The manager of the Elwha River restoration project for the National Park Service has been named a top newsmaker for 2012 by a national construction industry magazine.
Brian Winter, the National Park Service’s point man on the $325 million Elwha River dam removal and restoration project, was named one of Engineer News-Record’s (ENR) Top 25 Newsmakers of 2012 this week and will join 24 other honorees at a gala in New York City on April 18.
Winter, 57, was recognized for his work on the largest-ever dam removal and river-restoration project in the U.S. and profiled in the Jan. 28 issue of ENR, a weekly construction industry magazine published since 1917.
Work is set to begin again no earlier than Feb. 4 on the once 210-foot-high Glines Canyon Dam, while the smaller Elwha Dam already has been removed completely.
The removal of the two once-massive dams on the Elwha River will allow salmon and trout to access miles of spawning habitat kept from their reach for nearly 100 years.
“Success, for me, has always been defined as restoration of natural ecosystem processes,” Winter told ENR.
Read the full profile of Winter on ENR’s website: http://tinyurl.com/ENRWinter.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
