The removal of 2 dams on the Elwha River was big news for a few years. Now we’re fortunate to see more media attention being shifted to the long-term ecosystem impacts on the nearshore and offshore. And without intending to diminish the informative and well-written content, I’d like to also call attention to the interactive, multimedia presentation of this story by Tristan Baurick for the Kitsap Sun.

Sure, the New York Times has been pioneering multimedia stories for quite some years now, and the whole media universe is in flux. Still, Tristan’s article, River Delta’s Rebirth, stands out as a landmark of the progress in media evolution that’s been made, not just locally, but on a national scale.

I won’t summarize the article, it’s well written enough that I hope it will speak for itself as it draws you through it. Similarly, I won’t enumerate here the various enhanced digital features of the article, but be sure to read far enough to see the panorama viewer and the interactive story map.

Since it is SEA-Media’s mission to call attention to exceptional media about our Northwest waters, I’ll just use my meager words to highly, HIGHLY recommend that you take a look at this online article, and savor how it brings together many media styles into an organic whole…an ecosystem of storytelling, if you will. If it doesn’t grab every bit of your attention, and if you find yourself with a tiny bit of unallocated processing power in your skull as you are reading it, use that leftover bit to imagine a world in which media like this is the norm.

As a tribute to Tristan’s accomplishment, I thought the least I could do is to embed some relevant media in this article. Nancy Elder’s observation of the offshore underwater transformation was only possible because she was part of the team that observed the underwater life carefully for years before the dams came down. Tag along with them in this video as they document conditions off the mouth of the Elwha. This is a video I filmed in 2011.

And as someone who grew up as a Southern California beach boy, I’ll never forget the first time I saw someone surfing off the mouth of the Elwha. This is a picture I took in 2013….in February!!!

And if you want to see even more about the Elwha, John Gussman’s awesome movie about it is showing this Friday (May 12, 6:00 PM) at the Admiral Theatre in Bremerton. More at: http://www.admiraltheatre.org/events/returnoftheriver