Fed stimulus money helping prep lower Elwha for dam removal
September 30th, 2009 - 4:00am
(Port Angeles) -- The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is using two million dollars in federal stimulus money to get the lower Elwha River ready for dam removal.
The tribe is preparing the river's floodplain for an influx of sediment expected to come downstream when the two dams on the river come out.
Tribe habitat program manager Mike McHenry says the tribe will be constructing engineered logjams, take out manmade dikes and culverts and plant native vegetation.
McHenry says all the work will help improve the river's function ahead of the dams' removal.
Crews already filled in an unused 1,500-foot-long hatchery outfall ditch that was built in the middle of the floodplain in 1977. McHenry says planners are using historic aerial photos to see how the lower river functioned as a natural floodplain.
McHenry says he expects all of the restoration work to help filter the dam sediments as it flows into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He says it will also help fish by giving them places to rest, feed and hide.
The Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon dams are scheduled for removal beginning in 2011.
The tribe has to use the two million dollars in stimulus money for the lower-river restoration project before the end of next year.
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