Thursday, March 13, 2014

Elwha River sees largest run of Chinook in decades - Seattle Times

Tom Wolf sent the above link quite awhile back - a bit of continued good news for the highly publicized work occurring on the Elwha system of our friends to the north. Certainly a bountiful addition!
Chinook spawn in Elwha River in September    -NPS
As you may recall, the Elwha Dam is one of two dams on the river, and stood for nearly a century before it came down in 2012. Removal of the remaining 210-foot tall Glines Canyon Dam resumed last month after some other project work that was phased in took place.

Per the article, "With the two dams removed, the glacier-fed Elwha River is expected to flow freely as it courses from the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Salmon and other fish that mature in the ocean and return to rivers to spawn will once again have access to more than 70 miles of spawning and rearing habitat".

That's a lot of system to be able to return to!

Click above to see more on the Project from the National Park Service website

And as posted up by the MoldyChum crew even the sediment washout is having a beneficial effect....
<Jefferson Public Radio story>
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