Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

On the rugged Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, there is a river that salmon once called home. The Elwha River historically supported five different species of Pacific salmon. Each year, the fish would return to the river of their birth to spawn and then die. They were gifts from the sea – their bodies provided the foundation of the forest and were utilized by indigenous peoples, animals, and even the forest itself.

Return to Elwha is an interactive documentary website that utilizes visual storytelling to explore one of the greatest ecosystem restoration projects in U.S. history.