Given a clear path upstream after dam removal, Chinook salmon in the Elwha wasted no time swimming past the first dam and later the second. Yet, unlike steelhead, Chinook still have not ventured into the upper watershed in large numbers, according to recent surveys. Ongoing genetic studies are now trying to determine if the powerful spring Chinook that once fought their way through the river's upper rapids have become extinct, as many experts suspect.
Bull trout actually won the prize for being the first anadromous fish to pass upstream of Glines Canyon Dam, sneaking through before dam demolition was even complete. A few days after workers blasted away the last chunk of the dam, biologists noticed a Chinook salmon swimming in upstream waters. It was Sept. 2, 2014, when a team of volunteers was preparing to deploy a net to see what they might catch.
“I walked over to the edge of the stream, and right in front of me was a big, fat, bright female,” said Mel Elofson, assistant habitat manager for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. “It was like a godsend. This was something that my grandparents, aunts and uncles all wanted to see.”
Elofson, a tribal member, said the Elwha Dam was built while his grandparents were children. He recalls his grandmother, Louisa Sampson, telling him about the tragedy of seeing salmon leap up against an unyielding concrete wall. Tribal members, whose ancestors practiced fishing traditions for thousands of years, never lost hope that the dams would someday be gone.
“I used to hang out with the elders; they taught me how to fish,” he said, noting that his elders would have been delighted to see the return of the salmon. “I got to be their eyes,” he added. “I was ecstatic.”
Elofson said the female Chinook he saw was about 2½ feet long. A week later, biologists snorkeling above Glines Canyon spotted three Chinook, all between 2½ and 3 feet long. Still, the numbers of Chinook moving upstream remained relatively small.
Finding the early-migration gene in the remnant population of Elwha Chinook could provide hope that a growing population of spring Chinook might emerge over time.
More complete snorkel surveys in 2018 and 2019 showed that while fair numbers of Chinook were moving into spawning habitat above the lower Elwha Dam, few were making it upstream past the site of the former Glines Canyon Dam, and fewer still were occupying the 18 miles of upstream habitat. For the two years of surveys, snorkel teams counted fish in early September along 22 river segments, going from high elevations down to the river mouth. Similar surveys were conducted in 2008 and 2009 before dam removal.