Flying the Elwha

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to fly over the Elwha watershed as part of a flight purchased by Nancy Fowler of Port Townsend as part of the Fish on the Fence fundraiser for the Feiro Marine Life Center. I've flown the valley multiple times now, and it never gets old, but given the scale of the change in the system I found myself wanting to dig up photos from some of the earlier flights I went on.

I started flying over the Elwha systematically in 2004 as part of a coastal monitoring program I initiated at the Surfrider Foundation. Here is a shot from one of those flights, on 22 June 2005:

and another from more or less the same perspective from this Tuesday's flight:

We didn't routine fly over the reservoirs, but every now and again I had the chance. Here is a shot of from before the dam removal started (taken on 27 June 2011)of the lower reservoir:

and its not a perfect match, but here is the view during Tuesday's flight:

and for the upper reservoir from 27 June 2011:

and again, not a perfect match, but the view from Tuesday's flight: