Wildlife Returns as Elwha River is Restored

Wildlife in Olympic National Park is already returning to the area as the Elwha River is restored, with the last remaining portion of Glines Canyon Dam destroyed Tuesday.

Part of the largest dam-removal project in the nation, the $325 million undertaking represents a new beginning for the local ecosystem and wildlife, which suffered as a result of these man-made dams.

"It's taken 25 to 30 years to get to this point," park spokesperson Barb Maynes told NBC News, "so it's great to see it actually happen."

Located just west of Port Angeles, Wash., the Elwha River once supported legendary salmon runs including king salmon, also known as chinook, but dam construction halted this movement.

The 108-foot-high Elwha Dam - completed in 1913 - was torn down by March 2012, and the once 210-foot-high Glines Canyon Dam - completed in 1927 - finally fell to the ground Tuesday. When they were built, both dams lacked fish ladders, and so the river's iconic salmon couldn't access 65 of the 70 miles of salmon habitat in the river, according to the Peninsula Daily News. Where there were once more than 400,000 salmon - some a record 100-pounds - there were then only a few thousand, reduced to breeding in the lower tributaries and riverbanks.

Other problems arose over time, from sediment build-up behind the dams to coastal erosion.

Tuesday's blast set the water-way loose to return to its original riverbed in Glines Canyon for the first time since 1927.

However, "It's going to take another 30 to 100 years to see complete restoration," Rob Smith, Northwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, told NBC. "Taking the dams out is just the beginning of the story."

Still, changes are already being observed. New banks are emerging, sporting red alder and cottonwood saplings, sediment is building up again and creating new islands, and river channels and sandy beaches are thriving.

But perhaps most important is the return of Elwha's Pacific Northwest salmon. They are not only coming back in large numbers, but swimming farther upstream as well.

"Last year, we saw king salmon above the Elwha Dam site," Smith said. "To see fish swimming where no one has seen them for 100 years is amazing."

Other wildlife has rebounded as well, including otters, ospreys, bald eagles, Surf smelt, and Dungeness crab.