Steelhead come back
- Thread starter seascene
- Start date
A pristine river with no flood plain, no log jams or stumps, no sand and silt, lots of boulders and cobble. Ideal steelhead habitat.
The Tsitika, here on the island, had the same thing, until it was logged.
This video shows how resilient steelhead are and how important habitat is.
The Tsitika, here on the island, had the same thing, until it was logged.
This video shows how resilient steelhead are and how important habitat is.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
This such a great story that part of me thinks this is to good to last.
It will be interesting one to watch for the next 10 years.
The whole river runs through a state park. There in no logging whatsoever. I don't know of a single river system here on the island that has not been extensively logged. All the rivers that CRGreg reffered to have all been heavily logged. It is unlikely we will see anything similar here. That being said it is nice to see some good news on the steelhead front.
mbowers
Well-Known Member
Elwha River: An update on our summer steelhead journey
Our Science Director, John McMillan, shares some early findings from our snorkel surveys of the Elwha River's summer steelhead this past year…
www.wildsteelheaders.org
"Snorkeling the upper Elwha is unlike anywhere else I have been. The sheer number of juvenile- and trout-sized O. mykiss there is staggering"
I suspect the steelhead were always there just that the smolts that went over the dams could not make it back as steelhead to join the up river residents for spawning. Otherwise how could so many steelhead appear so soon if some rainbows hadn't left the river, even before the dams were removed?
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
I’m with Wildmanyeah on this....let’s see how things look in a decade before the champagne corks get popped. The 2021 Skeena steelhead returns that augered into the side of a steep cliff does not bode well for high seas steelhead survival, especially when the commercial threats in the main stem river were absent.
I’m waiting (with baited breath) for the return of wild winter steelhead to the Olympic Peninsula in the next few months....run size, at least as projected in one of the river systems, is supposed to be ”reasonable” .....whether the run turns out to match expectations or fall below expectations might help flesh out the story of high seas survival.
If I was going to invest research dollars, it would be studying ocean acidification and water temp fluctuations .....specifically in the Aleutian Gyre.
Why?
At the risk of sounding like a wet blanket, I’m not so sure that throwing 350 million more dollars at another dam demolition will pave the way for a magical regrowth of steelhead stocks in another system as it seems to have done on the Elwha, intact riparian habitat or no. Learning what is or isn’t impacting the runs on their actual high-seas migration should be at the forefront of dollars spent......otherwise, it could very well be that we’re pissing away dollars spent elsewhere, habitat renewal being at the top of the list
I just saw a huge and very expensive habitat project on the Duwamish river. An easy 26 million, bankrolled by the local FN, the Feds, and a tax levy on yours truly.
Major widening of the river with heavy equipment bank manipulation and large stacks of wood to create soft spots in the flow for downstream migrants
Looks great on paper.....but if the smolts that are supposed to benefit from all that $$$$ don’t get to climb out of the gravel as fry because mom and dad couldn’t make it out of the high seas back to the river due to changing PH levels, low dissolved oxygen in the water, and the resulting reduced forage fish and squid, those were wasted dollars
In 10 years I hope the Elwha data will show I’m absolutely wrong, but I wouldn’t take the bet
I’m waiting (with baited breath) for the return of wild winter steelhead to the Olympic Peninsula in the next few months....run size, at least as projected in one of the river systems, is supposed to be ”reasonable” .....whether the run turns out to match expectations or fall below expectations might help flesh out the story of high seas survival.
If I was going to invest research dollars, it would be studying ocean acidification and water temp fluctuations .....specifically in the Aleutian Gyre.
Why?
At the risk of sounding like a wet blanket, I’m not so sure that throwing 350 million more dollars at another dam demolition will pave the way for a magical regrowth of steelhead stocks in another system as it seems to have done on the Elwha, intact riparian habitat or no. Learning what is or isn’t impacting the runs on their actual high-seas migration should be at the forefront of dollars spent......otherwise, it could very well be that we’re pissing away dollars spent elsewhere, habitat renewal being at the top of the list
I just saw a huge and very expensive habitat project on the Duwamish river. An easy 26 million, bankrolled by the local FN, the Feds, and a tax levy on yours truly.
Major widening of the river with heavy equipment bank manipulation and large stacks of wood to create soft spots in the flow for downstream migrants
Looks great on paper.....but if the smolts that are supposed to benefit from all that $$$$ don’t get to climb out of the gravel as fry because mom and dad couldn’t make it out of the high seas back to the river due to changing PH levels, low dissolved oxygen in the water, and the resulting reduced forage fish and squid, those were wasted dollars
In 10 years I hope the Elwha data will show I’m absolutely wrong, but I wouldn’t take the bet
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Returning home: The Elwha's genetic legacy | Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Following dam removal, migratory salmon have been free to swim into the upper Elwha River for the first time in 100 years. Their actual behaviors and reproductive success may well be driven by changes in their genetic makeup. Our seven-part series 'Returning home' examines how the fish are doing...
www.eopugetsound.org
mbowers
Well-Known Member
"Now, thanks to cutting-edge genetic techniques, researchers have been piecing together the intricate genetic makeup of salmon before and after dam removal. They have identified, for example, some slight differences in the genome of certain populations confined above the upper dam versus those below the lower dam, with another identifiable group found between the dams."Returning home: The Elwha's genetic legacy | Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Following dam removal, migratory salmon have been free to swim into the upper Elwha River for the first time in 100 years. Their actual behaviors and reproductive success may well be driven by changes in their genetic makeup. Our seven-part series 'Returning home' examines how the fish are doing...
So which species of salmon survived between the dams and above the upper dam? I would have guessed only trout survived in those waters.
Sockeye may have survived into Kokanee?
I'm no steelhead/rainbow expert (Dave may be and decide to contribute to this discussion) but my understanding is that there is considerable plasticity and interbreeding between clades of rainbows/steelheads and their life histories, as well.
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