Beautiful Rivers--National Geographic Photo Essay

National Geographic's glorious photography revealing the beauty and splendor of one of our most threatened natural resources--our rivers.

Photograph by Scottyboipdx Weber, My Shot

The sun sets over Lower Lewis River Falls in Washington State’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The falls mark a wild and scenic stretch of the river, but other sections of the Lewis, which drains the state’s mighty Cascade Range, boast large dam and reservoir systems.

Hydroelectric plants produce power, but they’ve changed the river’s natural character—to the special detriment of migratory fish like salmon. Utilities have agreed to begin trucking fish around the dams along the Lewis River, moving them from below these looming barriers to prime habitat upstream, above the dams.

Somewhere along the way, we've decided to relinquish our most precious natural asset and given over control of our rivers to the coal fired power plants and big business to use as they see fit. And what they've done has made the rivers unfit. It's made something we need to survive precarious--our water supplies.

Is it too late to turn back?

Maybe, some might even say probably.

National Geographic's Freshwater Fellow Sandra Postel gives us something to honestly consider:

A leading cause of altered river flows is the operation of dams and reservoirs to generate hydroelectric power, control floods, and supply water for drinking and irrigation. Dams clearly provide important benefits. 

But it's time to ask a question we haven't yet systematically asked: can dams provide the benefits we need while also giving river creatures the crucial flows they need to survive?

In many cases the answer is yes. 

But we need to start asking the question--river by river, dam by dam. A good deal of life depends on it. 

We couldn't agree more.

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