The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe says that changes to the Elwha River are occurring faster than anticipated since deconstruction of the two fish-blocking dams on the Elwha River started in 2011. The most recent milestone is the 4,700 chinook salmon that returned to the river this year – the most since 1992. “The overall return […]
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe youth collected data for the U.S. Geological Survey by flying a kite over the Elwha River this summer. As part of a science-based summer camp focusing on the Elwha River restoration project, the kite was collecting data about the ever-changing Lake Aldwell delta. The red kite had a small digital camera […]
Chinook salmon are returning once again to the Elwha River, with the river in its second year of being free of the Elwha Dam. The Glines Canyon Dam is not yet completely removed, but the river is expected to be completely free flowing by the end of 2014. From The Peninsula Daily News: One year […]
EarthFix (KCTS) has a two-part series about the latest effort on the habitat restoration and fish studies taking place during the Elwha River Restoration project. Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe habitat program manager Mike McHenry is quoted in both stories. Mike McHenry, a fisheries habitat biologist with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, strides across a newly […]
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe elder Adeline Smith died March 19, 2013. She was 95. She was known for helping preserve the Tse-whit-zen village site and the Klallam Language, and played a part in the removal of the Elwha River dams. From the Peninsula Daily News: PORT ANGELES — Adeline Smith, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribal […]
The premiere of the documentary, Back to the River, was held at the Seattle Aquarium Feb. 2. The movie details the story of the treaty rights struggle from the pre-Boldt era to tribal and state co-management. The movie includes the voices and personal accounts of tribal fishers, leaders and others active in the treaty fishing […]
Standing on the Altair Bridge in Olympic National Park, members of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe wildlife staff peer into the rushing Elwha River below, trying to find signs of river otters in the riffles. Suddenly, a couple of smooth brown heads break the surface, one playfully pouncing on the other before they dive back […]
The dramatic sediment plume forming at the mouth of the Elwha River the past year has tribal and federal scuba divers looking for changes to the marine habitat. The plume is the result of thousands of cubic yards of sediment that have been unleashed from behind the river’s Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, which have […]
Olympic National Park reported this week that its biologists have seen adult chinook salmon swimming two miles upstream from the park’s boundary in the Elwha River, above the old Elwha Dam site. This comes two months after steelhead were seen swimming just above the old dam site by Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and National Oceanic and […]
A 1,200-foot stretch of Ediz Hook, a popular beach destination in Port Angeles, is undergoing habitat restoration this summer to benefit wildlife and people. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are restoring the popular “A-frame” site on the spit, a former log dump area that was used until […]
