Sunbeams occasionally sliced through the notorious Pacific Northwest cloud cover as a bulldozer started carving out pieces of the Elwha Dam’s concrete barrier.

Behind the 108-foot-high (33-meter-high) dam, the serene sliver of turquoise water that is called Lake Aldwell wound its way through a Douglas fir-covered gorge, up toward nearby Olympic National Park. A raft of sun-bleached logs hugged the opposite bank.

(Related: “Largest U.S. Dam Removal to Restore Salmon Runs”)

Dignitaries and at least one bona fide celebrity kicked off the historic event for watershed restoration on Washington’s Olympic peninsula Saturday morning. It was the start of a three-year, $351 million project to dismantle two dams near the mouth of the Elwha River, opening the waterway to salmon for