"When Dams Come Down, Salmon and Sand Can Prosper"

"When people urge the removal of dams they say are strangling rivers in the West, it’s usually fish they’re worried about. Studies of dam-removal projects show that migratory species like salmon respond quickly to improved conditions once a dam is removed. But the removal of a dam on the Elwha River in northern Washington State — the largest such project in the United States — is demonstrating that there can be another beneficiary: the beach.

The Elwha runs northward to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates the United States and Canada, just west of Port Angeles, Wash. The removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, which was begun in 2011, was finished last summer."

Cornelia Dean reports for the New York Times August 10, 2015.