SBD,

A tangential point: you mention 50 year license cycles for dams. That only applies to non-federal dams that have to obtain licenses from FERC. The four lower Columbia, plus Chief Joe and Grand Coulee, and the four lower Snake dams are federal dams, owned/operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation, hence no FERC licenses, ever.
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Regarding the Elwha hatchery, part of the reason is as an insurance policy. Rivrguy is correct in that many compromises were made to obtain agreements. Another part of the reason is to support harvest fisheries in the Elwha as soon as possible after the 5 year no-fishing agreement concludes. Depending on what happens, the no-fishing could be extended, but only by consensus of the affected parties. Those who are betting on fishing, sooner, rather than later, are placing the correct bets. Unfortunately.

One thing not much discussed in regards to the upper Elwha resident rainbow trout, they are just as likely, if not more so, to create a summer steelhead run as a wild winter run population. Plus, given the poor success of PS steelhead in general these days, I think there is a good chance that the resident rainbow population will remain robust and end up inhabiting all of the Elwha right down into tidewater.

Sg