What makes the Elwha River Dams an issue of environmental justice is they blocked marine life such as salmon migration among the nature/health of all the fish and animals. To begin

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What makes the Elwha River Dams an issue of environmental justice is they blocked marine life such as salmon migration among the nature/health of all the fish and animals. To begin the definition of Environmental justice it is where it is the fair treatment and involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or class, in the development and enforcement of environmental policies. This would create an environmental justice issue where the Elwha tribes were as they were marginalized and left without help in sustaining and protecting their environment targeting them as the Elwha River Dams created reservoirs of waters sinking farms, steads, and sites sacred to the tribe overall harming the life of both the Elwha tribes and marine life. The Dams would change the river bottom losing the fish spawning gravel thus depleting the quality of life for the Elwha tribes and causing the Elwha tribe’s main food source to die off alienating them to the harmful effects of the Dams. All in all what makes the Elwha Dams an issue of environmental justice is its damaging effects on the Elwha tribe’s territory and how they received their food declining the overall living conditions and life for the Elwha people who had little to no say.
Three things from the film that could offer hope about environmental issues in the future are people like Beatrice Charles that advocated for the great Elwha River to be restored so the water can flow and the salmon can swim freely. She was a part of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe as she traveled across the country to tell her truth and story for the Elwha tribes and marine life. A second hope can be when the concept of public opinion becomes influential in the decision to bring down the Elwha River Dams. Through numerous panels and public get-togethers to speak and create compelling arguments about the damages, it brought forth community and support from scientists to fill the rivers in research, physically implementing themselves within the water to do this research upon sediments and fish migrations over time. A third hope can be in general all the people who had come together to make this dream of the Elwha people come to life from the workers who had physically destroyed the Dams, to the wildlife environmentalist planting native species in the areas of sediment to bring forth new wildlife and nature restoring balance and the natural passage of migration for the fishes and animals. This is hope in tackling environmental issues in the future.
The environmental challenges created by large-scale dams not only damage and deprive the natural ecosystem and habitat for the fish they also create a challenge among the whole animal kingdom/food chain that relies on the fish for nutrients. This would be found as Dams create issues that harm the living conditions of marine life causing a declining system to take place. These living conditions would include blockage at the dams, reservoirs that increase predation and temperature of the water, and the lack of transporting sediments and wood leading to sea levels increasing, the damage of habitats, waste building up ultimately depleting the fish species to extinction. The food chain would become affected as for example salmon or other fish species go to lay their eggs in smaller channels till they hatch and go to the main channel growing all the way to the sea to eat marine-derived nutrients becoming even bigger. These marine-derived nutrients are crucial as they are eaten by everything from tiny insects to birds, and so on up the food chain where this nutrient is crucial in the overall functioning of the animal kingdom. The implementation of large-scale dams in our ecosystem brings forth an even greater issue in damaging not only the natural conditions of our waters but placing in jeopardy the life of all marine life and animals.
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Environmental justice is the fair treatment and involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or class, in the development and enforcement of environmental policies. It is also about powerless communities being dumbed on by negative impacts on their natural environments. This is what makes the Elwha River Dams an issue of environmental justice. The Elwha people felt powerless due to the government ignoring their pleas not to develop the dams in the first place and continuing to avoid removing the dams due to their economic value. While the town prospered due to the electricity, jobs, and general profit provided by the dam, the Elwha people suffered greatly. Their lands were flooded, and they lost a fundamental way of life; fishing. The dams blocked fish migration routes and dwindled the population. Even after the Elwha people realized just how big of an issue this was for the future of their tribe and land, the government remained unhelpful, to say the least. A ban on fishing altogether was passed. This directly impacted the Elwha people and their survival.
There are three things presented in this film that could offer hope for environmental issues in the future. One is the persistence of a group of people. The Elwha tribe never gave up, even after decades of no improvement. They continued to actively voice their concerns about their community and the environment. Another is scientific data. Many people in the battle between the environment and the economy will delude themselves into thinking that the environment isn’t really in danger. Even if it is, they will ask if fixing this problem will improve it. In the film, the scientific data collected showing what would happen to the fish population if the dams were removed helped turn the tide from opposition to full support of removal. The last thing is a local group of unbiased people who can address the issue from all angles with an open mind. Too often, groups of people in power go into a problem with their minds already made up, making the process so much harder than it needs to be. In the film, the local group managed to come to a clear decision of removal, even though most initially wanted to keep the dams in place.
Large-scale dams create fragmented rivers and streams and convert free-flowing ecosystems into lake-like ecosystems, which causes the native riverine species to struggle to survive in the altered environment. Another issue is the release of greenhouse gases, which allows climate change to rise. To list a few more, large-scale dams deprive ecosystems of nutrients, destroy habitats, and increase sea levels.
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The Dams built along the Elwha River, and the stories that the indigenous people of Elwha had to share about its history, reminded me of the video I am salmon, (Salmon Defense Fund 2017). “We create wealth, and because of the fishing, we create community,” this line is closely related to the film Return of the River. The salmon that flowed through the river and mountains near the Elwha Reserve not only brought them occupational opportunities, hobbies, and food; but the salmon held centuries of cultural and historic value to the tribe. The salmon’s process of migration through the Elwha River, how they traveled to the ocean and grew larger, just to return to these streams and nourish the residents of Elwha. But the placement of the Elwha Dam blocked off these riverbanks, along with multiple species of salmon. Preventing them from swimming upstream, keeping them from reproducing, and creating a juristic decline in the salmon population.
This is a prime example of environmental injustice because of the historic and economic value that the streams and salmon held to the citizens in Elwha. Not to mention how the decline in the salmon population started a ripple effect that took away much of the food supply, not just from the Elwha tribe, but from many of the surrounding wild species in the environment. In a similar case to the Elwha tribes’, “The Grand Coulee: Savior for Whites, Disaster for Indians (1993),” the Colville Tribe had been negotiating rights to compensation in regards to the amount of power and revenue that had been produced by the Grand Coulee Dam (located within reservation lines). In both cases, the dams that were built on Native land resulted in great suffering for neighboring ecosystems and tribes, while locals outside of the reservation soaked up the benefits of cheap electricity and water. If this is not environmental injustice, then what is?
-The main part of this film that shone a light on the future of solving environmental injustice issues was the success of tearing down the Elwha Dam.
The second was the impressive efforts put in by the Elwha community, and how they were considered unreasonable or crazy for wanting the dam completely removed. “For the past 80 years, since the first dam was built on the Elwha River, and pay attention here, it has been impossible for the United States to keep its promises,” (1:12:02-00:31:46), this bold statement was a record from chairperson Mrs. Offsen, who was sent to speak with the Senate/Commission on behalf of the Elwha tribe [discussing the issues created by the dam]. The Elwha tribe had limited power but did everything they could to fight for the land that rightfully belonged to them.
The third part of this film that had a large impact on my hope for the future of environmental justice was the mental growth and understanding demonstrated by past workers on the Elwha Dam. Orville Campbell, a former dam manager, said at the start of the film that “it was disturbing in the sense that we [the dam workers] were being accused of being responsible… for the decline in salmon runs,” but at the time 1:12:02-00:20:40 in the film, it is stated that “public opinion can be moved.” At this point in Return of the River, a newspaper clip is shown revealing photos of Orville Campbell and others that had campaigned against the destruction of the dam. The newspaper was titled “Group alters dam opinion,” and finalized the decision to remove the Elwha Dam.
-The environmental and ecological challenges that the Elwha community faced were shown mainly in the near extinction of salmon in the area. Before the implementation of the Elwha Dam, the number of salmon was outstanding. To reverse the effects of these ecological problems, and restore the population of five different salmon species, it called for a massive change in operation; hopefully, there will be more reflection on these topics in the future when dealing with and respecting tribal land treaties.

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