The documentary “Dam Nation”, directed by Ben Knight and
Travis Rummel, argues for removing dams or for not building them, partly out of
honoring native Americans, particularly for restoring natural spawning grounds
for salmon. The scenery in this indie
documentary begs for Imax 3-D in a science museum.
Nevertheless, dams provide relatively clean hydroelectric
power and have provided water for agriculture in the West, even though even
that is somewhat threatened by climate change and drought.
“Dams give us irrigation and jobs”, whereas “salmon gives us
dinner”. So it does for bears, too. And
“FDR never saw a dam that he didn’t think should be built”. Or “If I chose between birds and airplanes, I
choose birds. Between fish and
electricity, I choose fish.” Well, that
is, “Free fish!” (May 13, 2013).
The film has an interesting sequence showing how native
Americans fished on the Columbia River before dams were built.
The film considers some dams on the Snake River in Idaho as
among the “worst offenders”, providing only 4% of the electricity in the
area. Barging was used as justification
for the dams.
A man with Parkinson’s describes his experience fishing in
Oregon, in an area “threatened” by dams.
The film also visits Glen Canyon Dan, between Utah and
Arizona, at the town of Page. The film
discusses abandoned Chaco ruins in the area. There is some canyon scenery
similar to that of “127 Hours”.
The film shows the Glines Canyon Dam in Washington State
before its removal in 2014. I believe I
visited the area in July 1996 during a day in Olympia National Park.
There was graffiti painted on the dam at Ojai, CA (site of a
major concert, Drama blog June 17, 2014).
The official site is here. It was featured at SXSW. The film title is
often listed as one word as a false pun, “DamNation”.
Wikipedia attribution link for Hoover Dam picture (photo author "Kuczora", CC-SA 3,0, unported). I visited it in December 1997, on a trip to
Las Vegas. And I recall passing through
Page, AZ in May 2000.
See also “Chattahoochee Unplugged”, March 30, 2014
here.
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