BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Monday marked a major milestone in the dam removal project on the Middle Fork Nooksack River. Blasting began to remove the first major section of the structure.
Work has been underway at the site since the start of the year. The project will eventually restore 16 miles of fish habitat after the dam is removed.
“Salmon are amazingly resilient, and as we saw on the Elwha river, when those dams came down on the Olympic peninsula, those fish came back very quickly,” said Amy Kober with American Rivers. “We’re hoping to see the same thing here.”
Kober said they’re glad to see the project finally reach this point, after years of work from several groups: the Nooksack Tribe, Lummi Nation, City of Bellingham, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in addition to other government bodies.
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The priority, Kober said, is restoring critical habitat for spring Chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout.
“We want to see the salmon return and continue protecting a resource that has always been there for our people,” said Trevor Delgado, Nooksack tribal historic preservation officer. “The Middle Fork dam removal project is a representation of decades of work and provides an opportunity to work together collaboratively to protect an area that is deeply rooted to our culture. What the Middle Fork means for our people today, we want it to mean the same for future generations. We want to continue to pass on the bridge from our ancestors into the future.”
“The habitat in the Nooksack basin will take decades to recover because there are many limiting factors that impact Endangered Species Act listed (ESA) early Chinook,” said Merle Jefferson, director of Lummi Natural Resources. “The habitat above the Middle Fork has potential and we hope that this project will provide more spawning habitat for the salmon, which are integral to our heritage and cultural identity.”
Complicating the issue is that the dam supplies water for nearby Bellingham. But they worked out a plan to place the water diversion upstream by allowing the water supply to continue, while bringing down the fish impediment.
That, Kober said, is a lesson for other projects.
"The city can have its water supply, and we can restore this river,” she said. “So let’s apply that creative thinking to other river’s challenges across our region. We can do it, we absolutely can do it, it just takes a little bit of work."
They expect more blasting later this summer and hope the river will run free by fall.