thiprogram s made poible in rt with ants fromatagoniathe mayble clark cdonald undation, the sol duc foundation, the freas foundation, with additional support provided by friends of grays harbor, the wild steelhead coalition, and viewers like you. [ river sounds ]

[ sic anriver sods ] >> this is what our people have called forever ensulapch [phonetic], and ensulapch, if you do a little translation of it is, "my wealth water." this basin just provides everything that you could possibly need to build a strong society.

music ] >> the smon, there pa of thisalley. >> the chalis rir hioricallyas been e of theost signicant paproduceralley. salmoin washiton stat >> tre is a pulationthat's , paproduceralley. and th's the sing inook ru could bfaced in situation whe it's gng extinct. >>ver e last sevel decas, the prlems have acceleted he. the last 3years ha seen fi of t most siificant oods on recd in thehehalis sin. the last 3years ha seen fi >> a i know w they'r lookg at a wer retenon,s whh is supposeto help. and that's very controversial. >> we're actually taking dams out these days. the idea proposing to build one, you know, at a time when we're spending an awful lot

of mon on salm recover of climate change. we know that flood is going to get worse. we know that it's going to get hotte onerong decion can have sho not only everyone in this generation, but everyone for generations ahead. [ music ] >> you kw, what ppens to this ct what thfuture mht be forh.

th's whathey're eing they dre throug you see pretty splified, entre. and it tnished mview of at an iredible ace the ehalis was in t past, a still i washingn, that so fls all thway to t sea. >> o of the usual aracteriics of thehehalis ver, is at it w the draage outl fothis masve wall ice aracteriics th existeduring the la ice age once t ice melted back e valley was actuay overzed relave tthe rive that was flowing through it. and this is a recipe for creating terrain in the valley boom thatis ac. >> you know, it's a large basin with a diverse range of ecosystems. [ music ]

>> so,he chehas rive has rge numbs of saln ze, and me oit is du part ofs its chacteristi. i an salmos a ystone scies. you n judge e health of an m how welit is th the saon are tiving. y>>hehalis lmon arehcriticl, that is soutrn residt kier whale that co anfeed offhe waingtonoast. >> thealmon evved ght ong with theandscape that wkno. d it shod not be big stery aso why th're soxquisite adaptiv to ts, you kw, dynam and sowhat dgerous environmt of theorthwest >> wheyou go o and you see our streams in the northwest, you're going

to see them, and some of them are going to look really great and real pristine, but at you nd to rlize is ey're dramaticly diffent than they were 200 years ago. >> imagine we go back to 1850. we're surrounded by this cathedral forest of old growth. a lot osalmon hven. salmon hven is the place whereo as it ts for smon. >> saln evolve to tse condions th were re befe ssy, whe there'sots, where te of wooin our stems. >> grand total, if you took all the species and added them together, there would have been years where the would ve be a milli plus fi. [ sic and ter soun ]

wh>>f you'realking babout chehis peopl [ ey are ixtricabl ] link to thisater. some of ese ville site you kno 1200 yrs is ki of whatthey'vey in o area, b we havetories that areoo oft, you kn, our anceors, tho thatent befo us, in tells that gfar beyoies at any gtag coultell you >>nd our pple we here athat -- inat tt time wld have enes atbasically the rthern most expanse of north america. we have more stories, flood stories, about the actual land being transformed overnight. you know, these are stories that have been passed on. >> and so this environment was just so abundant in resources whe we cou just pruce d producand giveway. >> anand en also ade.nment was just so abundant in resources

this w like thhub fromthe com of the snd, downto the cumb, to the oer side of theouns l that tde came througte , our anstors we merchan land d accessoe througte so my things >> we're chehalitribe no like wre unied chehis tribe buthat conderacy eands fr the bch tothe headate. chehis tribe wee taing anxpansive you ow, 1500quare mis, whicover theourse ofa few e, wewee very pud ofbe. ing a ntreaty ibe, cause 've never reliuished y of ourights tohis rive or the ld surrouing this river. >> our people's rights to hunt and fish in our usual and accusted groun wereot secured, though they were never relinquished.

[ music ] >> we have a relationship with the chehalis basin that goes back centuries. our usual and accustomed area extends into the basin, out into the ocean. our ancestors, over 150 years ago, secured this area by treaty. while we may have relinquished our property ownership to that basin and to those areas, we've never relinquished our spiritual connection. we've ner relinqshed ose anceral homends. and accustomed territory all throughout grays harbor and all of the watersheds that empty within it, which include the chehalis basin. >> treaties with the united states are the supreme law of the ld. wh we reta was the right n

eto take [inaudible] there had to be a right to have fish. at's whoe are. etthat what wee all out.re had to be a right to have fish. wee salmoneople. >> we' expiencing credible hshoe to be a right to have fish. wee se a very arp decle. >> you'raffectg my taty right. you t her. [inaudle] our lmon naudible >> when captain gray was coming up the coast, he met a group of people out near west port [inaudible].

[inaudible] ehalis anhe said,okay, ye n't worr i'll ite it dn." anchehis, and at's at it wa first, ropeans arted to move , they ned what paradi this ar was. merous ld-owners here oho, lked abo how equent this ar flooded in fac some caed itn inlandea, ju becausehere waso mu water he, everyinter. and one of the things they write about is how important the native people were in helping them in crossing rivers, on navigating the landscape. but then, as more and more people came, and more industrial interests came and realized the bounty

of natural resources in this region, things began to change much more rapidly. >> in the early settling by europeans, in the northwest, one of the first things that would happen is that the valley bottoms would be cleared. flat ground is sort of the best farming land, but it had all these big trees. the trees were cut down. a lot of that land was converted. the rivers were also cleaned up of their woody debris. imine how u would t they were the ways you could get from the coast to the interior, and opening the rivers up was actually a major piece ofarly devopment around t northwe. >> thereere veryarge thatere occuing mme thearbor.ies they were using traps, similar to what was going on in the columbia. the harvest rates were pretty high. the next really big thing on the scene was the advent of logging.

they tried to cut it all. from the harbor, all the way to the head waters. they used a technique lled splh dammin toreate li a series of floods. essentially were moving cut logs down to the harbor. >> igine theffects that blaing a load flds. of logs uld havedown thrgh . thatad bn good fh habita into frly bareedrock rers. >> mt of theplash da in oneay or thother, the, two rge dams atone s skookumchuckam. that d was bui without any paage for stream, grating lmon. the cond d's inhe wynooee.

th was bui in abou1970. wh they but that d, . well, 's gone w. it's longone. her an reallthe sout tip wynooch, you kn, the stf aroundhe natiol fost and t nationaparks, 's priva timber nds d some aiculture traditionally, you had the fishing community. that's suffering. >> the chehalis system is the primary fishery in the state onhe west de for salmon a steelhe, and wee at a tping poi. we're waing the fine le ri. >>he fishe, the loggers,he farme, th valley a worki -- is a workg valley [ musi] yes,ou can s my ety cow bn. it'she firstime i've been e

in bkeept out ofherain, anfr. itthisarm's be in've been e family nce 1872 i'm x generaon, my ks arseventh nerationere. i stilhave the homtead deebeen e sign by ulyss s. gra. next year we start on year 149th. we're hoping to make it to 150. then we'll reevaluate thinvestme. weotr than mneighborfiveto 150. ws, we a enjoyina respit . a loof the fmers thaare my commity, younow, they'vbeen farng gerations d year anthey'rall geing olde and lo in the oth like am, and ping the kidsill comeack not hopg their ds are going toome ck, whicis kind the condrum ingricultu in the uted stat right n is, woing real, reallyard d losingoney, sometimeentice t kids to go somethi different.

it just s the oods reay stting in e early 's, en flood, housesr been he for 10 year were flded. we do fod, and at flding actualldoes enhce r soil qte a bitactually so, it's a win for farmers, but we also have to contend with younow, wha floong can bng. were certied organic and i abou100 fferent rieties of veg, floong can bng. d flower and herbs. soin ', we had feet of wer in oubarn, and ended upith a foot of ter in mhome. anour housis one othe dest homes in e valley so, sie then, 've raed our hse 5 fee anyou'll bsy's hou. she ised herouse aft '96 d had war in it '07.

so, she' tell yo thathole sto. s>>o, the firstime it w6 rais, we putn 32 incs. so, 4 cier block we added 4 morconcretelock look thathat. the yogo. look thathat. see e flood vel? that's t silt. th's not dt. that'slood sil this goeon and o so, he's the mk. itays, "fld 12/4/07, righthere. >> the d before, was tually pwing d it wasnowing lely, and i qu about nn. d came ithe housand startedaining harr. i ept wellhat nigh didn't wake up or anythg.

usuallif you he it'lwake youp sometis. a realownpour, but didn have th. usuallif you he it'lwaa cousin who ws. firehief caldr, to s how higit wagoing toet, d i wentith the ashlight and c, and itas. >> so, whad peop in t field but think th were a litt a >> at h fast thgs stted to hpen, anthey werseeing tngs th had neverappened fore. and e rain tt moved om thcoast [iudible] lls, was toential, d i thin theyalled it typhoon and at hadever hapneda bere that yone was aware o and as t wateregan trise justhe shaki, the grding, and ui

the poding, anthen ka-om, d there es the bdge. d the ne bridge maybe n as cgged up this onwas, and itits that >>s each othese bre, it increasethe powebehind i >> ts is whe the brie in it iofficial gone. ont of o house ud to be. and wn it bke thugh finay in theinaudie] hou brid, that wer hit t levee athe airrt and actuly b. and so, that really caused flooding across the freeway. >> [inaudible] the residences with no lights, but water. and i ido myself and toy frd "we've g to do somethg abouthis. we had most 500escues

and weere pickg pele out otrees, off throoftops out the wat. [ music >> refgeratorswasher,dryer, . and thoands of milies mes anschools d chures, >> refgeratorswasher,dryer, . smalbusiness were maged, and asell as csingies mes ans5 for fi days.s, >> we had 29 dairy farms at the time in the valley, and of those, i think i counted about 16 that were flooded in one way or another. we had five farms that were essentially wiped out. two of them lost all of their cows. >> flooding is the number 1 cost to the federal government in disasters. >> now, there's two aspects to flood hazards. one is, "where's the water going to go? how mu water will go whe, how fast?"

en the wat gets ere?" and that the queion out how you esstially manage t human dension of the equation in terms of where we build things, how weevelop, at kd of infrtructuree put at risk? >> after one of these catastrophic storms, everybody has a theory. erybody s a theo on w this haened. and varis debrisand the lt some ples was about twfeet dee longbell [phonetic] finished logging in the area, the old growth, and without planting when it ined har the ver woulgo up raply and dn rapidl and things ew back d grewp, thereas a difrence that theiver wou not up as ft, h longer piod of te. basicall in the st 3years, they've logged erything

that lgbell loed overower many ars, people would probably tell me i'm wrong, but i look at the river about every day. >> something like 1700 landslides were documented in that one event. that's a lot of timber and diment gtingnt. in the river and it's no mystery that that caused flooding issues downstream. if you take a glass of water and you fill it up to just shy at t top, anthen youump. a fistful of dirt into it, ifwhat'soing to ppen?f water and you fill it up to just shy well, thwater's ing to fw ouover theop of thglass. a river'no diffent. >> the's stillome nversati to be h a river'no diffent. on what is the flow that came from up there. >> what you have in the willapa hills area is an area that's naturallvery prone land sling, because it has very deeply weathered rock, so there's not a lot of strength in the rock itself. so, one of the reaso why we hs

in thaarea, wathe on the hilides angesrough, y know,gth gressivelyarvesting timber of, er aut a 10- or 15-ar. in my rearch gro arou the norwest, we wouldasicallyind a roughl3 to 9-fd increa in the re of lansliding a relt of tier harveing. we wouldasi[ sic ]d a roughl3 to 9-fd increa >> people can point to a number of different areas as far as what contributed, but the main thing was the water. >> it ally is kind of almostff s for at we thght uld happ. as winhat 1990o 2009 but the mmeam we saw oodse water. of recorprimaril in wtern wasngton. >> wel you kw, i'not gointo get e system the sevity ,

across ts couny ofhe natal event th are occng, th are morfrequent so, forhe folkshat sa "oh, it a myth. ay, fine here's the dat in the chelis basi those five floods at are oside the00-year flood,. in the chelis basi vernor insleasked mehis. those five floods heai "how co when i talk tall you rmers out clate chan, yoall do ts?" ango, 'oh oot. and str in who'to blame i cad the bigst increes inhe country a ere's very f places that sw. basicalleverythi -- everyby's seei more that sw. rain in e future whate know oas a 0-year ent today is goi to happ more ofn. whate know oas a it just th warmer air hos . 0-year ent today is it'sarmer the fute,. soe can pu more weher

intohose srms, even is if ty're theame exac. stor we've sn in theast. byhe end othe centy, it's goingf 9 degre warmer,han what we w0 >> thehehalis sin, 's rain-d. and what that means is in theinter, a very little wer in thsumm. water >> thehehalis sin, this rer already war planning to get warmer. >> there has been two big fish kills since the '07 storm from low flows, high temperature. >> there[ muc ]en two big fish kills since the '07 storm our wier flowsay get whole lobigger. wel there's reallyhres that cmate chae influees toake flding worse inhe futur

one is sea level rise. the other is snowpack. whicis the change inhe inteity of hvy rain ents. tthrange isn thewpack. sort of % incrse by the e of the ntury. [ ain whise ] >> wn you thk about obal waing and other issues that are in frt of u we'vgot to dsomethin we juscannot l thisappen agn. >> so,he army rps of engineer startedooking in thehehalis sin at wer rention ba in the 30's. >> ty've been talkinabout since t flood othe '30s

thcorps did a buh of sties and didn't do anything. >> thereave be morehan a dozesites th have be assessed one timor anoer. all those he not paed morehan a dozesites oubecausthey coun'td st a cosbenefit st. the sitehat doesis thsite thas curreny oubecunder aluationd above e st a cosbenefit st. >> i thi there's been or 80s >> thereas a gro formed in chehalis that wted a sotion tohe floodg, basicay supporng a dam >>hey gotother. ey react to say,we've t a fishy in decline and w you'realking aut puing a daon a riv, d that will ke the fish proem even rse." and sathissn't worng.guys?

we need bring those twtogether d try toind the lution th satisfi all rties inlved." >>he goverr established a re formaworkroup which clearly identified our relationship and recognized our legal status as a treaty tribe to the region. >> the idea was to bring interests from a variety of different perspectives. >> and our job is to think about this valley for everybody in it. don't du on theguy wnstream >> onef the fit thingsthat ts toarticipa in thats they we willpend an ual amou on aaticpeciesestorati, sohat itl be a dl projec >> so, the chelis basi stragy referto an apoach on aathats rely a suii, sohat itl be a dl projec of several different types of actions. and since we're focused primarily on reding floodamage and improving habitat for aquac specie we real breathose sues of acons down io those o lae bucket on thelood dame reductn si, is a ste of acons

th range fm the ve small, up to the verlarge. things like levy improvements, on up to the largest proposed action in the strategy is a propod fld retentn structe thatould holback 65,0-ac feetf flood ters. >> inbou on maer 1. he we'reoing aund e cornerand u have tomagine aruck ming arod the coer. >> i'vgot a naudible head in the ver road >> ijanuary 2018, t roado our rit down he, e hillsi, slid dn. the eastnd of thdam is gng to bright he, on thispot. u're loong at itere. the eastnd of thdam is gng goes ross the river r to bright he, on thispot. of my prerty ovethat way , we're w on the finesc[p.

my fatr boughthe prerty in 37. i inrited thpropertyinwhen y i took or. the'when y get olderthee. mories srt fadin and it more th work youut in. i nt to beble to pass thitree far on to myhildren and gre in lis count people that o, pass thitree far theyave thatpportuni to wk in theoods, on the own prorty in lis count people that o, d have tt as a lacy pass ono their mily. the dam will be a 45-degree angle from this west point,