Few things have such a fundamental impact on a river as a dam or culvert. River restoration brings rivers back to life by removing dams, replacing culverts, and restoring floodplains. More than 1,300 dams have been removed in the United States, but thousands more remain and wreck havoc with fish, clean water, and the communities where they are located. In 2001, a coalition of national and regional conservation organizations including Trout Unlimited, American Rivers, and the National Park Service had been working to promote the concept of dam removal around the country, and decided a video program would be the best way to significantly expand their efforts. The coalition chose Green Fire to produce Taking a Second Look to tell the stories of communities who had removed a dam.
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There are three films in this collection
When decision makers learn that their dam is having problems, they often decide between whether to fix it, or replace it. But when presented with the potential benefits of a third choice, dam removal, they often take that information into serious consideration. Therefore, Green Fire decided that skeptics of dam removal should be the target audience for this video, and could most reliably be persuaded by their peers. The video features interviews with key decision makers including mayors, city council members, and CEO’s, along with engineers and concerned community members, some of whom initially opposed the dam removal but are now impressed by the results.
“There was a clear change of mind after viewing Taking a Second Look. Our town council was divided on the very contentious decision of whether to repair or remove the Collegeville dam. Only after watching the video did everyone wholeheartedly support removing the publicly owned dam, and we voted 5-0 in favor of dam removal.”
— Terrie Stagliano, Town Councilwoman of Collegeville Borough, Pennsylvania
With the success of Taking a Second Look, Green Fire again worked with American Rivers to profile more dam removal success stories, this time with communities in Washington, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. Restoring America’s Rivers and Taking a Second Look continue to help community members and local decision makers learn from others experiences around the country, so that they can make more informed decision about how to address failing dams and river infrastructure such as dikes and diversions and address the impacts of climate change on our rivers and floodplains.
“Having Green Fire produce Taking a Second Look for us was one of the best investments we’ve made.”
— Elizabeth Maclin, American Rivers
Across the West in the early 1900s, many rivers were straightened in order to keep rivers from flooding highways, railroads and homes. In doing this we inadvertently removed the complex and sinuous structure that provides habitat for once abundant fish such as salmon and steelhead. Wanting to bring the fish back, landowners in Northeastern Oregon and the coalition of agencies leading the river restoration project chose Green Fire to document the re-meandering of the Wallowa River that flows through the 6 Ranch. The Best Country tells the story of the fifth generation family who is striving to be the best stewards of the land, river and animals that sustain them.
“Dam owners themselves are using this tape to show that dam removal has very positive benefits.”
— Richard Donnelly, Engineer, Acres International
