The closure on fishing on the Elwha River and its tributaries in Olympic National Park has been extended/NPS file
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have agreed that it is necessary to extend the fishing closure in the Elwha River for another two years, from June 1, 2019, to July 1, 2021.
The fishing closure applies to all recreational and commercial fishing in the Elwha River and its tributaries. A fishing moratorium in these waters has been in place since 2011 to protect depleted native salmonid populations, including four federally listed fish species that are needed to re-colonize habitats between and upstream of the two former dam sites. Mountain lakes in the Elwha basin within Olympic National Park and Lake Sutherland will remain open to sport fishing from the fourth Saturday in April through October 31.
The Elwha and Glines Canyon dams were breached in 2013 as part of an historic and ambitious plan to reverse decades of environmental damage to an important river system. The Elwha River was once one of the most productive salmon streams in the Pacific Northwest, home to all five species of Pacific salmon. With the dams gone, salmon and steelhead again have access to more than 70 miles of unaltered river and pristine spawning habitat. Their populations are expected to grow to nearly 400,000.
Only one of the two dams—Glines Canyon—was located inside Olympic National Park, but the upper reaches of the Elwha River are within the park boundary.
The restoration of salmonid spawning and rearing in habitats upstream of the former Glines Canyon Dam is paramount to successful restoration. These early re-colonizers play an important role in establishing spawning and juvenile rearing in habitats of the upper watershed. Final impediments to migrating fish were removed from the Glines Canyon dam site in 2016.
To date, fisheries biologists confirmed upstream passage of adult Chinook salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, winter and summer steelhead, bull trout, and Pacific lamprey past the former Glines Canyon Dam site, with some adults reaching as high as river mile 40 in the Elwha. Pink salmon and chum salmon have been documented upstream of the former Elwha Dam site but not above the Glines Canyon Dam site. Despite these encouraging signs, for all species, vacant upstream habitat indicates further recolonization and spatial expansion are needed to reach population abundances the Elwha watershed is capable of supporting.
The Elwha project partners evaluate spawner abundance, extent of distribution, and juvenile production each year throughout the system using a variety of tools including sonar, redd surveys, snorkel surveys, and smolt trapping. Recreational and commercial fishing will resume when there is broad distribution of spawning adults in newly accessible habitats above the former dam sites, when spawning occurs at a rate that allows for population growth and diversity, and when there is adequate escapement and a harvestable surplus. The salmon and steelhead populations are expanding into newly opened habitats, but are not yet at recovery objectives.
Monitoring ecosystem recovery in the Elwha is a cooperative effort among the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. For updated fishing regulations on waters within Olympic National Park, please visit http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/fishing.htm. For waters outside the park, please visit http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/.
Comments
And they said the river would be closed for 5 years. Typical lie to the public by the state. Catch and release trout fishing in the park is not going to stunt the tribes salmon take. Let the public know what is real plan to reopen the river. Or is there a plan or are you just guessing?
I'm glad they're doing this - salmonid species are getting hammered everywhere. I live and fish here in Oregon and here the salmon and steelhead runs are anemic compared to what they used to be. I'm glad that at least somewhere in the PNW we're doing more than lipservice to get salmonids to a healthy place. And I'll be there on opening day on the Elwha for steelhead, whenever that is.
we disrupted the river for a cwntury, now we should give the salmon and river all the time it deserves to fully heal, no nets or recreational fishing for now
No plan that takes 5 years anticaptes everything. Everything in it the project is subject to review, correction, modification and adjustment. Some seem to have a problem with not knowing everything up front. If we all though like that there would still be dams on the river today. Improvements take time. Let it be for a while. Fish elsewhere. And be thankful you live out where the rivers aren't poisoned on top of being blocked. Where I live, you can't eat the fish due to a hundred years oftdumping poisons in every river in the region. Fifty years ago, the rivers here were little more than open sewers. If you flushed it, you could go down to the river and watch it go by. Literally. Yours, your neighbors', and your neighbor's neighbors'.
Back when there were actual courageous congress critters, some democrats and republicans passed the Clean Water Act. Today, you can see the bottom again. Didn't think we'd see that in a lifetime but we do. You may remember all the screaming about how expensive it would be, and how jobs would be lost and how freedom was being destroyed, but today, you can swim in and in some places drink water from a river. Be careful who you vote for or things will go back to the way they were.
I am an avid angler of salmonids in the great lakes and was personally brought into a dam removal campaignt that is now succeeding. Much of our data came on progress from other projects. In so doing, I've grown close to the Elwah from across the county. I cannot wait until I can fish salmon and steelhead there and gently release them back. I will keep looking for opening day and don't mind waiting a few years more. For the chinook, each cycle is 4 years, so to see the rebounding this well is a suprise to me (non biologist). I thought it woud take a good 8-10 years to see a rebound. Happy!
Please be patient.
Oh cry me a River, there are multitudes of other catch and release rivers. The whole point is to see what happens with dam removal and recovery. If the studies are going to be accurate the effects of fishing needs to be removed. This one River can be a future model for River management. Think of the greater good long term.Yeesh.
I grew up in Oregon, but now serving in the Army. Let the Elwha heal. It may take another 25 years before fishing is fully restored. I support catch and release on Elwha over the next 5-10 years. I have seen this river and hiked the forested canyons. The dams were there for a long time. Let the Elwha heal.