PORT ANGELES — A Sequim filmmaker exploring the Elwha River dams’ deconstruction discovered a new and muddy world of huge tree stumps emerging from what was Lake Aldwell.
There is little sense of scale when looking at aerial pictures of the area, or when you access the Olympic National Park webcams, which are set up so the public can watch the progress of the removal of the two dams on the Elwha River (connect to the webcams via the Peninsula Daily News’ home page on the Web, www.peninsuladailynews.com).
Without a ground-level perspective, the eroded cliffs at the river’s delta could be 2 feet high or 20 feet high, and the stumps could be from saplings or old-growth giants.
Documentary filmmaker and photographer John Gussman, a Sequim resident who has explored the Elwha River for 33 years, has been working passionately on a self-funded video about the $325 million restorationproject to return the river to its wild state.
Removal of the Glines Canyon Dam (which created Lake Mills) and the Elwha Dam (the lower dam that formed Lake Aldwell) began in September.
Lake Aldwell is now almost gone, drained by the tear-down of its dam.
Gussman hiked down to the muddy lake bed last Sunday.
Cliffs and stumps
His photographs reveal 15- to 20-foot-high cliffs in areas where the Elwha River’s powerful flow has almost completely removed the sediment next to areas that are nearly untouched.
The new landscape includes swaths of original valley floorlittered with the stumps of huge cedar and fir trees, some 8 feet high and 6 to 7 feet across.
“That’s the power of cedar — all those stumps were buried in silt for all these years,” Gussman said.
The trees were cut before the dam was built.
One old-growth cedar stump showed evidence of a fire.
Wreckage of an old rowboat was spotted on the valley floor that was once the middle of the lake.
Once Gussman posted the photo of the boat, a man called him to say it was his boat, which he lost on Lake Aldwell in 1972, Gussman said.
“What surprised me was how shallow Lake Aldwell was, and the sediment made it even shallower,” Gussman said.
An access road that once led to the lake’s boat ramp is still open, Gussman said.
Five miles west of Port Angeles on U.S. Highway 101, turn north on Lake Aldwell Road and drive to the parking area at the end, then walk to the lake bed.
“Expect to get your feet wet,” he said.
Lake Mills is not accessible.
Gussman’s work can be seen at www.elwhafilm.com.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor Leah Leach contributed to this story.
