opportunity

00:52:21.720 --> 00:52:25.520
to watch more than 100 miles
of pristine wild salmon habitat

00:52:25.520 --> 00:52:29.240
return to its natural state
as the Elwha reconnects

00:52:29.240 --> 00:52:33.020
with the sea for the first
time in nearly a century.

00:52:33.020 --> 00:52:35.420
The wild salmon of the
Pacific Ring of Fire

00:52:35.420 --> 00:52:37.630
have evolved to
repopulate themselves

00:52:37.630 --> 00:52:40.900
in watersheds devastated
by volcanic eruptions,

00:52:40.900 --> 00:52:44.680
earthquakes,
glaciers, landslides.

00:52:44.680 --> 00:52:46.210
They've been doing
it successfully

00:52:46.210 --> 00:52:48.490
for millions of years.

00:52:48.490 --> 00:52:51.990
But because we've somehow lost
our faith in mother nature,

00:52:51.990 --> 00:52:55.260
we're about to start releasing
in-bred, out-of-basin hatchery

00:52:55.260 --> 00:52:58.600
stocks into this newly
restored habitat.

00:52:58.600 --> 00:53:01.010
Despite overwhelming
evidence showing the presence

00:53:01.010 --> 00:53:03.720
of hatchery fish works
as a powerful detriment

00:53:03.720 --> 00:53:08.990
to wild salmon recovery,
we insist, once again,

00:53:08.990 --> 00:53:11.960
on helping the natural process.

00:53:11.960 --> 00:53:15.960
My wish, then, is that we
can somehow find the patience

00:53:15.960 --> 00:53:18.230
and the faith to
let mother nature

00:53:18.230 --> 00:53:20.340
do what she's always done.

00:53:20.340 --> 00:53:21.570
Thank you for your time.

00:53:21.570 --> 00:53:25.070
[APPLAUSE]

00:53:29.274 --> 00:53:32.718
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

00:53:37.150 --> 00:53:44.240
What do you think of people
characterizing Floyd Dominy

00:53:44.240 --> 00:53:46.680
as an enemy of the environment?

00:53:46.680 --> 00:53:49.490
Bulldozer in front of you,
[INAUDIBLE] and everything,

00:53:49.490 --> 00:53:52.540
how do you feel about that?

00:53:52.540 --> 00:53:55.680
I've changed the
environment, yes.

00:53:55.680 --> 00:53:57.640
But I've changed it
for the benefit of man.

00:54:01.860 --> 00:54:04.590
It would be wrong to make
a film about dams in the US

00:54:04.590 --> 00:54:07.570
and leave out the
story of Glen Canyon.

00:54:07.570 --> 00:54:09.220
In the archeology
profession, there's

00:54:09.220 --> 00:54:12.520
a very unromantic term used
when the sole purpose of the job

00:54:12.520 --> 00:54:14.560
is to document cultural
treasures before they're

00:54:14.560 --> 00:54:16.470
flooded by a dam.

00:54:16.470 --> 00:54:17.828
They call it salvage.

00:54:17.828 --> 00:54:21.072
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:54:24.780 --> 00:54:27.260
It was the biggest
single salvage project

00:54:27.260 --> 00:54:29.610
up to that point in
American history.

00:54:29.610 --> 00:54:32.230
It was the most thorough
thing of its kind ever done

00:54:32.230 --> 00:54:34.318
at the time.

00:54:34.318 --> 00:54:37.820
But I think by the end of 1958,
when that picture was taken,

00:54:37.820 --> 00:54:40.350
where we're all
standing there, we all

00:54:40.350 --> 00:54:42.210
had a pretty good idea
that this was really

00:54:42.210 --> 00:54:43.252
something very special.

00:54:46.210 --> 00:54:51.560
Glen Canyon Dam was authorized
in April of 1956, Colorado

00:54:51.560 --> 00:54:53.477
[INAUDIBLE] Project Act.

00:54:53.477 --> 00:54:55.185
We didn't have to
relocate any railroads.

00:54:55.185 --> 00:54:57.440
We didn't have to
relocate any highways.

00:54:57.440 --> 00:55:02.610
We didn't have to build barrier
dikes around any little towns.

00:55:02.610 --> 00:55:06.940
There was nothing
there, nothing there.

00:55:06.940 --> 00:55:08.530
Did you ever meet Floyd Dominy?

00:55:08.530 --> 00:55:09.200
Oh, there we go.

00:55:09.200 --> 00:55:10.500
What was the psychology like?

00:55:10.500 --> 00:55:11.800
Yeah.

00:55:11.800 --> 00:55:12.930
No, I never met him.

00:55:12.930 --> 00:55:15.170
I'd a cut his balls
off if I had met him.

00:55:15.170 --> 00:55:19.870
Or I'd had somebody else do it.

00:55:19.870 --> 00:55:21.930
Deceptively called
a lake, Glen Canyon

00:55:21.930 --> 00:55:23.960
now rests under the
second largest reservoir

00:55:23.960 --> 00:55:25.790
in the country that flooded it.

00:55:25.790 --> 00:55:28.380
Glen Canyon Dam was essentially
a bank account for the Bureau

00:55:28.380 --> 00:55:30.090
of Reclamation,
built to generate

00:55:30.090 --> 00:55:32.060
power that would
fund other projects

00:55:32.060 --> 00:55:35.920
and provide water to cool a
nearby coal-fired power plant.

00:55:35.920 --> 00:55:38.570
An estimated 45 million
tons of sediment

00:55:38.570 --> 00:55:40.300
is trapped behind
the dam annually,

00:55:40.300 --> 00:55:43.690
starving the Grand Canyon's
ecosystem downstream.

00:55:43.690 --> 00:55:46.170
Every year, as Lake Powell
evaporates under the desert

00:55:46.170 --> 00:55:48.670
sun and seeps into
the porous sandstone,

00:55:48.670 --> 00:55:52.820
8% of the Colorado River's flow
disappears, one of many factors

00:55:52.820 --> 00:55:55.390
that contribute to the river
commonly drying up before it

00:55:55.390 --> 00:55:57.890
reaches the Gulf of California.

00:55:57.890 --> 00:56:01.490
When construction began in
1957, two archeology teams

00:56:01.490 --> 00:56:03.430
began a five-year
push to document

00:56:03.430 --> 00:56:06.940
more than 250 culturally
significant sites in lower Glen

00:56:06.940 --> 00:56:08.060
Canyon.

00:56:08.060 --> 00:56:10.790
At the same time, a handful
of devoted river runners

00:56:10.790 --> 00:56:13.378
began the process of saying
goodbye to the place no one

00:56:13.378 --> 00:56:13.877
knew.

00:56:17.700 --> 00:56:19.040
The gates were going to close.

00:56:19.040 --> 00:56:22.130
And we had to at least
be finished with what

00:56:22.130 --> 00:56:24.290
was going to be flooded.

00:56:24.290 --> 00:56:26.220
It's going to go under,
but at least we're

00:56:26.220 --> 00:56:28.200
going to salvage it so
we'll have the staff,

00:56:28.200 --> 00:56:30.560
and we'll have the
records and the data,

00:56:30.560 --> 00:56:31.930
so we can write books about it.

00:56:31.930 --> 00:56:33.985
And we can make museum
displays about it.

00:56:33.985 --> 00:56:34.860
And we'll have a dam.

00:56:34.860 --> 00:56:37.602
And so we can run
around on our boats.

00:56:37.602 --> 00:56:38.185
It's progress.

00:56:43.300 --> 00:56:48.000
Two guys and me, it seemed to
be a pattern-- one of them old

00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:50.910
enough almost to be my
father, and Tad, an old friend

00:56:50.910 --> 00:56:54.280
that i had known since
I was in high school.

00:56:54.280 --> 00:56:56.235
And one's a photographer,
and the other one

00:56:56.235 --> 00:57:00.790
knows the river very
well-- Frank, just friends,

00:57:00.790 --> 00:57:02.480
none of this hanky-panky.

00:57:02.480 --> 00:57:06.470
Nobody is trying to get laid,
and nobody's-- we're just all

00:57:06.470 --> 00:57:09.661
enchanted by what's around us.

00:57:09.661 --> 00:57:13.000
Then why were you
initially afraid of it?

00:57:13.000 --> 00:57:15.150
Because I didn't
know how to swim.

00:57:15.150 --> 00:57:17.310
Because I'd never
run a motor boat.

00:57:17.310 --> 00:57:19.840
Because I'd never
camped out in my life.

00:57:19.840 --> 00:57:23.030
Once you get through being
afraid of the country,

00:57:23.030 --> 00:57:24.830
it was a magical place.

00:57:24.830 --> 00:57:28.410
Forgotten Canyon, that was
the high point, I think.

00:57:28.410 --> 00:57:33.790
The people had walked away
about 1300, 1310 maybe.

00:57:33.790 --> 00:57:35.480
They left the ashes
in the fireplace.

00:57:35.480 --> 00:57:37.280
They left great,
big pots sitting

00:57:37.280 --> 00:57:39.900
on the surface with food
remained still in them.

00:57:39.900 --> 00:57:42.190
There was a ladder that still
went down into the kiva,

00:57:42.190 --> 00:57:43.970
into the ceremonial chamber.

00:57:43.970 --> 00:57:47.150
They had just walked
away 1,000 years ago.

00:57:47.150 --> 00:57:48.560
Nobody's been here since.

00:57:48.560 --> 00:57:51.910
That's pretty-- doesn't
happen very often.

00:57:51.910 --> 00:57:55.640
We'd actually hear speaking
in the wind sometimes.

00:57:55.640 --> 00:57:57.519
If you go around the
corner, well, everybody

00:57:57.519 --> 00:57:58.810
hears a whistle here and there.

00:57:58.810 --> 00:58:02.600
But nah, I heard
more than whistles.

00:58:02.600 --> 00:58:04.496
And I just said
there's something queer

00:58:04.496 --> 00:58:05.750
about this place.

00:58:05.750 --> 00:58:07.150
Maybe it's scary.

00:58:07.150 --> 00:58:08.260
At first it was.

00:58:08.260 --> 00:58:10.510
And then I thought, no.

00:58:10.510 --> 00:58:12.500
I think there's just
something here that it's

00:58:12.500 --> 00:58:16.870
supposed to be part of me.

00:58:16.870 --> 00:58:20.580
125 side canyons, every
one of them different,

00:58:20.580 --> 00:58:23.990
every one of them with a
personality of its own.

00:58:23.990 --> 00:58:26.700
We would go around a
corner, and spread out

00:58:26.700 --> 00:58:31.670
before us would be this
incredible site that, A, nobody

00:58:31.670 --> 00:58:35.840
had ever seen before, B,
nobody had touched it, C,

00:58:35.840 --> 00:58:38.240
it was utterly and
incredibly beautiful.

00:58:38.240 --> 00:58:39.980
Everything was in
the right positions.

00:58:39.980 --> 00:58:43.850
All the colors were perfect.

00:58:43.850 --> 00:58:46.594
All the senses came
just flashing out.

00:58:46.594 --> 00:58:47.760
I mean, I could hear better.

00:58:47.760 --> 00:58:48.700
I could feel better.

00:58:48.700 --> 00:58:50.310
I could speak better.

00:58:50.310 --> 00:58:53.318
Everything just was amplified.

00:58:53.318 --> 00:58:56.660
What was it like to walk
naked through Glen Canyon

00:58:56.660 --> 00:58:58.670
and just be there?

00:58:58.670 --> 00:59:01.210
Well, I'm sorry, but I
can hardly explain that.

00:59:01.210 --> 00:59:05.450
It was just absolutely the most
natural thing in the world.

00:59:05.450 --> 00:59:08.936
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:59:59.330 --> 01:00:01.690
And this one I keep to myself.

01:00:01.690 --> 01:00:03.810
I'll never let this one out.

01:00:03.810 --> 01:00:06.662
I might decide to
let you guys have it.

01:00:06.662 --> 01:00:10.042
[MUSIC PLAYING]

01:00:14.300 --> 01:00:18.040
You know, I never
dream about it.

01:00:18.040 --> 01:00:21.755
It's because it's on my
mind all day long every day.

01:00:21.755 --> 01:00:24.940
there's no-- I don't
need to dream about it.

01:00:24.940 --> 01:00:28.300
I think about it all the time.

01:00:28.300 --> 01:00:29.170
What was lost?

01:00:32.170 --> 01:00:32.670
Eden.

01:00:37.000 --> 01:00:40.683
I don't think Eden could
have touched Glen Canyon.

01:00:46.450 --> 01:00:49.915
[MOTOR BOAT ENGINE]

01:00:55.860 --> 01:00:58.500
We flooded out the rattlesnakes
and the prairie dogs

01:00:58.500 --> 01:01:02.440
and a few deer and
a beaver or two.

01:01:02.440 --> 01:01:06.220
That's all that was flooded out
when we-- and a lot of beauty.

01:01:06.220 --> 01:01:09.910
But we created a lot more
beauty and made it available,

01:01:09.910 --> 01:01:12.400
which it wasn't before.

01:01:12.400 --> 01:01:17.140
We haven't destroyed the world.

01:01:17.140 --> 01:01:21.260
We've made it habitable
for a lot more people.

01:01:21.260 --> 01:01:25.450
A young man not
long ago said to me,

01:01:25.450 --> 01:01:28.900
he said, are you a
hero or a villain,

01:01:28.900 --> 01:01:32.610
based on your record as
Commissioner of Reclamation?

01:01:32.610 --> 01:01:35.710
Well, I said, I think I'm a
hero or should be considered it

01:01:35.710 --> 01:01:37.620
by you, because you
wouldn't be here

01:01:37.620 --> 01:01:40.260
if it wasn't for the development
of the West sponsored

01:01:40.260 --> 01:01:41.512
by the Bureau of Reclamation.

01:01:45.400 --> 01:01:47.860
Possibly the most
hypocritical sign in history

01:01:47.860 --> 01:01:51.920
is bolted to Glen Canyon
Dam's most popular overlook.

01:01:51.920 --> 01:01:56.000
It warns that defacing natural
features destroys our heritage.

01:01:56.000 --> 01:01:57.670
I can't look at it
without imagining

01:01:57.670 --> 01:02:00.672
Edward Abbey rolling over in
his unmarked desert grave.

01:02:00.672 --> 01:02:02.630
If you've never heard of
[? Abbey, ?] you might

01:02:02.630 --> 01:02:04.588
have heard of his book,
The Monkey Wrench Gang,

01:02:04.588 --> 01:02:07.490
that inspired an environmental
movement called Earth First.

01:02:07.490 --> 01:02:09.560
His first act of
civil disobedience

01:02:09.560 --> 01:02:13.480
just so happened to go down at
Glen Canyon Dam on March 21,

01:02:13.480 --> 01:02:15.550
1981.

01:02:15.550 --> 01:02:19.220
I think we're morally
justified to resort to whatever

01:02:19.220 --> 01:02:21.980
means are necessary
in order to defend

01:02:21.980 --> 01:02:24.570
our land from destruction.

01:02:24.570 --> 01:02:29.686
Invasion, I see
this as an invasion.

01:02:29.686 --> 01:02:34.040
These look like creatures
from Mars to me.

01:02:34.040 --> 01:02:39.030
I feel no kinship with that
fantastic structure over there,

01:02:39.030 --> 01:02:42.450
no sympathy with it whatsoever.

01:02:42.450 --> 01:02:49.230
Yeah, I would advocate
sabotage, subversion,

01:02:49.230 --> 01:02:53.530
as a last resort when
political means fail.

01:02:53.530 --> 01:02:57.617
When I'd seen the plastic
crack, and I saw pictures of it,

01:02:57.617 --> 01:02:59.200
talking with people
and brainstorming,

01:02:59.200 --> 01:03:01.330
how could we up this?

01:03:01.330 --> 01:03:04.147
Wouldn't it be cool if
we could paint a crack?

01:03:04.147 --> 01:03:06.480
And it was clearly impossible
on a dam like Glen Canyon.

01:03:06.480 --> 01:03:08.438
There's no way you could
ever get away with it.

01:03:08.438 --> 01:03:10.480
But if we had a dam that
was unguarded at night,

01:03:10.480 --> 01:03:11.893
it would work.

01:03:15.670 --> 01:03:17.787
At the time-- Earth
First does a shirt.

01:03:17.787 --> 01:03:20.370
It's a hand with a wrench, and
it says, defend the wilderness.

01:03:20.370 --> 01:03:22.570
I was wearing that
shirt out on the dam,

01:03:22.570 --> 01:03:24.660
looking down over the
edge, with his kayak

01:03:24.660 --> 01:03:28.225
on the roof. [INAUDIBLE]
monkey wrench, and it's like,

01:03:28.225 --> 01:03:30.365
oh, frickin' do that.

01:03:30.365 --> 01:03:32.810
At one point, I look
over, and there's

01:03:32.810 --> 01:03:35.330
this ranger standing there
looking at me with binoculars,

01:03:35.330 --> 01:03:38.354
and I go, oh shit.

01:03:38.354 --> 01:03:40.020
Sometimes there's
always a little period

01:03:40.020 --> 01:03:42.616
where you have butterflies
going, oh shit,

01:03:42.616 --> 01:03:45.350
are we really going to do this?

01:03:45.350 --> 01:03:46.830
Ridiculous.

01:03:46.830 --> 01:03:49.080
Michael and his friend
made history that night,

01:03:49.080 --> 01:03:52.180
leaving their mark
on the 430-foot face.

01:03:52.180 --> 01:03:54.340
Photos of the crack
were wired in newspapers

01:03:54.340 --> 01:03:55.920
across the country.

01:03:55.920 --> 01:03:59.790
The plan seemed flawless,
until it wasn't.

01:03:59.790 --> 01:04:02.697
And the same ranger who was out
at the dam, he pulls up behind.

01:04:02.697 --> 01:04:03.780
He says, what's your name?

01:04:03.780 --> 01:04:04.960
I said, Bill or something.

01:04:04.960 --> 01:04:06.280
I just made up a name.

01:04:06.280 --> 01:04:08.859
He's beating around the
bush, asking questions.

01:04:08.859 --> 01:04:09.900
Finally, he asked for ID.

01:04:09.900 --> 01:04:10.590
And I said, oh yeah, sure.

01:04:10.590 --> 01:04:11.300
And then he goes, wait a minute.

01:04:11.300 --> 01:04:12.280
You said your name was Bill.

01:04:12.280 --> 01:04:13.821
I mean, this is a
federal cop, right?

01:04:13.821 --> 01:04:15.170
He knows what he's doing.

01:04:15.170 --> 01:04:17.320
At that point, I'd been arrested
a bunch for sitting in trees

01:04:17.320 --> 01:04:19.195
and locking my neck to
corporate headquarters

01:04:19.195 --> 01:04:21.867
and then chaining
myself to bulldozers.

01:04:21.867 --> 01:04:22.450
Was I nervous?

01:04:22.450 --> 01:04:23.710
I'm sure I was.

01:04:23.710 --> 01:04:26.285
Probably inside my shoes, my
toes are going, [INAUDIBLE].

01:04:26.285 --> 01:04:27.410
Finally, he gets the point.

01:04:27.410 --> 01:04:28.440
He says, OK, look.

01:04:28.440 --> 01:04:29.710
I'm a fan of Ed Abbey's.

01:04:29.710 --> 01:04:30.460
I read the book.

01:04:30.460 --> 01:04:31.815
I'm assuming that The
Monkey Wrench Gang.

01:04:31.815 --> 01:04:33.580
So we had an incident out
on the dam last night.

01:04:33.580 --> 01:04:34.450
Do you know anything
about anything

01:04:34.450 --> 01:04:35.550
that happened out there?

01:04:35.550 --> 01:04:36.508
Blah, blah, blah, blah.

01:04:36.508 --> 01:04:38.869
Yeah, three or four
questions, I said, no, no, no.

01:04:38.869 --> 01:04:40.410
He says, OK, well,
you're free to go.

01:04:43.830 --> 01:04:46.886
I mean, I walked
[INAUDIBLE], and he had me.

01:04:50.050 --> 01:04:52.355
We did the Hetch Hetchy
crack, learned how to do it

01:04:52.355 --> 01:04:54.260
and realized, oh,
this is really cool.

01:04:54.260 --> 01:04:56.340
We need to do more of this.

01:04:56.340 --> 01:05:00.250
The Earth First group stayed
around the area for a while.

01:05:00.250 --> 01:05:02.220
And then we got wind
that they were going

01:05:02.220 --> 01:05:04.560
to do something up at the dam.

01:05:04.560 --> 01:05:07.320
We put an extra ranger
on duty that night.

01:05:07.320 --> 01:05:10.350
We drove up there at night, and
that's the first time I saw it.

01:05:10.350 --> 01:05:14.204
I was like, oh, this
is ripe for a crack.

01:05:16.886 --> 01:05:17.960
I dropped my gear off.

01:05:17.960 --> 01:05:20.730
We schlepped it all out over
the fence, so I drove back down,

01:05:20.730 --> 01:05:22.200
parked the van,
got on my bicycle,

01:05:22.200 --> 01:05:23.330
rode up there, stashed it.

01:05:23.330 --> 01:05:25.260
And Glen Canyon
is near vertical.

01:05:25.260 --> 01:05:26.131
It's very steep.

01:05:26.131 --> 01:05:26.630
It's dark.

01:05:26.630 --> 01:05:30.247
It's a damp, slippery dam with
a 200-foot abyss right below.

01:05:30.247 --> 01:05:32.080
So we've got this rope
straight across here.

01:05:32.080 --> 01:05:34.755
Then I clipped my rappel rope
into that, locked it off,

01:05:34.755 --> 01:05:36.880
a five-gallon bucket of
paint hooked on my harness.

01:05:36.880 --> 01:05:39.510
And I hung off the edge of
the dam and just let go.

01:05:39.510 --> 01:05:41.160
And I remember this moment well.

01:05:41.160 --> 01:05:42.240
And it was dynamic
rope, not static.

01:05:42.240 --> 01:05:43.156
So it stretched a lot.

01:05:43.156 --> 01:05:44.405
I just went, war-om.

01:05:44.405 --> 01:05:46.530
At one point, I was sure
I was going to get busted.

01:05:46.530 --> 01:05:48.037
Everything was taped
up to be quiet,

01:05:48.037 --> 01:05:50.120
but that bucket, when I
jumped, that thing kind of

01:05:50.120 --> 01:05:51.950
swung and smacked into
the side of the dam.

01:05:51.950 --> 01:05:54.580
It was just so loud,
and I was like, oh shit.

01:05:54.580 --> 01:05:58.970
The guy who got through
painted a huge crack.

01:05:58.970 --> 01:06:02.810
And then off to the side, he
wrote, they'll all be free.

01:06:02.810 --> 01:06:05.144
I'd swing way over, and I'd
paint a bit with the roller.

01:06:05.144 --> 01:06:07.393
And then I'd just swing me
back, get a couple of moves

01:06:07.393 --> 01:06:09.170
back and forth, get
going, get over there,

01:06:09.170 --> 01:06:10.336
and paint a little bit more.

01:06:10.336 --> 01:06:12.170
My fingernails, my
hair, my ears, my eyes,

01:06:12.170 --> 01:06:13.520
I was covered in paint.

01:06:13.520 --> 01:06:15.210
So I finished the be free part.

01:06:15.210 --> 01:06:18.510
Finished that, and
I was out of paint.

01:06:18.510 --> 01:06:19.920
I've got, "Elw be free."

01:06:19.920 --> 01:06:21.470
I'm like, no, I can't.

01:06:21.470 --> 01:06:24.020
There's no way I can't
do-- I can't leave this.

01:06:24.020 --> 01:06:26.204
There's nothing worse than
having a gigantic typo

01:06:26.204 --> 01:06:27.120
on a dam, or whatever.

01:06:27.120 --> 01:06:28.453
I just could not live with that.

01:06:28.453 --> 01:06:30.926
I just dropped everything,
left it all on top of the dam,

01:06:30.926 --> 01:06:33.300
ran out, grabbed my bike,
zipped down, jumped in the van.

01:06:33.300 --> 01:06:35.959
I had two quarts of paint,
it's like a gray and a green,

01:06:35.959 --> 01:06:36.500
or something.

01:06:36.500 --> 01:06:37.850
I mixed them up
really quick, changed

01:06:37.850 --> 01:06:39.040
the anger, rappelled down.

01:06:39.040 --> 01:06:40.100
Dawn is really close.

01:06:40.100 --> 01:06:41.370
Somebody could show
up at any minute,

01:06:41.370 --> 01:06:42.300
and I'm making all this noise.

01:06:42.300 --> 01:06:43.340
Now I wasn't even being careful.

01:06:43.340 --> 01:06:44.367
I was just going for it.

01:06:44.367 --> 01:06:45.450
If I'm busted, I'm busted.

01:06:45.450 --> 01:06:47.500
I want to have it finished.

01:06:47.500 --> 01:06:50.988
[MUSIC PLAYING]

01:06:57.332 --> 01:06:59.090
It was a beautiful crack.

01:06:59.090 --> 01:07:00.850
It was-- the guy was an artist.

01:07:00.850 --> 01:07:02.480
There was no question of it.

01:07:02.480 --> 01:07:03.915
And he did that
all in one night.

01:07:03.915 --> 01:07:06.320
It was an amazing feat.

01:07:06.320 --> 01:07:09.000
And he was interviewed
recently, said

01:07:09.000 --> 01:07:11.110
he didn't want to be
remembered for that,

01:07:11.110 --> 01:07:14.580
but boy, I think he should.

01:07:14.580 --> 01:07:16.740
He should be.

01:07:16.740 --> 01:07:19.850
I think that sort of woke
up people to the fact

01:07:19.850 --> 01:07:22.760
that something had to be done.

01:07:22.760 --> 01:07:26.260
[MUSIC PLAYING]

01:07:40.400 --> 01:07:44.170
Water is the same as
the blood in our bodies.

01:07:44.170 --> 01:07:47.800
Stagnation brings on death.

01:07:47.800 --> 01:07:51.290
People who are in their
last throes, the blood

01:07:51.290 --> 01:07:52.900
is barely moving
through their bodies,

01:07:52.900 --> 01:07:55.510
their parts of their bodies,
that there is no flow at all.

01:07:55.510 --> 01:07:59.440
Rivers are regions with that
same kind of stagnation.

01:07:59.440 --> 01:08:01.790
When it's all slack
water reservoirs,

01:08:01.790 --> 01:08:03.650
its uses are really limited.

01:08:03.650 --> 01:08:08.556
And it's not vibrantly alive.

01:08:08.556 --> 01:08:10.180
As soon as the
reservoirs were drained,

01:08:10.180 --> 01:08:12.680
the Elwha found its
path of least resistance

01:08:12.680 --> 01:08:15.590
and carved a new river
channel, in the process,

01:08:15.590 --> 01:08:18.380
revealing something
long forgotten.

01:08:18.380 --> 01:08:20.120
Preserved under a
century of sediment

01:08:20.120 --> 01:08:21.870
were the remains of
an ancient, old growth

01:08:21.870 --> 01:08:26.130
forest that had been clear-cut
when the dams were built.

01:08:26.130 --> 01:08:28.529
Almost instantaneously,
the Elwha's watershed

01:08:28.529 --> 01:08:30.430
was coming back to life.

01:08:30.430 --> 01:08:32.880
Just a year after the
removal of the lower dam,

01:08:32.880 --> 01:08:35.080
biologists were counting
fish by the thousands

01:08:35.080 --> 01:08:36.660
in stretches of the
Elwha that hadn't

01:08:36.660 --> 01:08:39.260
seen a salmon in 99 years.

01:08:39.260 --> 01:08:41.210
The beautiful
thing about salmon,

01:08:41.210 --> 01:08:42.430
they're incredibly resilient.

01:08:42.430 --> 01:08:44.260
I mean, if you give
them half a chance,

01:08:44.260 --> 01:08:45.920
they can come back in many ways.

01:08:45.920 --> 01:08:49.533
But you have to give them
at least that half a chance.

01:08:49.533 --> 01:08:52.880
When Glines Canyon Dam is
fully removed upstream,

01:08:52.880 --> 01:08:55.890
salmon and Steelhead will
have 70 miles of new habitat,

01:08:55.890 --> 01:08:58.740
reviving the flow of nutrients
between the Pacific Ocean

01:08:58.740 --> 01:09:02.760
and the mountains of
Olympic National Park.

01:09:02.760 --> 01:09:05.390
The science and engineering
behind removing the Elwha dams

01:09:05.390 --> 01:09:06.766
was totally experimental.

01:09:06.766 --> 01:09:08.890
There is no handbook to
consult, because it's never

01:09:08.890 --> 01:09:11.130
been done before at this scale.

01:09:11.130 --> 01:09:13.750
In almost every case, the
biggest hurdle for dam removal

01:09:13.750 --> 01:09:16.200
engineers lies behind the dams.

01:09:16.200 --> 01:09:18.340
Decades of silt,
sand, gravel, and wood

01:09:18.340 --> 01:09:20.859
that should have been flushed
naturally through a watershed

01:09:20.859 --> 01:09:22.870
has stockpiled in
the reservoirs.

01:09:22.870 --> 01:09:25.290
Different dams will last for
different periods of time

01:09:25.290 --> 01:09:28.010
based on how much sediment they
trap coming down the river.

01:09:28.010 --> 01:09:30.630
So when the reservoir
fills with mud,

01:09:30.630 --> 01:09:34.920
it's outlived a
lot of its utility.

01:09:34.920 --> 01:09:37.529
The plan at the Elwha was to
chip away at the walls slowly,

01:09:37.529 --> 01:09:39.779
releasing sediment through
the watershed just a little

01:09:39.779 --> 01:09:41.090
at a time.

01:09:41.090 --> 01:09:43.760
Massive plumes of silt
could be seen reaching miles

01:09:43.760 --> 01:09:45.700
into the ocean at the
mouth of the Elwha,

01:09:45.700 --> 01:09:47.189
restoring a coastline
that had been

01:09:47.189 --> 01:09:49.770
eroded to bare stone in places.

01:09:49.770 --> 01:09:51.870
These natural sediment
flows are insanely

01:09:51.870 --> 01:09:54.020
critical to river
habitats, wetlands,

01:09:54.020 --> 01:09:56.810
offshore environments, and to
protect coastal communities

01:09:56.810 --> 01:09:59.037
from storm surges
and sea level rise.

01:10:02.700 --> 01:10:05.850
300 miles east of the Elwha,
the second largest dam removal

01:10:05.850 --> 01:10:07.840
in US history was
already underway

01:10:07.840 --> 01:10:10.640
on Washington's
White Salmon River.

01:10:10.640 --> 01:10:13.110
A tributary to the Columbia
River, the White Salmon

01:10:13.110 --> 01:10:14.840
was once home to
a vibrant salmon

01:10:14.840 --> 01:10:18.470
run before Condit Dam
was built in 1913.

01:10:18.470 --> 01:10:20.660
The White Salmon has since
developed a reputation

01:10:20.660 --> 01:10:22.970
as a world class white
water destination

01:10:22.970 --> 01:10:26.490
in the stretches
above the dam site.

01:10:26.490 --> 01:10:29.630
In 1996, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission

01:10:29.630 --> 01:10:31.750
forced PacifiCorp,
the dam's owner,

01:10:31.750 --> 01:10:35.150
to either build an extremely
expensive fish passage facility

01:10:35.150 --> 01:10:36.940
or to decommission
the dam in order

01:10:36.940 --> 01:10:39.050
to meet environmental codes.

01:10:39.050 --> 01:10:41.410
Knowing the dam's
contribution to the power grid

01:10:41.410 --> 01:10:43.920
could be replaced by as
few as three windmills,

01:10:43.920 --> 01:10:45.900
PacifiCorp chose
the scrap Condit

01:10:45.900 --> 01:10:48.630
and save their rate
payers some money.

01:10:48.630 --> 01:10:50.590
Before the removal
process began,

01:10:50.590 --> 01:10:53.700
a not so subtle hint was dropped
that the River Community was

01:10:53.700 --> 01:10:55.650
ready for Condit to be gone.

01:10:55.650 --> 01:10:59.150
[MUSIC PLAYING]

01:11:12.870 --> 01:11:18.070
A year ago, I was here at
the White Salmon River,

01:11:18.070 --> 01:11:20.440
when the dam blew.

01:11:20.440 --> 01:11:24.350
There was this moment where
there's the countdown,

01:11:24.350 --> 01:11:26.880
and then there's this
moment of silence.

01:11:26.880 --> 01:11:29.040
You wondering is it
really going to happen?

01:11:29.040 --> 01:11:34.110
And then you could
feel the ground shake.

01:11:34.110 --> 01:11:37.365
[DRUM BEAT AND MUSIC PLAYING]

01:11:39.161 --> 01:11:41.410
The plan to remove Condit
was a little more aggressive

01:11:41.410 --> 01:11:42.035
than the Elwha.

01:11:42.035 --> 01:11:44.330
It involved 800
pounds of dynamite

01:11:44.330 --> 01:11:46.990
stuffed into the end of a
90-foot tunnel that had been

01:11:46.990 --> 01:11:48.972
drilled at the base of the dam.

01:11:48.972 --> 01:11:50.930
The theory was that the
weight of the reservoir

01:11:50.930 --> 01:11:52.790
would flush a century
worth of sediment

01:11:52.790 --> 01:11:54.310
through the tunnel
and downstream

01:11:54.310 --> 01:11:58.020
to the Columbia in
one dramatic pulse.

01:11:58.020 --> 01:12:01.100
Due to the concussive
forces of the blast,

01:12:01.100 --> 01:12:05.800
there was a heightened level
of nervousness, if you will.

01:12:05.800 --> 01:12:07.890
There was the possibility
of infiltration

01:12:07.890 --> 01:12:11.940
by folks wanting to get a
closer look, video, et cetera.

01:12:11.940 --> 01:12:14.190
It came as no surprise when
we were denied permission

01:12:14.190 --> 01:12:15.320
to film the blast.

01:12:15.320 --> 01:12:16.820
But I didn't want
that little detail

01:12:16.820 --> 01:12:19.590
to get in the way of
actually filming the blast.

01:12:19.590 --> 01:12:21.830
A couple of days before,
we scouted a hillside

01:12:21.830 --> 01:12:24.730
with a good view of the dam
and built a crappy camera blind

01:12:24.730 --> 01:12:27.320
for me to hide in for 18 hours.

01:12:27.320 --> 01:12:29.904
Blast day was
unbelievably stressful.

01:12:29.904 --> 01:12:32.320
If you've ever hid in the woods
from a guy with binoculars

01:12:32.320 --> 01:12:33.960
and a surveillance
helicopter, I'm

01:12:33.960 --> 01:12:36.290
sure you can totally relate.

01:12:36.290 --> 01:12:38.040
At one point, my mom
called me to tell me

01:12:38.040 --> 01:12:39.831
she read somewhere that
the explosion could

01:12:39.831 --> 01:12:41.002
make my ears bleed.

01:12:41.002 --> 01:12:43.210
But luckily, that thought
had already crossed my mind

01:12:43.210 --> 01:12:45.300
at the hardware store.

01:12:45.300 --> 01:12:47.620
When the helicopter
finally cleared the area,

01:12:47.620 --> 01:12:49.020
everything was quiet.

01:12:49.020 --> 01:12:50.587
And I knew the horn
would come soon.

01:12:55.060 --> 01:12:59.036
[HORN BLARING]

01:13:03.506 --> 01:13:04.006
[EXPLOSION]

01:13:04.006 --> 01:13:07.485
[MUSIC PLAYING]

01:13:52.250 --> 01:13:54.190
You start on a
project like this,

01:13:54.190 --> 01:13:58.160
and it seems so big
and so insurmountable.

01:13:58.160 --> 01:14:01.490
And it's just the forces
against you are so intense.

01:14:01.490 --> 01:14:04.090
And it just feels
like many days,

01:14:04.090 --> 01:14:05.810
you're just never
going to get there.

01:14:05.810 --> 01:14:08.740
And we finally did it.

01:14:08.740 --> 01:14:12.870
This is a day that I've dreamed
about for over a decade.

01:14:12.870 --> 01:14:14.720
And today is the
day that we just

01:14:14.720 --> 01:14:19.130
get out to float down the
river and enjoy this place

01:14:19.130 --> 01:14:21.950
that we've all been working so
hard to restore for so many.

01:14:21.950 --> 01:14:23.908
[MUSIC - SANDERS BOHLKE, "SEARCH
AND DESTROY"]

01:14:23.908 --> 01:14:39.914
Summer sailed in, filled my
mind to see, colored my skin,

01:14:39.914 --> 01:14:41.910
I must say.

01:14:45.403 --> 01:14:53.886
Saw my wings with the bodies
in the girth, feel my kiss,

01:14:53.886 --> 01:14:58.876
now say not a word,
knowing my hands

01:14:58.876 --> 01:15:05.862
they'll shake like crazy,
some just pray like that.

01:15:05.862 --> 01:15:06.940
[CHEERING]

01:15:06.940 --> 01:15:11.000
When I first started this and
got involved in dam removal

01:15:11.000 --> 01:15:12.720
and asked myself
the question, what

01:15:12.720 --> 01:15:16.270
is it that makes a
dam removal happen?

01:15:16.270 --> 01:15:20.250
And you might think that
it's policies or politics,

01:15:20.250 --> 01:15:22.302
or maybe it's the
guy with the plunger.

01:15:22.302 --> 01:15:23.760
But when it comes
right down to it,

01:15:23.760 --> 01:15:27.612
it's people who are
passionate about the river.

01:15:27.612 --> 01:15:29.570
And it's the people who
are out there kayaking.

01:15:29.570 --> 01:15:31.770
It's the people who
are out there fishing.

01:15:31.770 --> 01:15:33.700
It's the people who
out there are just

01:15:33.700 --> 01:15:36.720
sitting on the banks of the
river, enjoying the place.

01:15:36.720 --> 01:15:38.679
And it's the passion
of those individuals

01:15:38.679 --> 01:15:40.470
that makes it all real
and makes it happen.

01:15:40.470 --> 01:15:46.790
--gave his word, I was
told before to be not--

01:15:46.790 --> 01:15:49.930
You think of all the
resources that our descendants

01:15:49.930 --> 01:15:52.476
are going to really value
in, say, 200 or 300 years.

01:15:52.476 --> 01:15:53.850
And as a geologist,
I could think

01:15:53.850 --> 01:15:57.110
that long and not think that
that's too far out of line.

01:15:57.110 --> 01:16:01.480
A resource that fends for itself
grows a huge source of proteins

01:16:01.480 --> 01:16:04.450
and omega 3s that then
swims home so you can

01:16:04.450 --> 01:16:05.860
harvest half of them.

01:16:05.860 --> 01:16:08.480
We can take half of the
salmon fishery, eat it,

01:16:08.480 --> 01:16:10.590
and they'll keep
replacing themselves.

01:16:10.590 --> 01:16:12.890
I mean, what kind
of a gift is that.

01:16:12.890 --> 01:16:15.999
I mean, what kind of a
species throws that away?

01:16:15.999 --> 01:16:18.290
And if we look towards feeding
the world in the future,

01:16:18.290 --> 01:16:21.950
it's insanity to not
try and recover salmon

01:16:21.950 --> 01:16:23.556
runs as far as we can.

01:16:23.556 --> 01:16:24.540
--I never did forget.

01:16:27.492 --> 01:16:31.440
And I need my soul, and the--

01:16:31.440 --> 01:16:34.070
We may have fueled
the early industry

01:16:34.070 --> 01:16:35.960
in this country and the
Industrial Revolution

01:16:35.960 --> 01:16:38.160
in this country, but we've
wiped out our fisheries

01:16:38.160 --> 01:16:38.840
in the process.

01:16:38.840 --> 01:16:40.790
So just because a
dam has been sitting

01:16:40.790 --> 01:16:42.800
in a river for 200
years, does not

01:16:42.800 --> 01:16:46.300
mean that it's going to
stay there for the next 200.

01:16:46.300 --> 01:16:49.140
The state of Maine has
over 800 dams, many of them

01:16:49.140 --> 01:16:51.300
obsolete and still
causing a lot of harm

01:16:51.300 --> 01:16:53.930
to their watersheds
two centuries later.

01:16:53.930 --> 01:16:56.950
For most sea-run fish, efforts
to Bandaid these impacts

01:16:56.950 --> 01:17:00.280
with fish ladders or elevators
haven't solved the problem.

01:17:00.280 --> 01:17:03.300
In 2010, the Penobscot
River Restoration Trust

01:17:03.300 --> 01:17:05.280
came up with a pretty wild idea.

01:17:05.280 --> 01:17:08.590
The trust raised $24 million
and purchased three dams

01:17:08.590 --> 01:17:12.890
on the Penobscot River from
the local power company.

01:17:12.890 --> 01:17:14.000
Here we are.

01:17:14.000 --> 01:17:16.960
As we sit here today, we
own three Penobscot dams.

01:17:16.960 --> 01:17:19.460
And it feels good to own
three Penobscot dams,

01:17:19.460 --> 01:17:21.168
knowing what we're
going to do with them.

01:17:21.168 --> 01:17:23.126
[MUSIC - SANDERS BOHLKE, "SEARCH
AND DESTROY"]

01:17:24.772 --> 01:17:30.795
And the lovers did feast
and the birds flew away,

01:17:30.795 --> 01:17:34.610
and I was so mad at the--

01:17:34.610 --> 01:17:36.875
Charles Lindbergh said
something pretty amazing.

01:17:36.875 --> 01:17:41.000
He said, if I had to choose
between birds and airplanes,

01:17:41.000 --> 01:17:43.410
I'd choose birds.

01:17:43.410 --> 01:17:46.820
And to paraphrase, if I had
to choose between electricity

01:17:46.820 --> 01:17:49.890
and fish, I'd choose fish.

01:17:49.890 --> 01:17:51.410
The Atlantic Salmon
Federation has

01:17:51.410 --> 01:17:53.270
called the Penobscot
Project the best

01:17:53.270 --> 01:17:56.080
and perhaps the last chance
of restoring a major run

01:17:56.080 --> 01:17:58.750
of Atlantic salmon in the US.

01:17:58.750 --> 01:18:01.010
1,000 miles of
habitat was reopened

01:18:01.010 --> 01:18:03.610
to migrating species,
like salmon, sturgeon,

01:18:03.610 --> 01:18:06.770
American shad, river
herring and eel.

01:18:06.770 --> 01:18:10.750
Seeing the results of all
this effort actually come

01:18:10.750 --> 01:18:13.670
to something, boiling
with life, which

01:18:13.670 --> 01:18:19.032
we had predicted it would,
and to actually see it happen,

01:18:19.032 --> 01:18:20.024
is awesome.

01:18:20.024 --> 01:18:22.504
[MUSIC - SANDERS BOHLKE, "SEARCH
AND DESTROY"]

01:18:22.504 --> 01:18:24.984
We didn't cry.

01:18:27.960 --> 01:18:33.416
And they buried their dead
with the flowers in the field,

01:18:33.416 --> 01:18:38.872
with wounds so deep
they never healed.

01:18:38.872 --> 01:18:44.824
And they gathered their
children all on the shore.

01:18:44.824 --> 01:18:49.830
Gonna wait for you to
search us and destroy.

01:18:49.830 --> 01:18:52.070
The most ambitious river
restoration project

01:18:52.070 --> 01:18:53.980
ever proposed in
the US is slated

01:18:53.980 --> 01:18:56.810
to begin in 2020 on the
Klamath River, which

01:18:56.810 --> 01:18:59.410
originates in Oregon and
flows through California

01:18:59.410 --> 01:19:00.850
to the Pacific.

01:19:00.850 --> 01:19:03.410
In a historic settlement,
tribes, farmers,

01:19:03.410 --> 01:19:06.150
commercial fishermen, and
the owner of the Klamath dams

01:19:06.150 --> 01:19:08.980
have all signed off on the
billion dollar project.

01:19:08.980 --> 01:19:11.080
But one significant
hurdle remains.

01:19:11.080 --> 01:19:13.940
It's now up to Congress to
give the project final approval

01:19:13.940 --> 01:19:15.740
to move forward.

01:19:15.740 --> 01:19:18.560
With no fish passage at
all, the four Klamath dams

01:19:18.560 --> 01:19:21.250
annihilated the third most
productive salmon fishery

01:19:21.250 --> 01:19:24.080
in the lower 48 and
caused toxic algae blooms

01:19:24.080 --> 01:19:28.930
in the reservoirs that have
wreaked havoc on water quality.

01:19:28.930 --> 01:19:32.810
Like all constructed things,
dams have a finite lifetime.

01:19:32.810 --> 01:19:35.770
And that's not time to pull
out every dam in the country.

01:19:35.770 --> 01:19:37.730
That would be
economically foolish.

01:19:37.730 --> 01:19:40.800
But it'd be just as
foolish not to rethink

01:19:40.800 --> 01:19:42.749
every dam in the country
and try and decide

01:19:42.749 --> 01:19:44.540
which are the ones that
actually still make

01:19:44.540 --> 01:19:46.810
sense in the 21st
century, and which

01:19:46.810 --> 01:19:50.350
are those that we can get
more value, both economically,

01:19:50.350 --> 01:19:53.690
culturally, aesthetically,
morally, and ecologically out

01:19:53.690 --> 01:19:56.299
of a river system by sending
it part way back to the state

01:19:56.299 --> 01:19:57.340
that it was in naturally?

01:19:57.340 --> 01:20:00.538
[MUSIC - SANDERS BOHLKE, "SEARCH
AND DESTROY"]

01:20:11.280 --> 01:20:13.480
The history of thinking
in the Western world

01:20:13.480 --> 01:20:17.430
is radical ideas eventually
can become conventional.

01:20:17.430 --> 01:20:19.915
And a couple decades
ago, it was radical,

01:20:19.915 --> 01:20:22.040
in terms of thinking that
you could take a dam out.

01:20:22.040 --> 01:20:23.470
It was unthinkable.

01:20:23.470 --> 01:20:26.345
Go back 50 years, it was
legitimately crazy talk.

01:20:31.680 --> 01:20:33.135
The conversation's changed.

01:20:38.000 --> 01:20:39.850
For the most part, the
era of dam building

01:20:39.850 --> 01:20:42.360
is a closed chapter
in US history.

01:20:42.360 --> 01:20:44.930
But as of 2014,
the state of Alaska

01:20:44.930 --> 01:20:46.850
was rushing through
the permitting process

01:20:46.850 --> 01:20:51.320
to build a $5 billion
dam on the Susitna River.

01:20:51.320 --> 01:20:54.350
This pristine watershed
drains a remote region south

01:20:54.350 --> 01:20:56.940
of the Alaska Range, near
Denali National Park,

01:20:56.940 --> 01:20:59.230
and is home to one of the
most productive King salmon

01:20:59.230 --> 01:21:01.460
runs in the state.

01:21:01.460 --> 01:21:05.050
Many assumed Alaska was bluffing
after abandoning the idea twice

01:21:05.050 --> 01:21:05.840
before.

01:21:05.840 --> 01:21:09.100
But now, they've sunk 165
million into the planning

01:21:09.100 --> 01:21:11.840
alone.

01:21:11.840 --> 01:21:15.520
If the state succeeds,
the 735-foot high dam

01:21:15.520 --> 01:21:17.830
will be the second tallest
in the United States

01:21:17.830 --> 01:21:20.033
and flood a 42-mile
wilderness corridor.

01:21:23.980 --> 01:21:27.230
After Glen Canyon was flooded,
David Brower of the Sierra Club

01:21:27.230 --> 01:21:30.140
wrote, "Neither you
nor I nor anyone else

01:21:30.140 --> 01:21:32.590
knew it well enough to
insist that at all costs,

01:21:32.590 --> 01:21:34.350
it should endure.

01:21:34.350 --> 01:21:38.980
When we began to find
out, it was to late."

01:21:38.980 --> 01:21:42.270
In the words of Edward Abbey,
"sentiment without action

01:21:42.270 --> 01:21:44.262
is the ruin of the soul."

01:21:44.262 --> 01:21:47.250
[MUSIC - APPARAT, "BLACK WATER"]

01:21:47.250 --> 01:21:51.732
Shapes still melt
into the smoke.

01:21:57.708 --> 01:22:19.122
Looking down at scattered bones,
I used to keep a slender hope,

01:22:19.122 --> 01:22:23.604
till they spread
above the stone.

01:22:43.026 --> 01:23:04.440
I pulled the trigger by mistake,
floundering at the aftermath,

01:23:04.440 --> 01:23:25.854
slowly recognize the scale,
we will be ephemeral,

01:23:25.854 --> 01:23:28.842
we will be ephemeral.

01:23:35.316 --> 01:23:45.774
Fact isn't what you see,
not anymore what used to be.

01:23:45.774 --> 01:23:54.240
Fact isn't what you see,
not anymore what used to be.

01:24:14.860 --> 01:24:15.940
It was no small feat.

01:24:15.940 --> 01:24:17.390
Someone or perhaps
several people

01:24:17.390 --> 01:24:19.930
painted a giant pair
of scissors on the face

01:24:19.930 --> 01:24:23.200
of the 200-foot abandoned
[INAUDIBLE] dam near Ojai.

01:24:23.200 --> 01:24:24.600
Ventura County owns the dam.

01:24:24.600 --> 01:24:26.480
They believe it
was done last week.

01:24:26.480 --> 01:24:28.860
Destroying the dam has
been debated for years.

01:24:28.860 --> 01:24:31.360
Officials say the graffiti sends
a clear message some people

01:24:31.360 --> 01:24:32.200
really want it gone.

01:24:32.200 --> 01:24:33.810
Yeah, it's probably time
for this thing to come down.

01:24:33.810 --> 01:24:35.620
Well, it is time for
this thing to come down.

01:24:35.620 --> 01:24:37.320
We're just trying to figure
out how the best way to do it.

01:24:37.320 --> 01:24:39.287
And heck, I'm sorry
they ran out of time,

01:24:39.287 --> 01:24:40.870
because we don't
know where the stitch

01:24:40.870 --> 01:24:42.161
mark belongs on the other side.

01:24:42.161 --> 01:24:45.540
It's such a peaceful
demonstration.

01:24:45.540 --> 01:24:47.300
I don't see any harm
in the scissors.

01:24:47.300 --> 01:24:52.354
I think it's-- my hat's off
to the people that did it.

01:24:52.354 --> 01:24:54.020
Officially, there was
a crime committed.

01:24:54.020 --> 01:24:56.590
But does it rise to a level
of sending people out?

01:24:56.590 --> 01:25:00.050
No, there are better things to
spend that kind of money on.

01:25:00.050 --> 01:25:04.117
Near Ojai, Leo Star, with
ABC 7, Eyewitness News.

01:25:04.117 --> 01:25:07.610
[MUSIC  - GISELLE, "SILK"]

01:25:18.089 --> 01:25:24.576
You make my heart
spin sorrow into silk.

01:25:24.576 --> 01:25:30.065
You make me sleep like a
young child with warm milk.

01:25:30.065 --> 01:25:35.554
You held me tighter
when I pushed you away.

01:25:35.554 --> 01:25:38.548
You turned my sorrow into silk.

01:25:38.548 --> 01:25:40.544
You turn my sorrow.

01:25:53.518 --> 01:25:59.506
You make my heart
spin sorrow into silk.

01:25:59.506 --> 01:26:04.995
You make me sleep like a
young child with warm milk.

01:26:04.995 --> 01:26:10.484
You held me tighter
when I pushed you away.

01:26:10.484 --> 01:26:13.977
You turn my sorrow into silk.

01:26:13.977 --> 01:26:16.636
You turn my sorrow.

01:26:16.636 --> 01:26:22.726
Sorrow, superb, superb, sorrow.

01:26:28.667 --> 01:26:34.700
Sorrow, superb, superb, sorrow.

01:26:37.635 --> 01:26:39.965
At every canyon, at each--

01:26:39.965 --> 01:26:40.590
[PHONE RINGING]

01:26:40.590 --> 01:26:41.090
--turn.

01:26:41.090 --> 01:26:42.580
Ah, come on.

01:26:42.580 --> 01:26:45.488
Oh hi, I'm in the middle
of an interview, dearie.

01:26:45.488 --> 01:26:46.970
The town picnic?

01:26:46.970 --> 01:26:49.440
I don't fucking know, honey.

01:26:49.440 --> 01:26:54.874
I'll make your heart
spin sorrow into silk.

01:26:54.874 --> 01:27:01.296
I'll stay awake when
you can't get to sleep.

01:27:01.296 --> 01:27:06.236
I promise myself if
I pushed you away--

01:27:06.236 --> 01:27:09.754
And one of your attorneys
says, don't worry.

01:27:09.754 --> 01:27:11.170
He says, with all
this restoration

01:27:11.170 --> 01:27:13.712
you guys got going in the
watershed, and everything.

01:27:13.712 --> 01:27:15.710
Do you have been
invasive species up here?

01:27:15.710 --> 01:27:18.710
I says, yeah.

01:27:18.710 --> 01:27:20.510
Well, what are they?

01:27:20.510 --> 01:27:22.010
Well, we call them white lies.

01:27:22.010 --> 01:27:24.110
[LAUGHING]

01:27:24.110 --> 01:27:40.310
Sorrow, superb, superb, sorrow,
superb, superb, sorrow, superb,

01:27:40.310 --> 01:27:43.360
superb, sorrow.