SWS Members Meeting

Watch the raw zoom recording of the whole meeting here OR scroll to bottom of page to watch the vimeo recording of Dr. Miller’s presentation

Featuring Dr. Ian Miller of University of Washington on Elwha Dam Removal and subsequent habitat and species recovery in the Marine Environment at the mouth of the River

The Elwha Nearshore 10 Years After Dam Removal: What’s New and Different, and What Looks the Same

>>Register here and Zoom will send you the link in email. OR Click here <15 minutes before the meeting, register and zoom room will automatically open.<<

AGENDA
Facilitator – Tom Hiegler, Class of 2020, board member

10 am: Business Meeting

• Board President – Kris Holley
• Education Committee – Allie Hudec
• VETC – Lee Badovinus – Find Classes and Field Trips at 2022 Curriculum webpage & SignUpGenius
• Intertidal Monitoring for 2022 – Jeanie McElwain, Dave Brubaker – SignUpGenius now posted for Whidbey and Camano
• Camano Volunteer Fair on 5/11 – Joan Schrammeck (the in-person fair and social time is in lieu of a zoom meeting)
• Substitute for June Meeting – Low Tide Beach Celebration on 6/15 with potluck – Joan Schrammeck
• Stewardship Committee Announcements:
  • signs still need Stewards to adopt and clean: Double Bluff, Ebey’s Landing, Fort Ebey State Park, Langley at Cascade Ave, Possession Beach, West Beach. Signup inside Volunteer Matters
  • Beach Cleanup at Iverson Preserve, Camano, Earth Day April 22

10:30 to 11:30 am: Featured Presentation
11:30 am to noon: Breakout Rooms for Camano and Whidbey

• Camano members will talk briefly about the Volunteer Fair on May 11 and end early

Dr. Ian Miller is the Coastal Hazards Specialist with Washington SeaGrant and is best known for his research and understanding of sea level rise in Washington State. He has also studied tsunamis historical data and current tsunami-related debris found on Washington’s shores. But for this presentation, he shares with us his other passion which is habitat recovery, river siltation and changes, and impacts on salmonoid species as a result of the removal of the dams on the Elwha River near Port Angeles.

His presentation will focus on the shoreline impacts of removal of two Elwha River dams, both physically and ecologically. As the water level in upstream reservoirs was lowered and then the two dams removed, sediment flowed out and down the river channel and was deposited at the mouth of the Elwha River and out into the marine environment of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Dr. Miller and others monitored the impacts over ten years at the place where the river met the saltwater to see the impacts on kelp, sea stars and other marine life. He will share their observations and discuss why it matters.

Dr. Miller spends most of his time researching and teaching about coastal hazards such as tsunami, sea level rise, flooding and adaptations. His blog includes an image and reference to storm surge flooding on north Camano Island in November and December 2021.

• Learn more about Ian Miller

The vimeo video below was recorded at the Sound Water Stewards meeting on April 18, 2022.