New Elwha hatchery nears completion
Removing the two dams has been a decades-long process, and officials are hopeful the new hatchery facility will boost a river that once hosted all five salmon species and steelhead.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/othersports/2013421259_outn14.html

Why the hell are they putting a hatchery on this river??? Have we learned nothing? Remove the dams and LEAVE THE RIVER ALONE for 5 years and see what happens. My 2 year old niece could figure that out. I had to speak up on this,this kind of misguided fisheries management really irks me.

The Elwha was once home to a giant race of salmon am I not mistaken? Where are the genetics for this now defunct race of fish coming from? If these fish have 70 miles of spawning habitiat will the hatchery fish utilize this habitat? Chances are won't it be like any other terminal hatchery banana fishery? Is this just to jumpstart the river or be a permanant travesty,either way i think it's a really bad idea. Anyone else have any thoughts on this or am I just overreacting?

IMO the native fish(what may be left of them) should be allowed to propagate naturally,isn't that the whole point of removing the damns in the first place?

Regarding the river's steelhead population, wouldn't there be some genetic purity left over in the rainbow population uptstream of the dams? I was under the impression that this population came from original steelhead smolt that were forced to residualize when the dams were constructed. If this was the case, we should just give them the chance to find the salt again.............or not?

Shouldn't the OK be obtained BEFORE constructing the hatchery? What if NPS says "No!" ?



Says who? ....Mark Yuasa? NPS?

I too am bothered by the thought of a hatchery. Everything I've read up to now has indicated the river would be left alone, a natural laboratory if you will, to see nature at work reseeding a river NATURALLY. Many bios have been quoted at how excited they are to see first hand how salmon and the river respond if left alone and given a chance. Then this article comes along.

I missed the steelhead part. That pisses me off even more.

Some background information in the link below.

http://www.ospreysteelhead.org/archives/TheOspreyIssue65.pdf

This kind of stuff makes me realize that giving a damn may not be worth it. Perfect opportunity, yet squandered.

Same as the Toutle when Mt. St. Helens erupted, and likely the same result...

Fish on...

Todd

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/federal_plan_mismanages_lower.html

More hatchery news

The Elwha needs a new hatchery about as much as it needs a new dam.

F'n retards!

At the risk of breaking the infamous holy grail on hatcheries on this BB, I would put this thought forward. Has it occurred to anyone ranting on this subject that those trying to get non viable dams removed had to compromise to get the financial and political support needed? That they concluded that the benefits of this out weighed the risk? That if a dam removed with it's habitat mostly protected failed that the ability to get other non viable dams removed would be greatly reduced and this was insurance?

Get off the self righteous kick. 10 years ago the bet was they were not coming out. However and whatever compromises were needed they are getting them out.

It's also unrealistic to expect that the Tribe that lives on the Elwha would be willing to wait until the wild component (if any remain) repopulates. The hatchery on the reservation has been supplying fish for a lot of years, as well as the hatchery further upriver.

I think there are going to be a lot of unplanned for consequences that will need to be addressed as they occur, and that it will be many, many years before the river settles down into any sort of natural drainage.

Could get real interesting when the river rages unrestrained.

So what kind of program does the tribe currently run on the Elwha?

From the article it looks like a steelhead broodstock program at least, and potentially a salmon broodstock program.

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.

There is no need for a hatchery on a free-flowing Elwha.

The existing one should be dismantled as soon as the dams come down.

The wild fish WILL recover if simply left alone. JFC! they've managed to do it for millennia without our "help".

Recovery of abundant salmon runs requires three ingredients... good habitat, ready access, and just leave them alone.

The question is do fish managers have the discipline to do so.

Apparently not.

No, they don't have that discipline.

Actually, then managers only do what they are told. Society is without discipline.

So why undermine that by building another damn hatchery? Call me a self righteous idealist if you will. I'm tired of seeing our natural resources abused by special interests.

With all the great "management" we do for our fish stocks, I'm glad we came along when we did...I mean, after 400,000 years of doing it without our management, they must have just barely been hanging on by a thread before we got here to save them!

Lucky salmon!

Not.

Fish on...

Todd

The Lower Elwha tribe raises coho and steelhead. I think their current hatchery is less than 200 yards from high tide and I'm not sure where the new one is located, but it will be close to saltwater.

WDFW has been capturing, spawning, hatching, and releasing Chinook on the Elwha for years. Hard to say what population numbers would be like for re-populating the river without the "mainenance" program. There is not a lot of good spawning habitat in the 4+ miles below the lower dam.