Sometime in the next five years, the country's largest dam demolition will take place on the Elwha River in Washington state with the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams. The Elwha River in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington once supported legendary runs of Pacific salmon with some weighing up to 100 pounds. These runs were decimated with the construction of the Elwha and the Giles Canyon dams between 1910 and 1927. The free flowing river and its tributaries provided 70 miles of spawning habitat for the fish which was reduced to 4.9 miles after the construction of the dams. The dams were constructed without fish passage facilities. The reduction of the fish in the river to about 1.3 percent of its historic level,has had damaging affects on multiple species living along the river, in the forests and on the people of Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. The removal of these two dams will restore the ecosystem and the species that thrive in that system from the salmon, to the birds, to the forests, to the Orcas in the Sound. The Orcas major source of food is Chinook salmon and restoration of the Elwha River will be an opportunity to increase the salmon in Puget Sound. The landscape of the river will change dramatically as the sediment is released from behind the dams18 million cubic yards. It is unclear what affect the sediment will have, but the state Ecology believes the clouding of the water will be temporary and the whole project will have a positive affect on the ecosystem. The restoration of the river looks especially promising because 85 percent of the Elwha watershed is in the Olympic National Park. Scientists are predicting that the salmon runs could be restored by 2030.