Owners of dams coming out on the Menominee found that taking a holistic approach to the entire watershed would save them time, money and energy. Some could be phased out, while others reoperated with screens, fish passage and drawdowns. But all these conditions rest on the values and the scientific understanding of the larger community. The truth is I have not brought my sledgehammer to a single dam that was not approved for removal by consensus of the inhabitants of the watershed. Many of these consensus based decisions are brought about by democratic, voluntary watershed councils that are cropping up all over the country.
Larger dams pose more complex issues, for there are more, and bigger, economic stakeholders.
Entire industries, the price of electricity for millions of people, water storage for cities. We are rapidly reaching a consensus with Congress to remove the dams at Elwha and Glines Canyon. The debate over four dams on the Snake River will surely continue for years, beyond my time in this office. Yet even when a community decides that a dam should remain, it may discover progressive new ways to operate it that restore some of the ecological damage. That explains the public interest in the artificial flood that we released at Glen Canyon to restore Colorado River beaches downstream in the Grand Canyon.