PORT ANGELES — Plans are in the works to decommission the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s first fish hatchery.
The hatchery, built in 1978, was replaced by a new one last May as part of the $325 million federal Elwha River restoration project.
The tribe kept the water flowing through the old hatchery, on Hatchery Road near the tribal center, and into Bosco Creek, connected to the Elwha River, expecting fish to continue to follow the scent of the water to return there when spawning.
The tribe planned to collect the returning fish and bring them to its new hatchery on Stratton Road.
Robert Elofson, the tribe’s river restoration program director, said the fish are instead choosing to come to the new hatchery, possibly following the fish food that makes its way from the hatchery into the river.
Elofson said the old hatchery’s fish ponds likely will be filled in, but offices will continue to be used by the tribe’s Natural Resources Department.
There is no timeline established, he said.
The new hatchery, funded by the federal government, cost $16.4 million to build and is three times larger than the old one.
The new hatchery is being used to kick-start restoration of the salmon runs on the river as two dams are removed.
Between 300,000 and 400,000 salmon are expected to return annually in a few decades after the dams are removed.
Now, 5,000 return each year.
The Elwha Dam, located at 5 miles upriver from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, is scheduled to be fully demolished in early 2013.
The taller Glines Canyon Dam, located in Olympic National Park, will take another year to remove.
Six hundred coho salmon were released into tributaries between the two dams.
An additional 20 were released into Lake Mills above Glines Canyon Dam.
Those fish have produced about 100 salmon redds that will help repopulate the upper reaches of the river.
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