Elwha project manager, estimates it will take 25 to 30 years for the river to return to its natural state
“Almost entirely contained within Washington’s Olympic National Park, the Elwha is untouched aside from the concrete structures that have reduced its wild salmon spawning population from 400,000 to about 3,000. Three of the salmon species native to the river — chinook, steelhead and bull trout — are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Amy Grondin, who operates a commercial fishing boat with her husband an hour away in Port Townsend, said removing the dams will ultimately produce more salmon for her and others to catch. “I’m an hour away. But an hour away is nothing, especially for salmon,” she said.
Brian Winter, the Elwha project manager, estimates it will take 25 to 30 years for the river to return to its natural state. Once it does, he predicted that the hundreds of thousands of salmon traversing the river will provide sustenance for trees growing along the river’s banks, orcas swimming in Puget Sound and others.
“We literally are restoring an ecosystem from mountain to sea,” he said.”
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