SHELTON, Wash. - Biologists returning from a fish trap in the middle of Goldsborough Creek in Shelton are smiling. They have a bucket of full of wiggling, healthy fish.
The young Coho salmon and cutthroat trout are among a new generation of ocean-going fish that are thriving in spawning grounds once sealed off by a small dam. The dam was removed ten years ago opening up several miles of river that were blocked to migrating fish.
"This was a big success," said a smiling John Konovsky, Environmental Program Manager for the Squaxin Island Tribe. "There were thousands of fish using this creek, now there are tens of thousands."
Goldsborough Creek has become one of the few in the Northwest with a growing population of Coho salmon and is now a classroom to study effects of what might happen next year when the two dams on the Elwha will become the nation's largest ever dam removal project.
If Goldsborough Creek is any indication of what's to come, it may mean a mighty return of one of the world's most productive salmon rivers.
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