Frankly, I don't see any net gain for the system by removing the dams and building a new hatchery. All that will do is expand the range of the hatchery fish, which research seems to indicate will be detrimental to the recovery of whatever is left of the wild stocks. I suppose this could result in a better (or at least broader) sport fishery, but I don't think that justifies it.

At least with the dams in place, there was no polluting of the upper watershed with hatchery genes (or with the mountains of trash and excrement that seem to follow salmon and steelhead anglers wherever they go). Leave it to politicians to turn something that should have been a win for native fish into an opportunity to expand the range in which the ecosystem can be legally raped.

Yes, this whole thing is likely the result of a tradeoff that had to be negotiated in order to bring down the dams, but it seems to me this concession will negate all the unique circumstances that were supposed to make this such an important study. We're basically turning the Elwha into every other river in the PNW. "Dam" frustrating.