Elwha Hatchery Loses Half Its Fish

The danger of putting all your eggs in the hatchery basket.

The failure of a secondary pump at the Elwha fish hatchery has resulted in the loss of 200,000 juvenile coho and 2,000 steelhead. This latest loss comes after a loss of hatchery Chinook earlier this spring due to the mistaken release of smolts coinciding with a brief high sediment load.

According to many experts the hatchery on the Elwha was unnecessary and natural spawning would have been a much more effective and economical strategy to re-colonize the Elwha fish populations. Instead we've all paid for a 16 million dollar hatchery boondoggle that has been one giant fiasco.

LINK (via: Earthfix)

Elwha River New Beach

This clip shows how the beach at the mouth of the Elwha is being restored by the sediment load being flushed out from behind the Elwha dams.

Unconquering the Last Frontier

Narrated by Gary Farmer and filmed in Washington State from 1993 to 1999, “Unconquering the Last Frontier,” explores the causes and effects of the ongoing salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest, focusing on the Elwha River. The film was released in 2001/2 and has been honored by film festivals around the world. The film tells the story of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s struggle to survive in the shadow of hydropower development.

This is the rarely screened 101 minute feature film version; it is a multi-dimensional view of this landmark restoration effort and represents an important contribution to American documentary cinema.

Even Bigger than Originally Thought

The world's largest dam removal project in history is even bigger than originally thought.

Due to a mapping error the estimate of the sediment load impounded by the Elwha dams was off by a 10,000,000 cubic yards.

LINK (via: The Seattle Times)

A week of blasting at Glines Canyon Dam

Crews will resume blasting the 85-year-old dam today, lowering what's left of Lake Mills by another 8 feet.

A Drone’s Eye View of the Elwha River

Scientists have been looking at all angles of the Elwha River since deconstruction began on two dams just over a year ago. They’ve been testing turbidity, tracking river otters and conducting an ongoing salmon census.

And now they’re using remote-control planes to record high-definition video and thermal images. They’re securing a small camera to a 4-foot wide drone, which can flies as high as 500 feet over the river.

Footage provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.