Hello.

Thanks for joining us, for sustaining us here on KLCS Public Media.

I'm Dave Nazar, later in the broadcast, we're going to take you on a journey to the Pacific Northwest for a couple of special reports as we introduce two unique bodies of water and their relationship with the environment.

This is part of our continuing content sharing partnership with public media and PBS stations all throughout the US.

And for these reports, we're going to visit our public media partner, OPB Oregon Public Broadcasting.

First, though, two a body of water with an iconic history closer to home the LA River, we now take you to LA River Fest.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Los Angeles River was a natural, unpredictable force.

It flowed freely through the Los Angeles Basin, nourishing agriculture and supporting communities.

But its seasonal floods were catastrophic.

And now California, a land of sunshine.

Hollywood and Los Angeles reputed to have the most perfect climate.

Now a very waste of modern water as a result of record rains and all pervading flood.

30,000mi of land lay beneath a rushing tolerance.

Death and injury came to California, sweeping relentlessly on a flood tide.

The damage was estimated at $50 million.

Many film stars who faced death in make believe before the cameras faced it in reality in this drama produced by The Elements.

In 1914, 1934 and most notably in 1938, massive floods caused millions of dollars in damage destroyed homes and claimed lives.

The 1938 flood was the tipping point, with Los Angeles rapidly growing.

City leaders demanded a solution to control the river's destructive power.

That's when the U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers stepped in, proposing a bold plan in case the river in concrete to tame its floods and protect the booming metropolis.

Between the late 1930s and the 1950s.

The corps transformed the 51 mile River into a concrete channel.

The project was an engineering marvel designed to swiftly carry floodwaters from the mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

By 1960, nearly the entire river was lined with concrete.

Turning a natural waterway into a flood control infrastructure, the concrete lining ensured predictable water flow, protected homes, businesses and infrastructure.

Today, the Los Angeles River is at a turning point.

Decades after its concrete ization, a movement is growing to restore its ecological and cultural significance.

Future plans include softening the concrete channel with green spaces, creating wetlands to support wildlife, and building recreational trails to reconnect communities.

Local organizations like friends of the Los Angeles River advocate for equitable access, ensuring the river serves all of LA's diverse communities.

Today is our fourth annual River Fest.

It's a celebration of the river through the arts.

So we have artists, poets, all kinds of performers, musicians coming to celebrate the river.

It's a way of connecting with the community and celebrating the work that we do all year with the community that we serve.

If you think about it, more than a million people live within a mile of the LA River, and those are our people.

Those are the folks that we want to connect with.

The river is 51 miles long.

It traverses through lots of different communities.

And so when we are having a big party, we want to invite all of those people.

We want to invite all of our neighbors and friends of the L.A.

River is going to be 40 next year.

We've been around for 39 years, and we were founded by a guy, Lewis Macadams, who was a teacher, a poet, an artist, and just an all around rabble rouser.

And he, as the story goes, like went into the river one day, cut a hole in the fence, went down into the river and thought, this is nice, I want to do this more.

And he really understood that LA was very separated from the river.

It was treated as a flood control channel, not as a natural asset.

And so Lewis worked to change that huge work to change people's ideas about the river.

Stop calling it a flood control channel.

Call it a river.

Have events celebrate the greenspaces on and around the river.

So that's what we do.

We continue that work.

We continue bringing the people to the river and the river to the people.

I love these types of events to where there's all kinds of different nonprofits.

We partner with different nonprofits all the time.

It's hard to do all the things that a nonprofit needs to do alone.

And so partnering with other people, getting the message out in different ways is really important to our mission and to the mission at large of protecting the environment and bringing nature back into our cities.

It's not like we say, oh, you say, oh yeah, you.

You want us to be in the area we've been restoring for a couple of years now?

It's slow work.

We have to, like, take out these plants.

They come back, we got to knock them down like a couple times through their seeding and blooming cycle.

But we've been able to establish a zone now that's growing bigger and bigger.

And you can kind of squint your eyes and picture that it's covering the entire basin that we've been working at, and it's really special.

Just think about past people have done some damage to the environment, and we're trying to right those wrongs not only for our own community, but for the wildlife and the waterways and everything.

It's all connected.

The Los Angeles River's journey reflects the city itself, shaped by ambition, challenged by nature, and now reimagined for sustainable future.

Once confined by concrete, the river is poised to flow again, not just with water, but with life, culture and connection.

From the la River to the la River on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

It's been over a decade since two dams were taken out of this Pacific Northwest River, bringing the LA to its natural habitat of sorts.

Today, salmon are returning.

So are the cougars, the elk, foxes and bears that are now roaming over 800 acres of newly restored land as tribal members of the area work the environment.

Here is OPB, Oregon Public Broadcasting with this report.

The song we're going to sing is the Salmon Song written a ton of made up for and the way it's a rainy morning in October, and over ten years have passed since dams were removed from Washington's Elwha River.

The Lower Elwha Clallam tribe is gathering to celebrate their first day of fishing on a free flowing Elwha.

And over 100 years ago, they were.

000000.

But who would have thought?

Who would have thought that this day would come?

I remember when I was a young kid, my mother told me, you have to take those dams out.

Sunny up to help take those dams up.

She said you have to do it with the tribe.

First dam was huge to me.

Just a little six year old and just a big monster in the middle of the river.

And how am I going to take that out?

Oh, it took us a hundred years.

100 years to see what has transpired today.

And that is something that I'll never forget.

And the kids that they were would be able to say that they were down here in the historical day, witnessing what has taken place in the river of the open them.

Or hold it.

After the dams were out.

The tribe waited for the salmon to reestablish themselves before opening the river to fishing.

You know, we waited so long, over the hundred years just to get the dams out.

And then we waited another 12 years for the fish to recover.

Enough and numbers and population that we can fish again.

And it's very important, I think, to our community that we're back in the water.

Our tribal membership was the ones that stepped forward and said that we're willing to take the sacrifice, knowing that it was their livelihood and their income.

Today, we have a truly wild and free life, rumored and hopefully all of the species come back.

We're trying to recover the whole ecosystem.

So we are standing on the remnants of the Grand Canyon Dam.

These concrete blocks are the abutments of the old dam.

The Elwha was the largest dam removal project in U.S.

history at the time, with the first dam coming out in 2012.

And then the larger Glenns Canyon Dam in 2014.

They had this barge out on the reservoir with a giant rock drill on it.

The the idea was to let the sediment come out in pulses instead of all at once.

One of the first things that Elwha River did after being released from the dams was reclaim some of its former territory.

The river resumed finding its natural channel, and the road happened to be in that natural channel.

So it's just the rewilding of the Elwha.

The river runs through Olympic National Park.

Heidi and Josh are fish biologists helping document changes in the river ecosystem before and after the dams.

They hike to one of the reaches just above the old dam site, where Heidi uses an antenna to listen for signals from radio tagged fish.

They have tagged salmon, steelhead and bull trout.

The signals give some idea of where the fish are in the river during different times of year.

But Heidi and Josh also get in the river to collect data and verify with their own eyes.

One of our methods for measuring this fish response as they reestablish in the lab was snorkel surveys.

We get in the river with our dry suits and neoprene because the river's glacial is pretty cold.

We're looking at fish, counting everything.

You feel kind of like you're flying through the river.

I wish I was part fish.

It's incredible what these salmon and steelhead and trout can move through.

These rivers are the lifeblood of these areas.

And with the dams in place without any fish passage, it really just.

It broke the river.

And it was it was broken for over 100 years.

We're seeing a lot more response from wildlife coming back down to the river.

We have, you know, more marine drive, nutrients coming up the river as salmon and steelhead return.

When these fish swim up river to spawn, they bring nutrients from the ocean to the Elwha in their bodies.

It's a bounty that feeds bears and eagles and even makes its way into the roots of trees.

It's just a really good intermingling of all those different organisms that just got kind of cut off from each other.

After dam removal, the Man-Made Lakes and Reservoirs drained and near the 800 acres of land was restored alongside the river wildlife sign here.

We've seen some elk.

Yeah.

So all of this old little maple has been browsed, which is pretty awesome.

Kim Sager Brodkin is a biologist with the Lower Elwha Clallam tribe.

All of this was underwater.

And so everything we're seeing here, all new growth since dam removal, she takes us to one of the camera traps we have set up to document the animals utilizing the restored land, and have a look and see what critters have been on it.

Once upon a time, it was a crazy idea to take these dams out.

The wildlife group knew that there would be a big change in the terrestrial environment.

Once this 800 acres was watered.

I got some little something popping in there with the cameras out here.

We're really interested in what species of wildlife are using these new restoring habitats.

Some elk on this camera.

So you can see the herd just hung out here.

They all just came through.

There's that nice bull.

We've got some deer.

Cougars.

When those dams first came out, this was a moonscape.

I mean, it was literally just mud and sediment and no plant life.

And so watching this suite of animals move in has been pretty incredible.

It's kind of a little bit of a build it and they will come.

This is a neat one because this is Moses nice, big, beautiful cat eating the elk that he killed in the former reservoir.

Lots of snowshoe hares, snowshoe hare acrobatics.

And this one actually is extraordinarily exciting.

Do you know what this animal is?

It's a fisher, and it's got a snowshoe here in his mouth.

So this does demonstrates that these former reservoirs are now teeming with plants and animals.

Oh, he didn't like the camera, The tribe's first day of fishing is going well.

When I was younger, this river closed before I could even fish it.

So this is my first year fishing it.

And I got lucky.

First day.

The river had to restore and revitalize, and fish had to come back.

And they're able to go up to their traditional spawning grounds and, you know, just trying to teach them.

Just trying to teach the next generation and learn myself.

Yeah.

I'm hoping to use rod and reel.

It's odd for all of us.

Traditionally, the Elwha tribe fishes with nets.

The tribal Council decided this first opening will be rod and reel.

But there's about six right here.

Yeah, two.

They're all right by each other.

Just sitting there like this.

The tribe chose Indigenous Peoples Day for the opening.

My son caught once and I got to catch one.

Or I'm going to hear it the rest of the day.

No.

There you go.

What is it?

What is that?

Oh it's real Jack, right?

I got a jack right here and probably weighs about, like, 4 pounds.

Here we go, Justin.

Oh, that's nice.

Yeah.

This is really fun to fish on my homeland.

It feels really good.

Like to finally fish here.

And I could just, like, I live up the hill a little bit so I could just, like, ride my bike down here and just go fishing if I wanted.

Oh my gosh.

I feel like our culture is coming back to life.

Ten years and counting since the dams came out and the river is already rebounding in remarkable ways.

This is just the beginning of what it means to once again be wild and free for the Elwha.

From the la River to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in South Prairie, Lake and Washington, South Prairie is what some scientists term a mysterious lake.

Due to the fact this body of water disappears each summer and then reappears later in the year.

How can that be?

OPB Oregon Public Broadcasting has this report.

This is one of my favorite places on the forest, and I felt that way for a long time.

Okay, let's turn to your left.

And I come here every year.

So it's not that it's new.

It appeals to all of my esthetic senses.

The first thing we noticed when we set out with Andrea, Rusty and Justin, you were on this lake is.

It's strange bayou like feel.

Do you see the aspens to the left?

Look through those cottonwoods there.

Can you see that?

Where else in the northwest can you paddle through groves of cottonwood, aspen and lodgepole pines and not be along a flooded river?

I honestly have never heard of another habitat that is is like this one.

Is that beautiful cottonwood snag?

You know, when they get so old, they get really complex with their branching systems and there will be tops that have died.

And so you can have some cavity excavators that create, you know, holes up there.

So, you know, it's just very rich habitat.

We're in a place called South Prairie in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest of Southwest Washington.

Andrea is a botanist here.

She says there are a lot of lakes in the area, but this one is unique because it disappears every summer.

When we come back here in a few months, this will be a beautiful little grassy glade, and it will be a beautiful place to come with a picnic.

By July, the 85 acre lake is gone, replaced by a prairie.

No springs, no wetlands.

No water anywhere.

You never know.

It was a lake under.

Then you come out here in the summer and you wonder why is there driftwood at the edge of this meadow?

Well, we set out to learn what's going on here.

We heard that there hasn't been much research into this phenomenon, but Andrea says we can rule out natural springs as a cause as well as river flooding, since there's no river nearby.

So what gives?

We can hear it, and I'm kind of trying to see if we can see some flow, but it's right in here.

Andrea finds a clue in a small seasonal creek that runs into the lake.

All right, here's the creek that's feeding the lake.

That becomes a dry meadow.

That alone shouldn't do it.

Lots of forests have creeks running through them.

But then, Andrea, paddles to the other end of the lake.

It's here that water flats up against a 20 square mile landscape called the Big Lava Bed.

I mean, I really do think of it almost like a bathtub.

And we don't exactly understand why it acts like a bathtub.

You know, the theory is that it's backing up against this big lava flow.

Andrea, think something is happening inside this 9000 year old lava flow?

It is very likely that there are lava tubes below us that are frozen.

He says frozen ice could be acting like a dam.

But we don't understand exactly why and where the drainage occurs.

But we just know what happens really quickly.

This seems like one of the places where the stopper goes into the bathtub.

This was a hard theory to test while the lake was still up to eight feet deep.

So we returned in July to find some answers.

Oh, yeah.

Right here.

Yeah.

So right here is for the fall in line, where the pollen was floating on the water and kind of stuck to the tree.

As we made our way to the lava flow.

We pass through a meadow that's as rare as the lake itself.

Most meadows on the west side are meadows because they're wet meadows.

But this place is actually dry right now.

It's.

It's very dry.

You can see, like, how dry it is.

Uncommon environments often give rise to uncommon species.

Here at South Prairie, you can find the world's largest known population of this tiny blue flower.

Here it is.

So serene.

Kim salmon possum is a rare iris, and it was actually found here in 1893.

And this was the first site for it.

And it really likes it here.

It's perfect for it here.

Among trees.

There's an oddity here as well.

You don't find many aspen this far west in the entire state of Washington.

They are a species that just needs light.

They can't compete with conifers, so they're a little bit like our rare iris in that they're here at South Prairie.

Probably because the inundation has kept the habitat open so they can get that light.

But we were on a quest to find that drain plug that causes the lake to appear and disappear each year.

Andrea figured it would be somewhere in the lava flow at the edge of the meadow after a few hours of hiking.

She found a cave that she'd never noticed before.

So you can really see that if there was an ice dam and it was ice stuff in there.

How the water would rise up and form this lake.

And we paddled right through this area.

When it was full, we couldn't see this cave.

The lava waterway.

Yeah.

This is exactly the kind of place that I think could easily function as a drain, because it looks like this cave kind of keeps going back.

So it's it's a theory, but it's a very credible theory.

And it would explain why South Parade drains relatively quickly, fills with water, is a lake and then drains within about three weeks.

To be clear, Andrea is a botanist, not a hydrologist.

But like us, she just happens to love a good mystery.

What we know is that when springtime comes, the open meadow will fill up again and become the closest thing to a southern bayou you can find in the northwest.

To me, this is one of the most peaceful places that you can come.

It's a good place to paddle and ponder a small wonder in our own backyard.

You come out here and you kind of just go, wow, it strikes something in you and I don't know, it's esthetic.

It's intangible.

I think that it would be a great thing if we could find out more about what makes this place what it is.

Thank you to the friends of the LA River and Oregon Public Broadcasting for help with these reports.

Now for more information about our program.

Just click on klcs.org and then click Contact Us.

Send us your questions or comments story ideas so we can hear from you or contact me at DavidNazarNews on X or on YouTube or just go to DavidNazarNews.com and contact me there.

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Thanks so much for joining us.

I am David Nazar host of Sustaining Us.

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Right now our world feels divided, but out here we have so much in common.

We fish the same waters, roam the same fields, raise families under the same open sky.

Out here there's no left or right.

We all share a love of wildlife and wild places.

But now the animals we love.

And the lands we treasure are threatened.

Gone unless we defend them.

This isn't about right or wrong.

It's about standing together.

Because up to 1 million species face extinction.

Unless we unite and act to save them.

We are their last line of defense.

We are defenders of wildlife.

Join us as we band together to protect our wildlife and wild places.

Because in our love for what we share, we are closer than you think.

Be a wildlife defender.

Learn more@defenders.org.

The challenges our planet's animals are facing sometimes feel a bit heavy.

The animals haven't eaten in a day today and haven't drink anything.

It's all very hydrated.

As soon as we started our descent, everywhere I could see was my just absolutely not.

The country has been closed for so long, it's like a tinderbox waiting to go out.

Okay.

Very heavy.

Each of us wants to be part of the solution.

And we can be.

Remember that there's good happening right now at home.

We were able to get into the unit, and we have all four of your cats.

Okay.

And around the world, for any animal in any disaster.

So let's focus on that right.

Be part of the solution.

One rescue at a time.

Search either.

Dawg.

Forward slash.

Disaster.

Ready?

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