DESCRIPTION
The goals of the Elwha Riparian Revegetation & Noxious Weed Control project are to control noxious weeds in riparian areas of the lower/middle Elwha watershed affected by the Elwha dams and plant 5,000 conifers in sparsely vegetated areas of the former reservoirs and dam-affected riparian areas of the Elwha watershed.
This project will support revegetation efforts associated with implementation of the Elwha Dam removals scheduled to begin in 2011. Under that project two hydroelectric dams will be removed on the Elwha River at River Mile 4.9 and 13.5. Dam removal will drain and expose two reservoirs surfaces that have accumulated ~21.5 million yd3 of fine sediment. A revegetation plan (Chenoweth et al. 2010) has been developed for the two reservoir surfaces, however due to limitations in project funding, only about half the monies necessary to achieve the project goals are provided. This project will supplement those efforts by funding a 4 person tribal revegetation crew to plant native vegetation in Aldwell reservoir following its draining in 2011-12 and to conduct control of exotic vegetation in the project area. The crew will be funded for seasonal revegetation activities in the calendar years 2012-2014, directly following reservoir dewatering. The crews activities will be guided by the goals of the Elwha Regetation Plan (Chenoweth et al. 2010) and directly supervised by ecologists at the LEKT and ONP.