Win for Wild Elwha Steel

OLYMPIC PENINSULA—More good news for Washington State’s Elwha River. The dams have dropped, a fishing moratorium is in place, and now that vomity plan to introduce hatchery steelhead into the system has been thwarted, at least for 2012. According to the Wild Steelhead Coalition, non-native hatchery steelhead will not be released into the Elwha River and its tributaries this year, in part thanks to four conservation groups that earlier this month filed suit against federal agencies and officials of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe for releases of hatchery fish into the river.

“We appreciate the Tribe’s flexibility on this matter,” said Rich Simms, president of the Wild Steelhead Coalition, “and we recognize their special relationship to the watershed. We want to work with them to both restore wild fish and meet their needs.”

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