"Dam Removal Begins in Early 2008"

"It's never gonna happen"

So says a friend that works at OPI (Olympic Park Institute) and has been rather up on the events surrounding the Elwha Dam removal for quite some time now. We talk about it from time to time, his students go out there and gather samples; and he would like to see them go- but with the never ending slew of hold ups, who really knows?

Our conversations inspired me to see if I could find anything on how things are progressing. After much searching, I found a lot of old articles citing what should be happening early next year. This article from last year was very thorough, I recommend it as a primer on the process or for all the great quotes it provides form the men that are directly involved.

Team Work

Not too much to report- I have maps to make of the permanent sample plots we laid out in the Sol Duc valley and ought to make a spread sheet of the times the HOBO (data gathering unit) was moved around, the weather conditions and what data it collected.

here's the hitch: I don't have any of the files or data sheets.

That is the joy and terror or working with and trusting people you don't know very well. One thing in the field of research is that quite often the work is such that you can work independently. This is great if you have another job, a family, or prefer to "work with the weather" as much as possible- however, it can get you in big trouble if someone who appeared to be on it drops the ball.

Especially when there is no admittance of error. If you forget something or can't figure it out- Tell Someone! When there is a need, it is easy to address if it is known, then you can fix it before it becomes a problem.

Hopefully, we get all the data so we have time to process it before we need to get going again. Right now, the biggest issue is figuring out what has been done so we know what we still need to do.


ahhh, the joys of teamwork.


*this post doesn't have to do with anyone in REU- don't worry!