Chinook Salmon Recovery on the Post-Dam Elwha River
Vložit
- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- Video version of my Honors Thesis for the Washington State University Honors College. This thesis was presented live on Zoom Tuesday, April 6th, at 9:00 AM. The project was Passed with Distinction, and the corresponding paper was published in the Washington State Libraries Research Exchange. (doi.org/10.7273/000003760)
- Sport
As your Honors Advisor, it was my pleasure to work with you and assist with some additional tasks like asking you to make this video BEFORE you presented to the committee. You did it and made your presentation match the great thesis you wrote. You passed with Distinction because it is who you are: a Distinguished Person.
That was a good report and recap of current conditions. I visited the Elwha prior to dam removal and remember a sight that will stay with me the rest of my life. You could walk on the lower dam and get a view of the river below. So, when I was there in early fall I walked out and viewed this beautiful river scene that was very impressive. What I did not expect to see were salmon swimming in circles at the base of the dam looking for a way to get past it. They were swimming endlessly in circles and it struck me as very sad. That event helped solidify my opposition to dams.
Thank you for sharing that story, allowing fish access to historic habitat is a great way to help bring back historic numbers!
I think that just like the worry about how fast the rivers recover (faster then everyone thought) that the fish recovery will be much faster then expected
That was very well presented and very informative. Thank you for posting.
Thanks for checking it out!
I enjoyed this. I can say from firsthand experience on the effects of the debris in the lower Elwha area. I lived there during this time and it was an incredible sight to see. Every morning and evening presented a new beach. The sand and wood that showed up one day was gone by I got home from work. In the mornings, there started to be a collection of eagles hunting their breakfast and sunbathing. I started to see the beach grow and grow. More seagulls also started to show up as well as seeing for the first time seals on the beach. there was obviously some food and nutrients that brought these creatures here.
nevertheless, It was such a privilege to experience the re-birth of the Elwha. and your report was a pleasure to watch. I really love what your honors Advisor said about you too. That was moving! I was just there a couple months ago and got to sleep on the beach and wake up to the beautiful sun. Thank you friend. May our paths meet!
I'm not here to promote my channel but I did a video of Elwha beach while i was there and I think you may enjoy it very much. czcams.com/video/ghqHDmNHBQ4/video.html
Thank you for sharing your first-hand account of the evolution of the freed river, as well as your beautiful video. It is inspiring how the restoration of the Elwha has touched so many lives.
I don't think just removing the dams WE made is enough.
I think we also need to re-introduce Beavers.
I also think that the removal of the dams will have further beneficial effects on the local environment. The increase in the size of the Elwha Delta looks like some Prime Real Estate for Geoducks. YUM!
But we also don't want to get too crazy on those damn Dam removals, either. Dumping that much sediment into the Puget Sound and Hood Canal at once would definitely be counterproductive.
I am Captain Obvious, here to state The Obvious. Because one thing I have learned, the hard way, is that sometimes The Obvious is one of the easiest things to overlook.
A marvelous job, and I hope to soon congratulate you for your Hooding Ceremony!
Thank you!
Excellent presentation. The Elwha deserves it's freedom after so many years of being split into bits. Thanks for documenting the recovery process.
Thanks for the kind words!
Good job! I hope to see more updates for 2022. This is a very important project. Hopefully we can get salmon back in the Salmon river if we can free the Columbia.
Thanks for your comment, I am also hopeful a new range report will be put together. I agree and have been recently working on some Snake River advocacy. Have a great day!
Elwha is free and salmon comming back baby thanks for making our oceans better
I hope you or another student can do a follow up report.
Many dams are being removed now as they are aging out and out weighing the energy production benefits.
I've noticed in other dam removals that it's becoming more effective and the volunteers assist in many capacities. The assistance of native peoples reseeding also helps in ecosystem recovery.
Thanks for having your paper available on YT.
Good to know. Unsurprisingly, that criticism arise from the impatient.
Thanks for watching! Hopefully we will see continued progress in the years to come.
Best of luck Dude!!
Thank you!
Great work, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Nice report!
Thanks for checking it out!
Bravo!
Tholen I happened upon your video by chance. You did an amazing job with your research and presentation. Thank you. You won a new subscriber.
Great Thesis, we moved to the area recently and hike along the river, great to hear the history of the damns and about recovery of the fish. We have seen a few salmon in the river ourselves between the two damns on hikes.
Thank you! That is great to hear!
Excellent presentation. I've been saying for many decades that the way forward environmentally is now to walk ourselves back. Restoring salmon is a BIG part of that walk. Restoring the forests of the globe is another. Of course with all that said if we don't learn to cooperate, to endeavor collectively to a common beneficiality of purpose none of it will matter. Escaping in space ships is not an option.
I couldn't agree more! Thanks for watching!
Well Done Presentation!
Informative report. Thanks. It's encouraging to see rivers return to their natural state and to see salmon making a comeback.
I was hoping to see some more recent information on the impact of the Elwha dam removal. Thank you!
Thank you! There have been some interesting new papers coming out since I put out this report. I am also working on a new project and will post an update when I have results to report. Have a great day!
Great news overall. The post dam removal seasons were needed to flush the accumulated silt and gravel and bring it down to the mouth. Nice to see the former lake beds returning to natural greenery to help stabilize the banks. One thing I do remember are the giant black salamanders I would see swimming in the water along the shady banks of Lake Mills (upstream lake). Hope they found a home (post lake).
I hope so too! Have a great day!
yes...more fish for our grandchildren
Projects like this provide hope for the future of pacific salmon!
Thank you for putting this on youtube. I was interested to know the location of the dams on the river system and to see if the location of the dam in the river that impacted the amount of sediment. Once the dams are removed seeing the shore full of sediment was nice and made me appreciate the need for sediment as well as logs placed in river beds. It is great to see people committed to the environment and ways we can maintain the natural beauty of the pacific northwest. Keep up the good work and commitment to the environment.
Thanks for your comment Andy! We are starting some new work on the Elwha and I am thinking about making a video update soon!
surely we can wait a few extra years before fishing? some of Columbia tributaries below the Bonneville dam could be targeted to create unobstructed environments?
The fishing closure has been extended to at least July 2022, we were very glad to hear it!
What a thrilling story
I just watched the dam removal and as an angler, had to follow the recovery of the native fish. I'm going to make it a point to follow the Elwha project annually. Lastly you mention it will take 100 years to reach natural numbers, do the oceans have 100 years of life left? Nice to see someone has optimism!
The angling community is integral to recovery projects! Thank you for supporting native fish recovery. There is some great work being done to protect salmon during the saltwater portion of their migrations, we can only hope both aspects of their journey continue to support their presence.
Native fish? How can you have native fish when dam made them extinct.
@@cammontreuil7509 The dam did not make the entire species extinct. It only made them "Extinct" on THAT RIVER.
@@TimeSurfer206 strange comment.
If we (human) give a chance to Nature that will find ways to recover but it will take time as human has ruined so much on the Elwha ecosystem. It will take several decades to recover the biodiversity of this area. We including politicians need to be patient. We won't be able to see to it but our future generations will be able to enjoy the beauty of it. I am so glad to see you have this subject as your Thesis. Hope you find success and fulfillment in your endeavour!
Thank you for your comment and support!
fascinating story; congratulations on completing this thesis work and making it publically available! Access to this kind of story should add strength to the movement for habitat restoration on a broader scale, not only for keystone species, but all the other beneficiaries within the biological communities that inhabit the same environment.
Congratulations.
Thanks!
If we REALLY want to do something about replenishing stocks of salmon in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest, we are going to have to stop the groundfish trawlers in the Gulf Of Alaska, with their massive (and wasted) bycatch harvesting of salmon in their massive trawler nets. We can, and should repair the rivers, tributaries and watersheds, but until we stop those trawlers, the salmon will continue to decline....forever.
The mice killed me, i can not tolerate that deep.
Well done.
Using hatchery chinook salmon is the main reason it will take 100 years for complete restoration of chinook salmon in the Elwha River. The quicker they eliminate hatchery chinook salmon the faster the wild chinook salmon are restored in the Elwha River.
100 years not 99 not 101 nobody knows this sort of time estimate. In 100 years since 1922 things all over the world have changed, so real scientists do not make these sort of statement predictions, stick to 10 or 20 or maybe 30 years on this subject
That's absolutely false hatchery reform and sending surplus hatchery fish to the spawning grounds will save wild Chinook, unfortunately there's too much money in endangered salmon and Steelhead runs and they aren't willing to follow the science.
"Hatchery produced salmon and steelhead successfully established
to provide harvest fisheries often have had negative impacts on wild
conspecifics because management decisions and hatchery operations
were unrelated to the biological needs of either the introduced or the
recipient populations. Reforms, therefore, are necessary in the man-
agement of fisheries that will address the biological needs of
anadromous salmonid populations, and reforms are necessary in
hatchery programs that will assure hatchery fish are compatible
genetically and behaviorally with the recipient population.
Artificially propagated salmon and steelhead populations repre-
sent the evolutionary legacy and genetic constitution of the native
fish from which they originated. Hatchery fish, therefore, can main-
tain population sizes sufficiently large to avoid inbreeding and
genetic drift, maintain and increase genetic diversity, and provide
security against risk of extinction by supplementing, enhancing, and
otherwise sustaining the parent population. Excess hatchery fish
from the local population should not be prevented from spawning in
the wild and contributing to the wild segment of the population"
salmonchronicles.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/brannon-afs-hatchery-study.pdf
Interesting.
Thanks for watching!
X👍❤️💪🎥🇦🇺
Got it Tholen - What did the Chinese do different in the Tree Gorges Dam?
They have a Fish race up the side beside the ship lift.
Got it Tholen Blasko Got it! we as Humans are going to make a difference on earth so
Is't it Our Personal Generational Job to work out how to make a fish stairs.
Got it Tholen - Frankly the Fish need to get up there but that does not include taking dam's out How did the Chinese do it?
Say...How about getting some of the Kenai River King Salmon into the gene pool...Get some fertilized eggs and transplant?
czcams.com/video/kyeQ1Xwvpw4/video.html
The real story of the Elwha River. Eliminate fishing/overfishing and fish come back. Salmon populations will decline again once tribal fishing is opened back up, this is inevitable as the Tribes and State have demonstrated their lack of competence in managing fisheries.
Good. Now fine yourself $50.00 for every cliche (one word and phrases) you used, then start again.
The salmon are back in big numbers don’t listen to the idiots who say otherwise, plenty of trout too.