Blowing up Dams in the Pacific Northwest

An unexpected thing has been happening in the Pacific Northwest in the last decade. People have been removing earth and dams and hydroelectric dams along major waterways.

As my tour looped around, past Portland and as I began to head south along the Oregon and California coasts, I reached out to a group I had learned has successfully removed dams along the Klamath River.

I interviewed Craig Tucker, one of the catalysts of a plan started over 15 years ago, which seemed like a crazy idea at the time.

I imagined Craig and others siting around like the cast of Scooby Doo saying, “It’s so crazy, it just might work!”

When we met in Craig’s office in Arcata California, we discussed why the dams were removed, how the region makes up the difference in hydro power that is lost with the dams are removed and how he learned to be a good ally to local first nations.

For me, this was particularly related to my current van tour and thinking about what is next in my career. Craig and his allies demonstrated patience in the face of massive odds and Craig in particular spoke about how he became a better ally to Tribal advocates over time.

You can see images of the dam removal on the Reconnect Klamath website and learn more. We could only get to so much in 10 minutes. As we know, that’s already like publishing a full length novel in the world of YouTube.

Craig also spoke about the coming massive investments in wind energy from RWE and Vineyard Offshore Wind coming soon off the coast of California, and what that means for the region.