The return of the Elwha’s steelhead Give a rainbow trout a direct line to the ocean and you have a potential steelhead. Throw a dam in its path and watch anadromy hit a wall. Salmonids in Washington State’s Elwha River, on the northeastern edge of the rain-soaked Olympic Peninsula, found their long-lost gateway to the…
Washington’s Olympic National Park is best known for iconic steelhead rivers such as the Hoh, Bogachiel, and Sol Duc. It’s also home to America’s largest dam removal project, which was completed on the now free-flowing Elwha River in August 2014. Here, contributor Brian Irwin recounts his days pouring drinks in the park and exploring a…
Four conservation groups, including the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC), are urging the federal court to halt planned releases of hatchery coho and steelhead into the Elwha River until it can determine whether these actions comply with or violate the Endangered Species Act. Plaintiffs say that hatchery output in the newly reopened Elwha River system would…
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…
Citing warnings from agency and independent scientists, four conservation groups filed suit today against several federal agencies and officials of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (in their official capacities) for violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and ignoring the best available science and threatening the recovery of killer whales, Chinook salmon, and native steelhead by…
Drake contributor Chris Santella recently reported on Washington State’s Elwha River (“Bye-Bye Elwha”) and the removal of its two dams slated for later this month. Additional plans for the river include nonnative fish planting in the middle and upper Elwha in conjunction with a $16 million hatchery funded by taxpayers for the Lower Elwha Klallam…
Members of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe will tell you that 100-pound Chinook salmon once returned to their namesake river on the northeastern tip of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. While no one can substantiate the existence of these behemoths, one thing is certain: The construction of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams between 1913 and 1927 cut…