http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Suit-filed-to-block-hatchery-salmon-in-Elwha-River-139100129.html


PORT ANGELES, Wash. - Four environmental groups filed suit Thursday against Olympic National Park, two federal agencies and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, seeking to block restocking the Elwha River west of Port Angeles with hatchery-raised salmon as part of the Elwha dam-removal project.

The groups argue in their suit — which had been threatened for months — that the hatchery plan violates the federal Endangered Species Act and undermines the recovery of native fish in the river.

The removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, starting last summer, will open up 90 miles of fish habitat.

The $325 million project calls for release of about four million juvenile salmon plus non-native steelhead into the Elwha River each year, including during a five-year fishing moratorium. The lawsuit argues, among other points, that those releases will hamper wild fish recovery.

The suit was filed by Wild Fish Conservancy, The Conservation Angler, the Federation of Fly Fishers Steelhead Committee and the Wild Steelhead Coalition against Olympic National Park, NOAA Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and representatives of the Lower Elwha tribe.

There was no immediate comment from the tribe, ONP or the other defendants.

But in September, Robert Elofson, river restoration manager for the Lower Elwha, noted that without stocking the Elwha with nonnative fish, the tribe might not have anything to catch at the end of a five-year fishing moratorium because wild runs will still be too fragile.