Changing mouth of Elwha River documented in aerial photos

Aerial photographs of the Elwha — fed by sediment no longer impeded by hydroelectric dams — show it simultaneously elongating its course seaward, widening what one could call a delta, and “smearing” sediment along the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in what's starting to look like a spit.

LINK (via: Peninsula Daily)

Elwha River Virtual Tour

Take a virtual ride on the Elwha River from the former Lake Mills to the mouth as the river empties into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Users of the Google Street View-style project by Flying Fish Views, a Seattle-based startup also known as F2V, can see rapids and even dive underwater to see the “fish view” version of the trip.

The “travel” is via 30,000 individual photographs stitched together to create a 360-degree view of the lower third of the river and valley around a river raft.

The trip reveals everything from underwater views of spawning salmon to towering rock overhangs as it explores the mysteries of the river now that it has been freed from two dams and is reclaiming its historical route through steep valleys and narrow canyons.

LINK (via: Peninsula Daily News)

Elwha at flood stage for the first time in more than a century

From John Gussman

Saving salmon with bird poop

(via: King 5)

Elwha River Uplift

Friend and author Dylan Tomine with an uplifting piece on floating the now free flowing Elwha River with his kids Skyla and Weston.

LINK

Court Rules That Elwha Hatchery Releases Violate NEPA

Photo: Tim Pask

Smash the hatchery welfare state! - Horatio Nailknot

Responding to wild-fish advocates, a federal court has ordered federal authorities to revise plans to restore Elwha River fish runs, ruling the government did not fully study how many hatchery fish should be used to bring salmon back to the recently undammed river.

Judge Benjamin Settle ruled last week in U.S. District Court in Tacoma that federal agencies did not adequately consider the effects a large-scale release of hatchery-reared salmon and steelhead would have on wild-fish populations.

The government's plan, he said, set “arbitrary” numbers of how many hatchery fish would be released that “may not be based on consideration of the impacts on the endangered species or the wild runs.”

LINK (via: The Peninsula Daily News)