With Dam Gone, California River Comes Back to Life

San Clemente Dam
San Clemente Dam

Tommy Williams—a fisheries biologist whose enthusiasm bubbles forth so swiftly, he’s often interrupting himself mid-sentence—is pacing on the banks of the Carmel River. “Amazing,” he says, snapping pictures of newly formed sandbanks and twigs wedged in between white alder, black cottonwood and willow trunks.

It’s not the trees or twigs that delight him. It’s the thundering flow of a river that has been dammed for the last 94 years—and the sediment (dirt and rocks) that are pushing everything downstream.

LINK (via: KQED)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *