PORT ANGELES — The public can hear about research conducted during the start of the Elwha River restoration at free presentations Monday and Wednesday during the four-day 2012 Elwha River Science Symposium at Peninsula College.
Much of the symposium covering the $325 million river restoration project is limited to those who have pre-registered and is geared toward guests with a technical background in the fields of physical river processes, biology and engineering.
But the public is invited to presentations about the science of the restoration project on Monday night and Wednesday morning at the Little Theater on the college campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., in Port Angeles.
“It’s a historic event. There is a lot we can learn from it,” said Rainey McKenna, Olympic National Park spokeswoman.
Monday presentation
The first of the two free public events at 6:30 p.m. Monday will begin and end with a walk-through poster presentation of the history and progress of the project, undertaken by the National Park Service with the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe as a partner, that has already resulted in the removal of Elwha Dam and more than half of Glines Canyon Dam, which blocked fish passage upstream and the flow of sediment downstream for 100 years.
Scientists presenting materials at the poster walk-through will be available for a question-and-answer session after the main presentation, McKenna said.
The evening will begin with an introduction by Todd Suess, acting superintendent of Olympic National Park, and comments from Luke Robins, president of Peninsula College, and Francis Charles, chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
Guests will see a 20-minute film clip from John Gussman’s documentary film “Return of the River” and an overview of events by Seattle Times journalist Linda Mapes.
Gussman, a Sequim filmmaker who has been exploring the Elwha watershed for more than two decades, began work on the documentary film three years ago, capturing the early processes of the historic undertaking.
Presentations from river restoration project managers about physical river processes and biological monitoring of the river and dam sites will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Panelists include Brian Krohmer, project manager for Barnard Construction — the contractor dismantling the two dams on the Elwha River — Tim Randle, hydraulic engineer for the Bureau of Reclamation; George Press, fisheries biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Guy Gelfenbaum, coastal geologic and oceanographic researcher for U.S. Geological Survey; Mike McHenry, fisheries habitat biologist for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe; and Joshua Chenoweth, botanical restorationist for Olympic National Park.
The panel of Elwha River will present their findings during the forum, and will be available for a question-and-answer session at the end of the event, McKenna said.
For those who cannot attend in person, a live podcast of both public events will be available online at www.pencol.edu/events/elwha-science-symposium.
The scientific, registration-only portions of the symposium, located at Nature Bridge at Olympic National Park, are sold-out.
Compare notes
The symposium offers scientists in different fields the opportunity to compare notes on what they are seeing in various parts of the river system.
“This is something that has never been done before,” McKenna said.
There are dam removals every year, but none on the scale of the Elwha River project, she said.
McKenna explained that plant life, fish, sediment, and effects on near-shore areas of the Strait of Juan de Fuca are all party of a very complex set of interactions.
Symposium presentations allow the researchers to learn what other researchers have discovered, to compare notes on their findings, and to put all of the parts together, she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
