Oregon Dams Give Way To Conservation

A signing ceremony last week officially decommissioned two Oregon dams in the Sandy River Basin. Gov. John Kitzhaber - a long-time advocate of dam breaching, according to the Associated Press - attended the ceremony that ensured the small dams will be removed in 2007-08, and land donated to a planned 5,000-acre conservation and recreation area. The Portland Oregonian reports that "government agencies and fish and environmental groups worked through sometimes bitter differences before agreeing to the removal of the Marmot and Little Sandy River dams." The hope is that the freed-up 21 miles of river will entice wild steelhead and salmon to resume their runs. Engineers will destroy the dams while building temporary obstructions with river rock to slow the erosion of built-up silt into the river. According to the Sandy River Basin Watershed Council, the Sandy River begins on the west slopes of Mt. Hood and flows about 56 miles before entering the Columbia River.