Pacific Northwest: Putting Water To Work

[Music] ask five people in the Pacific Northwest what their region is like and the result could be five different answers it's a place where a man can be alone the coast is Rocky with narrow beaches of sand from Northern California to the Canadian border there's not one major city on the shoreline the Northwest is rugged and it's [Music] peaceful it's busy industry is booming manufacturing is the big thing the thing I've noticed most here is the rapid growth of the Cities I could travel all day and never get out of the forest lumbering is my business I'd say you could call the Northwest Timber country Great Water Country especially in the west plenty of rain and the rivers run full the Northwest is an ideal place for fishing and vacationing east of the mountains here we practice dry farming and irrigation have to not not much rainfall and it gets Mighty [Applause] dry this farmer and each of those men is right about his own section because the Pacific Northwest is a land of extreme contrasts in Washington Oregon and Northern California the mountains help to create differences in climate in general the land divides into five regions the lower coastal mountains Loland valleys such as the Puget Sound L lands and the wamit valley the high snowcapped Cascade Range dry plateaus and basins in the [Music] interior and the Rocky Mountains as shown in this schematic drawing the air masses from the Pacific are cooled as they climb the mountain ranges causing heavy rains on the windward [Music] slopes descending air masses warm up and leave the leward slopes and basins dry or semiarid then the air rises again dropping rain and snow on the Rocky Mountains this water streaming down the mountain sides forms the major rivers which carry it back to the ocean by following this water cycle we can see how important water is to the Pacific Northwest and how the people people make use of it from the ocean and Bays fishermen take great quantities of crabs oysters clams shrimp and other Seafoods and more than a million pounds of salmon are caught each year in many towns in the coastal area the processing canning and freezing of fish is the principal industry the jobs of many people are linked to the Abundant supply of [Music] seafood when dams were built across the rivers for flood control and irrigation many people feared they would ruin the fishing industry because the salmon could not get Upstream to spawn so at the bonnaville and other dams fish ladders were built the fish jumped from one step to another and get over the dam in Easy stages such conservation measures help to assure a continuous supply of sport and Commercial fish snow and rainfall on the coastal and Cascade slopes nourish some of the greatest forests in the world on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington a rainfall average of about 140 in a year helped create the dark moss covered rainforests of Olympic National [Music] Park lumbering is big business in the mountain areas where rainfall helps trees such as Douglas Furs and hemlocks to grow to enormous Heights many are more than 200 ft tall safety helmets and power chainsaws are part of the equipment of modern loggers with the power saw they can cut through a tree this size in less than 15 [Music] minutes the lumberman called a tree Feller first cuts a v-shaped wedge which is taken out on the side toward which the tree is to [Applause] [Music] fall he lines up his Direction then cuts through the other side of the tree as the cut deepens wedges are pounded in to tip the tree in the right direction a tractor drags the trees into a clearing where they are trimmed into logs modern equipment also speeds the loading operation [Applause] most logs are transported out of the mountains on truck trailers designed for the purpose reaching the modern highway system the trucks pick up speed on their way to the mill or the Sorting pond water has long served the lumberman in the days before conservation and dams most tree cting was done near rivers so the logs could be floated Downstream now water simplifies the task of the sorters who sort the logs by quality and chain them into rafts the rafts are then floated to saw mills or pulp Mills Mills such as the one at Shelton Washington are the hubs around which communities develop while still afloat logs destined to be made into plywood are cut into required length other logs are taken to Sawmills where they are trimmed and sawed into Lumber lumber from the Pacific Northwest is shipped to many foreign countries and via the Panama Canal to United States ports on the East Coast poer grade logs go to pulp Mills where they will be ground into chips and cooked into a pulp the treated pulp is floated onto a belt dried and rolled thin emerging as rolls of Pulp sheet which will be used in the making of paper and other products with trees as with the salmon good conservation practices help assure a continuous [Music] Supply trees are taken from Acres selected so that they will be protected and reeded by neighboring trees harvested areas are cleared of all trees because Douglas fur seedlings require sunlight in order to grow in about 80 years this area will have another mature crop of Timber ready for Harvest the area between the coastal ranges and the Cascades is moist all year except for a short dry period in summer Washington's Puget Sound lanss and Oregon's wamit Valley are both highly productive farming areas [Music] even in the summer dry period the area has ample water for irrigation when Pioneers risked the hazards of the Oregon Trail this was their destination for most of them onto Oregon meant onto the Rich Valley of the wamit river and the valley fulfilled its promise becoming the center of the state's vegetable growing and Berry [Music] [Applause] Industries in Lake late summer the valley yields a rich variety of berries and [Music] fruit the capital of Oregon is Salem located near the center of the valley Salem provides canning and freezing facilities and railroad River and Highway Transportation water transportation is available nearby at the city of Portland which is located near the meeting point of the wamit and Columbia Rivers the Valley's leading sea port and Commercial Center Portland lies within sight of towering Mount Hood noted for its many public and private rose gardens Portland is called the city of roses further north in Seattle Washington the mild moist climate also permits flowers to flourish the year round located about 125 M from the ocean on the eastern shore of Puget Sound Seattle is a general cargo Port exchanging goods with pchs throughout the world the Space Needle built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair stands as a familiar City Landmark among Seattle's many Industries are facilities for building and repairing ships and small [Music] boats aircraft building plants near the city provide employment for a large force of industrial workers growth of the aircraft and related alumin Industries has attracted many people to this area south of Seattle lies the fertile Puget Sound Loland among its other assets this is the hay and dairy belt of the [Music] Northwest 2/3 of Washington's population is located in this region and 34s of its cities including Olympia the state capital the city of coma is also in this area forming the eastern border of these valleys is the rugged snow covered Cascade Range moist air condenses around the tops of these mountains replenishing the high snow fields and Glaciers even through the summer months mount rineer in its solitary magnificence can be seen looming above the forested range the area around it is a national park popular for its Scenic attraction the Cascades are aptly named for many beautiful waterfalls attract tourists to the area the snow Clear Mountain Lakes and cool summer temperatures make the Cascades a yearr round playground for those who like outdoor recreation occasionally a tourist may see a deer and other Wildlife scampering through the forest this deer is near Crater Lake one of the most famous attractions in Oregon Crater Lake is a Blue Lagoon in the center of an extinct volcano the lake is 6 m in diameter and almost 2,000 ft deep on the Eastern side of the Cascades Rivers such as the wachi irrigate fertile valleys the rivers plus the long warm summer in interior Washington have helped it to become the leading Apple growing state in America further east the interior of the Pacific Northwest stands in great contrast the Great Basin is semiarid and the Columbia Basin and Plateau receive only about 5 to 15 in of rainfall annually thousands of years ago lava flowed from cracks in the Earth's crust to form part of the Columbia Plateau the lava base is visible in the scab lands of central Washington also in this region are many miles of kulies these steep walled Canyons were the beds of rivers during the Ice Age when the ice retreated the Columbia River returned to its present course leaving these dry coolies other interesting reminders of the past are the Dry Falls at one time water poured over Those Distant cliffs in Falls Twice as is high and many times the volume of Niagara carving out over many centuries the wide kolie [Music] Below in Southeastern Washington and Northern Oregon wind blown dust gave the Colombia Plateau a covering of top soil and wheat which does not require a heavy annual rainfall is the major crop either spring or winter wheat may be grown in this area using methods called dry farming the wheat Farmers cultivate their fow land several times a year so it will soak up and absorb what moisture it does receive also they plant in alternate strips a strip planted one year is left unplanted the next in order to conserve moisture in the soil the Rocky Mountains enclose these Basin areas on the Eastern side Spokan is the major city in this interior region and serves as Marketplace and shipping center for both the Basin and Mountain areas the air that dropped moisture west of the Cascades then withheld it over the interior now Rises and cools again and sheds snow or rain on Western slopes of the Rockies the moisture cycle [Music] continues on the mountains the melting snow snow and the rainwater come trickling down the slopes and merge into thousands of Mountain [Applause] Streams the water comes rushing down streams meet and combine until they form powerful Rivers through the centuries the rivers have worn deep paths through the Rocks like the famous Hell's Canyon a Gorge 7,000 ft deep carved by the Snake River along the Oregon Idaho border the great Columbia River flows through Washington for more than 700 miles cutting the Columbia River Gorge through the [Music] Cascades and finally slowing and spreading out as it approaches the Pacific to complete the moisture cycle to make use of this water dams have been built across the rivers in the Columbia River Project the federal government built a series of dams the largest of which is the grand kolie grand kulie is a mile long its Spillway twice as high as Niagara Falls a multipurpose Dam it helps control flooding serves as one of the area's major tourist attractions forms a large Reservoir that has many recreational areas [Music] and provides water for irrigating the valleys and low areas of the Columbia siphons or pipes carry water from the grand kulie Reservoir to aqueducts and from these aqueducts the water is spread over millions of acres of land turning them into productive farmland and the dams were constructed for another major benefit hydroelectric power tons of Rushing Water channeled through a dam spin giant turbines these turn generators inside the dam which produce electrical power the Northwest has more than a third of all the potential hydroelectric power in the United States power to light cities and farms and power to operate Factory Machinery water dams hydroelectric power make possible many of the industry Ries in Spokan as well as the aluminum Factories near Portland and the aircraft plants around Seattle the growth of such factories creates more jobs for people in the Pacific Northwest where water is put to work for industry and for [Music] farming the Pacific Northwest is a land of recreation a land of Evergreen forests a land enriched by Water Resources developed by human resources [Music]