Other dam removal projects are more controversial. Hastings has sought to block federal funding for the impact on navigation stemming from dismantling the 125 foot-high Condit Dam owned by PacifiCorp on southwest Washington’s White Salmon River, which is scheduled to begin in late October, on the grounds that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay anything for it. Several groups are still locked in litigation over whether to remove four dams on the lower Snake River, a move that could help recover imperiled salmon and steelhead but would eliminate 1,100 megawatts of generating capacity.

The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe fought the Elwha Dam and the 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam upstream for years. It’s taking part in a nearly week-long celebration around their demolition. Robert Elofson, the tribe’s river restoration director, said his clan has such a close connection to the fish that once flourished there that “we were called the salmon people, to give them a status equal to the people.”

Almost entirely contained within Washington’s Olympic National Park, the Elwha is untouched aside from the concrete structures that have reduced its wild salmon spawning population from 400,000 to about 3,000. Three of the salmon species native to the river — chinook, steelhead and bull trout — are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Amy Grondin, who operates a commercial fishing boat with her husband an hour away in Port Townsend, said removing the dams will ultimately produce more salmon for her and others to catch. “I’m an hour away. But an hour away is nothing, especially for salmon,” she said.

Brian Winter, the Elwha project manager, estimates it will take 25 to 30 years for the river to return to its natural state. Once it does, he predicted that the hundreds of thousands of salmon traversing the river will provide sustenance for trees growing along the river’s banks, orcas swimming in Puget Sound and others.