PORT ANGELES — A two-day scientific conference on the Elwha River dams will be held just before the dams start being demolished this fall.
The Elwha Restoration Science Symposium will be Sept. 15-16 at Peninsula College to kick off a weekend of festivities in Port Angeles that will mark the beginning of a three-year project to remove the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams, Olympic National Park spokesman Dave Reynolds confirmed Thursday.
A schedule of symposium events has not been set.
The dams will be torn down beginning Sept. 17 as part of the $327 million Elwha River Restoration Project, which is intended to revive the waterway’s severely depleted salmon run.
“This aspect of the event leading up to the first day of dam removal will help attract regional and national attention and present some of the baseline research going on,” Reynolds said.
“We hope to attract regional and national attention.”
The goal also is to present plans “to track renewal of the Elwha River,” according to a call for proposals for symposium presenters from River Network, a national organization that focuses on watershed protection.
River Network said it issued the statement on behalf of the Elwha Research Consortium, the Elwha Nearshore Consortium and the National Park Service, which is overseeing the restoration project.
“At the same time, we want to maintain the esprit de corps from the regular consortium meetings, where Elwha scientists have a chance to discuss results, approaches, objectives and future scientific plans,” the River Network statement said.
“When the wider Elwha science community gets together and shares ideas and information, everyone benefits.”
Reynolds said he expects at least some of the presentations will be public but did not know if there will be public question-and-answer sessions.
Symposium events Sept. 15 will include presentations of studies on dam removal by Elwha River researchers and scientists that will be followed by a VIP reception and an evening public lecture and presentation of river restoration posters.
On Sept. 16, presenters will give an overview of the restoration project, the dam removal schedule, specifics of the demolition project and perspectives from scientists and research managers from around the country.
The event is still in the planning stages, according to the announcement.
Symposium co-chairman Dwight Barry is director of Environmental Science and Resource Management at the Peninsula College’s Center of Excellence, an environmental science instructor at Western Washington University in Bellingham and a coordinator of the Elwha Research Consortium, a group of researchers studying the project.
Barry did not return calls for comment Thursday.
The symposium planning committee includes Maynes, Dean Butterworth, Jerry Freilich of the National Park Service and Co-Chairman Jeff Duda, Kurt Jenkins and Jon Warrick of the U.S. Geological Survey.
The committee also includes Kim Sager-Fradkin of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, Anne Shaffer of the Coastal Watershed Institute, Ian Miller of Washington Sea Grant, George Pess of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Roger Peters of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Eleanor Kittelson of the Washington National Parks Fund and habitat biologist Cathy Lear of the Clallam County Department of Community Development.
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Senior staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.