Dam Removals Open Way for Cultural and Habitat Restoration

As dams come down in different parts of the world, exciting opportunities are opened to restore lost habitats and cultural sites sacred to indigenous peoples.

This article is part of a special National Geographic news series on global water issues.


Mark Angelo (foreground) and BCIT colleague with midsize Harrison chinook (spring) salmon. Elwha fish were historically bigger. Photo by Danny Catt

By Mark Angelo

As a river advocate and paddler for several decades, I've seen many of my favorite rivers lost to the building of large dams.

In my youth, I saw the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona that flooded one of the most impressive gorges in the United States. In later years, I participated in perhaps the very last raft trip down part of the Bio Bio River in Chile before the completion of the controversial Pangue Dam.

And today, new dams threaten fabled stretches of the Coruh River in Turkey and the "great bend" of the Yangtze in China, both of which I've thoroughly enjoyed as a rafter and kayaker.

Read article here

Mark Angelo is the chair of the Rivers Institute at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and an internationally acclaimed river conservationist. He has received the Order of Canada, his country's highest honor, in recognition of his river conservation efforts both at home and abroad.

Read more about Mark Angelo at the end of his article.