RESTORING THE EKLUTNA RIVER The dam is gone but still the water does not flow. For 90 years now the salmon have been denied their “No, it wasn’t always this nice. river and the Eklutna people have been denied their salmon. Do we tell them to wait a perfect century before the water is turned back on? Most always, yeah, but for a It’s not a complicated plumbing problem; the Eklutna River could run free tomorrow. What’s complicat- little while the water didn’t ed is our history with salmon and Native people. Dams, highways, railroads, quarries, stolen land, and flow.” He shook his antlers stolen water form the wave of shock and awe that washed over Eklutna. and went back to browsing. But still the Eklutna Dena’ina hang on, still the Eklutna salmon hang on. A path has been cleared to wash away our mistakes. May the rivers run free forevermore.
Photos contributed by or borrowed from The Conservation Fund; Echo News; Ryan Peterson, and Margaret Williams. Illustrations provided by Nancy Behnken.
2 1 “The Eklutna River has been broken for 88 years. INTRODUCTION Native people and salmon have been neglected. For nearly a century, a giant, 70-foot wide, 100-foot tall wedge of cement blockaded the It’s time to fix this river.” flow of the Eklutna River. This concrete behemoth had been installed by humans seeking u BRAD MEIKLEJOHN increased electric power for Anchorage. No doubt the dam was promoted in the name of growth, progress, convenience and comfort for the growing urban center. But at what cost? With the loss of the salmon, a cascade of impacts eventually trickled downstream. Bears lost the option to fish in this unique canyon-enclosed river. A host of critters were robbed of a corridor they could traverse from Eklutna Lake to Cook Inlet. Even before the dam appeared, the Eklutna people must have been feeling the encroachment of people into their lands. Workers had begun to lay tracks for a new railroad from Seward to Fairbanks, which would cut across Eklutna territory in 1923. Once erected in 1929, the dam would rob the Eklutna people of a traditional salmon run, and with it a source of food, pride, beauty and sustenance from their own land.
2 3 THE RIVER BEFORE THE DAM Established approximately 800 years ago, Eklutna is the oldest settlement in the Anchorage area and is the oldest continuously inhabited Dena’ina Athabascan Indian settlement in the region. “Children would race out of their Throughout the Chugach, the Dena’ina people named house… the Eklutna was a raging the mountains, rivers, ponds, lookouts and camp sites. These place names were learned from experi- river, and they were fed…” u ence and passed between generations for hundreds, CURTIS MCQUEEN if not thousands of years – all by oral tradition. Place names were rarely named after people. Eklutna, or Eydlughet, means “by the plural objects.” Lee Stephan surmised that the “plural objects” were two knobs near the river. “In my youth, the fish were so Not only a source of nutrition and sustenance, the Eklutna River had to have been a source of security, thick you could walk across them.” and even joy. u LEE STEPHAN
4 5 SHOCK AND AWE By the turn of the 20th Century, Alaska’s mineral resources had been “discovered.” Craving for wealth – gold, timber, coal and wildlife – spurred the movement of non-Native people into the Eklutna Dena’ina region. Reaching these resources and transporting them out of Alaska was impossible without infrastructure. Thus, by 1903 the newly- created Alaska Central Railway Company was laying track from Seward north. Anchorage became a tent city as thousands of workers flooded the area.
A wave of shock and awe began to wash over the Eklutna Dena’ina. Children were separated from families and sent to Indian schools. Land was bartered away for liquor and lives were bartered away for a bottle. Disease, money, deeds and broken promises frayed the fabric of Eklutna; dams, highways, powerlines, quarries and railroads sliced across the face of Eklutna.
“People forget that Anchorage is in Eklutna, not the other way around.” u MARIA COLEMAN, NATIVE VILLAGE OF EKLUTNA
6 7 CONSTRUCTING THE DAM The Eklutna dam was a family affair. Tapping the Eklutna River for hydropower was the brainchild of Frank Ivan Reed, who had sailed from Seattle to Nome in 1900. At first enticed by the gold rush, he proved himself to be an able entrepreneur in not only gold dredging, but timber and hotel construc- tion, too. Then from 1922-1928 Reed followed his dream to build the dam and power plant, and formed the Anchorage Light and Power company. His son Frank Metcalf Reed served as a dam operator in Eklutna and later became Vice President of the util- ity. In March 1942, Frank M. joined the Navy, taking him away from Alaska for the next four years. Mean- while, his father decided to sell Anchorage Light and Power to the city, depriving his son the opportunity to become owner of the company. “It is important for Anchorage Power and Light to be on friendly terms with the Indians around Eklutna Lake. The uneducated Indian has only the mind of a SETTING DIMENSIONS 400 ft deep 70 ft wide “Alaska’s fish and 12-year old child.” canyon 100 ft tall u J.L. DOBBINS, ANCHORAGE POWER AND LIGHT 9 ft thick wildlife shouldn’t have SUPERINTENDENT, 1941 TYPE to wait a century for a Concrete 70 ft, 300,000 cubic arch yards accumulation dam day of reckoning.” u of sediment behind RICK SINNOTT the dam
8 9 Salmon could once be found in rivers across Europe and “It’s surprisingly complex but I think it’s all solvable. If North America. Even in the 11th Century, although salmon I didn’t believe it were solvable, we wouldn’t be paying biology was not well studied, the basics of its conservation $7.5 million to take out a stupid piece of concrete.” u were understood. Simply put, “to keep a river full of salmon, BRAD MEIKLEJOHN / AK BUSINESS MONTHLY / SEPT 2017 enough adult salmon had to reach their spawning grounds, and enough juvenile salmon had to reach the sea.” u DAVID MONTGOMERY, THE KING OF FISH
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12 13 n REMOVING THE DAM A dry river bed in an inaccessible canyon. A massive crane flying D-8’s like model airplanes. Mudslides that bury entire bulldozers. Landslides that crumble and crush a custom-built aluminum staircase. Utilities dragging their feet. Spineless politicians. Control-freak donors. Scientists who study where to put their feet before getting out of bed. Mix it all together and you have a recipe for gridlock.
Dam the torpedos, here come the Eklutna Dena’ina, led by a visionary CEO and elders who remember the salmon. Mix in a former ADFG biologist-turned muckraker; the entire Anchorage Assembly; an army of conservation allies; a creative commercial fisherman-film maker; many talented engineers and heavy equipment operators; a few key donors who really get it, and BAM – that dam doesn’t stand a chance!
14 15 396 500 30 300,000 Foot tall crane Step staircase Jobs created Cubic yards of silt, that took 40 constructed for sand, and gravel tractor-trailer trucks workers to descend to put it in place to the project site
16 17 “Seen from the outside, it’s not too much of a stretch to call this project a miracle of bureaucratic efficiency.” u JESSICA ROHLOFF, ALASKA BUSINESS MONTHLY, SEP 2017
PARTNERS AND AGENCIES
HDR Eklutna Inc Orvis The Conservation Fund Rasmuson Foundation US Army Corps of Engineers
New Belgium Brewing Company Alaska Community Foundation National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Native Village of Eklutna State of Alaska Office of Dam Safety Wells Fargo Resources Legacy Fund Patagonia
State of Alaska Department of Fish and Game Trout Unlimited The Marnell Company
MJ Murdock Charitable Trust State of Alaska State of Alaska Department of Governor’s Office Environmental Conservation
18 19 CELEBRATION On September 22, 2018, a crystalline fall Alaska day, nearly 200 people gathered to celebrate the removal of the Eklutna dam in a symbolic bucket brigade.
“Today, people from the Native Village of Eklutna, The Conservation Fund, Trout Unlimited, and The Alaska Center, along with almost 100 Alaskans, came together in community to support a positive vision: to restore the Eklutna River, once full of salmon that sustained an important way of life. It was so beautiful to see individuals uniting, standing shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand, to demonstrate the importance of this benchmark and the work that still must be done to truly bring this river back to life. Alaska has many challenges before it, as it grapples with its salmon identity and what that means for the future. But today—today I felt my faith restored in our humanity, in my sense of community, and in the beauti- ful vision of bringing the salmon back; and I have faith that the people, if guided with good intentions, will prevail.” u POLLY CARR
20 21 IN THE MEDIA
Let’s Find a Way to Restore the Eklutna River and Its Salmon Runs RICK SINNOTT / JUN 2016 Deadbeat’ Eklutna Dam Death to a Deadbeat Dam Due for Demolition, on the Eklutna River Group Says BY RICK SINNOTT / AUG 2015 BY ELLEN LOCKYER / DEC 2015 Work Begins Tearing SITE WORK BEGINS AHEAD OF Down 1920s-era EKLUTNA DAM DEMOLITION Eklutna River Dam BY MIKE ROSS & DAN CARPENTER / AUG 2016 BY NAOMI KLOUDA / JUN 2017
First Phase of ‘This River is Broken, Been Eklutna Dam Removal Project Broken for a While:’ A Dam Completed Comes Down Piece by Piece BY FRANK BAKER / NOV 2016 BY REBECCA PALSHA / JUL 2017
For 89 Years, a Dam Blocked OLD EKLUTNA DAM IS ALMOST DOWN Salmon on the Eklutna River. BY LAUREN MAXWELL / SEP 2017 It’s Finally Gone. BY MATT TUNSETH / AUG 2018
22 23 “I look at a redwood and don’t see board feet. I look at a river and don’t see kilowatt hours. I look at a meadow and don’t see real estate. I look at a lake and don’t see an aquaduct. I look at a gorge and don’t see a damsite.” u TERRY AND RENNY RUSSELL
24 25 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. u ECCLESIASTES
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