DamNation On Demand

For those who cannot make a film festival or show up to a showing at your local fly shop, click the link below to watch this great documentary at home. 

DamNation OnDemand - Vimeo

Elwha River Unchanged?

Olympic National Park glaciers continue to shrink, most recent study finds

Today's article and pictures in the Peninsula Daily News got me thinking about the common wisdom that the Elwha River above the dams is unchanged since the dams were put in.  I often have repeated this when discussing wild fish restoration.

The fact that glaciers are diminishing and the pictures of the Lillian glacier make me wonder what impacts the loss of glaciers since the early 1900's will have on fish returning to the upper watershed for the first time since the glaciers were much larger.  I'm not even sure that the impacts will be negative, but it is certainly interesting to see such major changes in such a relatively short time frame.

Will decreased and warmer summer flows have negative impacts on returning Elwha fish along with other populations throughout the Olympic Peninsula.

NY Times Elwha Editorial

NY Times The Return of The River

Nice quote at the end of it:
"The Elwha project is a reminder that there was a time when Republican leaders cared about the environment and understood that protecting it could also be good business. Where have they gone?"

Historic Day

First Chip Removed Today

It Finally Begins

Elwha Dam Removal Finally Begins

This upcoming Thursday is when the concrete starts coming down.

While there has been tons of recent discussions about some of the problems with the Elwha River fish restoration plan this week will be purely about celebrating the opportunity to right a giant wrong.

Wish I had tickets to the actual celebration, but will be looking forward to getting back to the Olympic Peninsula in time for this historic dam removal and the talk by Yvon Choinard.

Unconquering the Last Frontier

I've only watched half of this, but it is a fascinating portrait of the Elwha during the 1990's.  Hard to believe we're finally going to see the dams removed.

Elwha Unplugged

The Opus of Dick Goin

What We Have Lost

As a followup to the post about the Elwha hatchery hurting wild fish recovery after the dams come down you should watch this video about the wealth of natural abundance we once had along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Especially interesting are the comments about how many salmon used the lower five miles of the Elwha River before the spawning gravel eventually vanished with no upriver recruitment.

A healthy, intact Elwha can produce far more salmon than a hatchery.

Elwha River Hatchery To Hurt Recovery

It is sad that it doesn't matter that every scientist and agency is against the planting on non-native fish.  We seem to still be clinging to the old idea that our rivers can no longer produce abundant wild stocks if left alone.  We could never imagine how abundant the fish runs were prior to hatcheries that we can not imagine that wild fish can give us not only more fish but more harvestable fish if left to their own devices in intact habitat (like the Elwha).

Seattle Times Article

Some quotes from the article:

"Some, such as Jim Lichatowich, author of "Salmon Without Rivers," also see a bigger, fundamental wrongheadedness: Even using the language of "jump-start," he said, betrays a mechanistic view of what is actually a complex, resilient natural system, capable of recovery all on its own.

"The Elwha is not a dead battery," Lichatowich said."

"Scientists at every agency the tribe asked to comment on the program — from the National Park Service to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to the National Marine Fisheries Service — advised against it. They argued that nonnative fish have no role to play in restoring native stocks in the Elwha; they could hurt native steelhead and interbreed with resident fish above the dams."




 

Lights Out

This morning at 8am the Elwha dams will no longer generate electricity.

One more step on the way to seeing the Elwha River flow free.

Elwha Dams stop generating electricity

Moratorium No More

Article in the local paper about the WDFW Commission allowing fishing in Lake Sutherland during the five year moratorium for the Elwha Dam Removal.

Limited Fishing to be Allowed

My favorite quote is this:
"This is exactly how it should work. [Fish and Wildlife] had a proposal, the public didn't like that, they spoke up, they were listened to, and the agency compromised."

Is that really how it should work?  The Commission should compromise when it comes to protecting and restoring wild fish?  Public pressure should decide policy issues?

What bothers me the most is that the non-tribal fishermen are the only ones now not agreeing to the fishing moratorium.  Seems pretty short sighted for such a massive and important fish restoration project.  Hundreds of millions of dollars being spent and we cannot make a small sacrifice to not fish for kokanee on the only potential sockeye nursery in the watershed.

On the blog of one of the main opponents of the moratorium this quote disturbs me.
"It should be made clear that out of all the parties concerned, recreational fishers are the only ones who have not agreed to the full moratorium.  Our voices coming together gave us great power."


It almost makes me question fighting to save our wild fisheries when so many seem to care so little.  I bet these same people are the first to blame others for declines in fisheries.  They need to spend some time looking here.

Can There Be Just One

Lately, I've been talking a lot about hatcheries on this blog.  I just finished writing a note to WDFW about the five year fishing moratorium on the Elwha River (Elwha Fishing Moratorium) and I couldn't get a thought out of my head.

Do we have one major river system in Western Washington without hatcheries?  I go through a mental list of the major steelhead and salmon rivers and cannot think of any.  Is our hatchery addiction so bad we have to plant 60,000 chambers creek fish during dam removal on the Elwha during a five year fishing moratorium? 

While the state has stopped planting on lots of small tributaries with no collection facilities, nothing has been done for the larger, more productive systems.

I guess some movement is better than none, but the slow pace in the face of extinction and closures is beyond frustrating.

I think it's time to try to get out and do some more fishing.