Introduction
The dam from the Elwha River was removed to restore the population of salmon and its runs. The question is whether other barriers in the same area should be removed and what the potential benefits and problems are concerning dam removal.
Discussion
Therefore, one of the dams present for salmon is the fish’s inability to migrate because it is an artificial block on their way. At the same time, it is not economically justified in any situation, which means that people will only remove the dams where it endangers the fish population. The example of the Elwha River is one of the positive examples of the sustainable management of the environment that is comparatively rare.
Numerous factors endanger the population of salmon. According to the statistics, only “1 percent of salmon survive long enough to return home to spawn” (State of Salmon in Watersheds 1). It means that people should consider the opportunities to help this fish to survive because otherwise, its population will be at risk of total extinction. Among the reasons that make dams dangerous for a salmon run are the significant increase in the water level in the places that used to be shallow and the increase in the water temperature (State of Salmon in Watersheds 1). Salmon, in turn, cannot reproduce and survive in these circumstances, which is a problem for the ecosystem (State of Salmon in Watersheds 1).
Conclusion
Therefore, dams that are the essential parts of the hydropower system in the United States make the regions where salmon ran traditionally the places where it cannot survive. It allows the assumption that removing the dams from some sites that affect salmon run might lead to positive long-term environmental changes and the preservation of the fish population.
Work Cited
The Salmon Struggle. State of Salmon in Watersheds, 2020, Web.