i get what you're saying, but i disagree. we are not talking about what the project has achieved, but disagreeing with portions of the project before it starts. we are spending a fortune to tear the dams out for the express purpose of restoring wild fish to the elwha. then we hear that there will be a production hatchery allowed and i don't think it is abnormal to question this based on the science of hatchery / wild interactions.

the hatchery is a waste of our taxpayer money, plain and simple.

still in favor of the dam removal though. a free flowing elwha is the right thing to do.

i think historically the hatchery is interesting. when the original dam was built illegally without fish passage, they eventually allowed it provided the dam owners built a hatchery to mitigate for lost fish... which of course became the basis for building dams and using unproven hatcheries to mitigate for their impacts on fish throughout the northwest. we now have come full circle where we have to "mitigate" for removal of dams and a free flowing river.