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Rapid diversification in Salmon and Steelhead Populations Following Dam Removal
John McMillan returns with a guest column about the ongoing recovery of the Elwha River. It’s been eleven years since the Elwha Dam (the lower of the two dams on the Elwha, located at river-mile five) was removed. I still remember the day the heavy equipment started to roll, and the dam started to fall. …
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The next half-century of hydropower
How hydropower relicensing clears a path for migratory trout and salmon Trout Unlimited cares about hydropower because trout and salmon are migratory fish and the fact is, dams are tough on migratory fish. In the case of the Columbia and Snake River dams, for example, the downstream delayed mortality for juvenile smolt at each of…
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On the Elwha, dams came down, steelhead came back.
Wild summer-run steelhead, once prolific in the Elwha, were functionally extinct before the dams were removed. Six years later, they were back.
Life After Dams Part 1 of a series. This week, we’re telling stories about what happens when dams come out and life flows back in. It’s a vision of what could be on the lower Snake: a free-flowing river and wild fisheries staging a remarkable comeback. It is not always possible to restore wild places…
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Elwha River is ascendant six years after the last dam came out
The years 2012 and 2015 are important years for the Elwha River, and for salmon and steelhead on the West Coast. Those years are when the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, respectively, were fully deconstructed on Washington’s Elwha — and salmon and steelhead were able to pass them for the first time in a century.…
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Rising from the ashes
This is a special week for steelhead anglers, and others who care about the magnificent sea-run form of rainbow trout in its native range of the Pacific Northwest. On Friday at 5 p.m. PST, Wild Steelheaders United will launch "Rising from the Ashes," a new film on the resurgence of summer steelhead in Washington’s Elwha…
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The decade of recovery
I often think of my life in decade intervals. The first ten years was the goofball phase; 11-20 years old involved anything with a ball; 21-30 was consumed by conservation—you get the idea. If we are lucky, we will get eight or nine of these opportunities to think about the new decade in front of…
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