Daily Reel...'Return of the Kings'

Chinook salmon spawning in the Elwha River from John Gussman on Vimeo.

Boom...Morgan

Daily Reel...'Return of the River' - Official Trailer

Return of the River, official trailer www.elwhafilm.com from Jessica Plumb on Vimeo.

Boom...Morgan

A Drone’s Eye View of the Elwha River

This is super cool.

Via Moldy Chum:

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.

Restoring the Elwha

Via Moldy Chum:

Get a closer look at the large-scale restoration efforts and science behind the largest dam removal in U.S. history, which began in 2011 on the Elwha River in Washington State. How do NOAA Fisheries scientists prepare for and measure the changes?

Boom...Morgan

Daily Reel...'DamNation Trailer'

This is on track to be the best conservation documentary of all time. Period.

DamNation | Trailer from FELT SOUL MEDIA on Vimeo.

Boom...Morgan

Moldy Chum Elwha Updates

Via Moldy Chum:

Photo: John McMillan

News organizations world wide have picked up on this AP story of wild steelhead returning to the Elwha post dam removal which features this money quote. 

"We’re wildly excited,” said Mike McHenry, fish habitat manager for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. “It just confirms what we have known all along — that these fish are quite capable of recolonizing the Elwha once we get the dams out of the way.”

What the AP story neglects to point out is that if not for a lawsuit, Mike McHenry and his employers would have planted Chambers Creek hatchery steelhead back into the Elwha. We owe the Klallam Tribe a great deal of respect for their efforts to help bring those dams down but their misguided hatchey strategy is a threat to those returning wild fish the world is currently celebrating.  

The LA Times wrote their own piece regarding the returning wild fish and referenced the hatchery lawsuit.

Filmmaker John Gussman has been doing a fabulous job recording the before and after miracle of the Elwha river restoration effort.

LINK (via:The Seattle Times)

Boom...Morgan 

Daily Reel...Elwha River: Dylan Tomine

Fisherman, and Patagonia ambassador, Dylan Tomine shares his concerns about restocking the Elwha River with non-native, hatchery-raised fish at the Elwha River Science Symposium. The Symposium was held in conjunction with the historic Elwha River dam removal project.

Boom...Morgan

Daily Reel...'DamNation' Trailer

Felt Soul Media's next big hit...

DamNation | Trailer from FELT SOUL MEDIA on Vimeo.

Boom...Morgan

New Life Emerges as Elwha Dams Come Down

Via Moldy Chum:

A WILD steelhead sighting on the Elwha above the old Elwha dam site. 

Scientists last week discovered the first wild, adult male steelhead — at least 35 inches long — arriving to spawn in the Little River, a tributary upstream from the old Elwha Dam site, where the river now flows free.

LINK (via: The Seattle Times)

If it was not for the efforts of the Wild Steelhead Coalition, the Conservation Angler and the Federation of Fly Fishers Steelhead Committee that wild fish would be getting busy with Chambers Creek hatchery stock.

Boom...Morgan

Science Cafe - Elwha River Dam Removal

Via Moldy Chum:

We've heard a lot about potential impacts of the dam removal on the Olympic Peninsula's Elwha River since it began in September 2011. How will salmon populations respond to the destruction of the two dams? In this Science Café, George Pess of NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center explores how scientists track the dam's effects on salmon and what results they've discovered so far.

via:  Way Upstream

Boom...Morgan

Daily Reel...'The Craziest Idea'

2011 was an historic year for rivers. The two dam removal projects that began as "crazy ideas" 30 years ago kicked off this year on the Elwha and White Salmon Rivers in Washington. These dam removal projects are the largest in history and represent a turning point in the effort to restore freeflowing rivers for salmon, recreation and culture. The climactic moment of the year was the explosive breach of 125 foot tall Condit Dam on the White Salmon, captured using video and timelapse photography techniques.

Boom...Morgan

Elwha Sediment

Via Moldy Chum:

Sediment from the Elwha River flows into the Straight of Juan De Fuca as demolition continues on Glines Canyon Dam.

Glines always held back the majority of sediment, because it is upstream of Elwha Dam. Together the dams trapped sediment that normally would have rinsed down the river over the last 100 years.

LINK (Via:The Seattle Times)

Boom...Morgan

Dam Stuff

Via Moldy Chum:
So pumped for this one...

An update from Felt Soul Media's Ben Knight from the Mountain Film Telluride web site regarding their new film Damnation.

Currently we’re locked in the editing cave, hoping to drop the DamNation trailer and the film’s website in conjunction with Patagonia’s Dam-themed Summer catalog this June. Our hope is to hit the festival scene in early 2013. DamNation is the brain child of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and Biologist Matt Stoecker — Travis Rummel, Beda Calhoun and I (of Felt Soul Media) are bringing it to life. We’re a proud recipient of a 2012 Mountainfilm Commitment Grant and look forward to bringing our seventh film to the Telluride audience.

Read More (Via Mountain Film Telluride)

A great photo gallery showing the history of the Elwha River Dams.

LINK

Boom...Morgan

Elwha Reopening!

Via Moldy Chum:

The river reopened two days ago...

The Upper Lake Mills Trail and Upper Lake Aldwell are now to the public after closure during the ongoing Elwha dam removal project. Now's the time to put on the muck boots and head out to see the astonishing transformation of this landscape, where the reservoirs are draining to reveal the river meandering through vast deltas of sediment impounded behind the dams.

LINK

Boom...Morgan

Good News Regarding Elwha River Wild Steelhead

Via Moldy Chum:

Non-native hatchery steelhead will not be released into the Elwha River and its tributaries this year, say four conservation groups that earlier this month filed suit against federal agencies and officials of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (in their official capacities) for releases of hatchery fish into the Elwha.  The groups announced today that they have reached an agreement with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (LEKT), where the four groups agreed not to seek a preliminary injunction against the LEKT’s release of hatchery-raised “Chambers Creek” steelhead, and the LEKT agreed not to release those fish this year.  Normally, the fish would have likely been released sometime in April.

LINK (Via: The Wild Steelhead Coalition)

The agreement does not apply to possible releases in future years so the fight may not yet be over. For now score one for wild steelhead and the groups that led the charge 

Boom...Morgan

Daily Reel...More on the Elwha Restoration

Via The Seattle Times:

"The Elwha dams' disappearance provides a unique opportunity for a river to be reborn. Many hope for the return of mighty salmon runs, but this is more than a fish story; the entire watershed will change when the dams come out."

Boom...Morgan

Yvon Chouinard Speaks at the Elwha River Science Symposium

Via Moldy Chum:

Yvon Chouinard speaks at the Elwha River Science Symposium about the value of selectively harvesting salmon by species versus the nonselective seining of salmon in the ocean. The Symposium was held in conjunction with the historic Elwha River dam removal project.


Boom...Morgan

Federal Science Panel Releases Review of the Elwha Hatchery Programs

Via Moldy Chum:

Care to guess what they determined?

From Osprey Steelhead News:

Last week the Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG), an independent federal science review panel released a long awaited review of the Elwha Hatchery programs. Not surprisingly the HSRG came to many of the same conclusions as we did in choosing to join the Wild Fish Conservancy, Wild Steelhead Coalition and Conservation Angler in a lawsuit against the Elwha hatchery program.

Specifically, the current hatchery emphasis in the plan is unnecessary and counterproductive to the aim of recovering robust wild populations in the Elwha River and that an inadequate monitoring program will limit the ability to adaptively manage hatchery programs and determine the degree to which they are aiding or hindering recovery. Furthermore, no specific recovery goals or thresholds have been established that would lead to a reduction in the degree of hatchery supplementation in the Elwha and many of the hatchery fish being released into the Elwha are not marked with an adipose fin clip.

A few quotes from the document:

"The main concern the HSRG has with the Elwha Plan is the potential for unintended negative consequences of excessive and prolonged hatchery influence."

"Prolonged hatchery influence may lead to loss of fitness of natural populations, potentially resulting in reduced or delayed restoration and loss of long‐term sustainable harvest opportunities."

"Inadequate program monitoring may lead to management decisions that reduce or delay recovery, rather than promoting it, and prevent managers from identifying and testing alternatives that could be more effective."

"The continued production of Chambers Creek steelhead stock during the early phases of recovery therefore appears inconsistent with the priorities and goals the managers have presented." 

Download a copy of the HSRG report

Boom...Morgan

Lawsuit Filed to Block Elwha Hatchery Program

Via Moldy Chum:

The current plan for restoring the andromous fish runs on the Elwha River relies heavily on hatchery programs despite evidence that the wild runs will rebuild themselves naturally. Federal and state scientists, as well as the state's own Hatchery Study Research Group, have stated that restoration efforts should prioritize the recovery of wild fish. The removal of the Elwha dams is a defining moment in the history of river restoration and we can't afford to squander the opportunity.

Please consider supporting one of the groups that filed the suit, the press release is below.

Patagonia Fly Fishing Ambassdor Dylan Tomine eloquently sums up what's at stake and why we should let nature take its course.

  

For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 9, 2012

WILD FISH CONSERVANCY
PO Box 402 Duvall, WA 98019 • Tel 425-788-1167 • Fax 425-788-9634 •
info@wildfishconservancy.org

Contact: Kurt Beardslee, Wild Fish Conservancy, 206-310-9301
Brian Knutsen, Smith and Lowney, PLLC, 503-287-4194

Citing warnings from agency and independent scientists, four conservation groups filed suit today against several federal agencies and officials of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (in their official capacities) for violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and ignoring the best available science and threatening the recovery of killer whales, Chinook salmon, and native steelhead by funding and operating fish hatchery programs in the Elwha River. The groups agree with federal and state scientists and a recent review by the Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG) that restoration of the lower Elwha River and recolonization of the pristine upper Elwha River above Elwha and Glines Canyon dams should prioritize recovery of wild fish. The proposed reliance on large-scale hatchery releases undermines ecosystem recovery and violates the ESA. Wild Fish Conservancy, The Conservation Angler, the Federation of Fly Fishers Steelhead Committee, and the Wild Steelhead Coalition have brought the suit against the Olympic National Park, NOAA Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and representatives of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.

The federal government is spending nearly $325 million for the dam removal project, opening nearly ninety miles of pristine riverine habitat in Olympic National Park, much of which is designated a wilderness area. Rather than allowing wild salmonids to naturally colonize this pristine habitat, the agencies and the Tribe are going ahead with a plan that will release approximately four million juvenile hatchery salmonids annually throughout the recovery, including the continued release of non-native steelhead during a five-year fishing moratorium. The hatchery releases will be supported by a new fish hatchery on the Elwha River built with $16.4 million of Stimulus Act funds. State and federal agency scientists pointed out that the current plan gives no measureable goals for wild fish recovery, provides no timetable for ceasing the hatchery production, and that ultimately, wild fish recovery is going to be hampered by the hatchery fish. A review released this week by the independent Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG), which was organized and funded by Congress, has echoed these concerns.

“While the Tribe played an essential role in removing the dams,” said Kurt Beardslee, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy, “their intent to now plant millions of hatchery fish in disregard of the scientific evidence undermines salmon recovery in the Northwest and the goals of the ESA. However you look at it, it’s a horrible precedent if left to stand.”

Will Atlas, chair of the FFF Steelhead Committee, stated “The science does not support planting of hatchery fish into this productive, pristine habitat.”

“This action is necessary,” said Rich Simms, president of the Wild Steelhead Coalition, “so that wild, not hatchery, steelhead will be restored to the Elwha and the Olympic Wilderness."

“Their plan is vague and uncertain about how and when these hatchery interventions will end,” said Pete Soverel, president of The Conservation Angler. “The Elwha deserves far better but will end up compromised like most of our other rivers if this plan is implemented.”

The groups believe that spending $325 million to open a wilderness watershed but then stocking it with hatchery fish is poor public policy and will likely provoke taxpayer skepticism toward salmon recovery and future efforts at dam removal. The groups support the right of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to harvest salmon and steelhead, but argue that intensive hatchery production throughout the recovery will reduce the capacity of wild salmon and steelhead to recolonize the newly available habitat, harming ESA listed Puget Sound steelhead, Chinook salmon, and southern resident killer whales that depend on Chinook salmon for their survival.

Boom...Morgan

Elwha River Restoration Project: Take 2

So many of you have heard about the Elwha River Restoration Project. Well, after the removal of the old Elwha Dam, they are more focused upstream...

Via Moldy Chum:

"The explosives experts have now turned their attention to the Glines Canyon dam on the Elwha River as part of the restoration project."

Click on the picture above to view the latest video...

Boom...literally...Morgan