OLYMPIA — The state salmon Recovery Funding Board has awarded more than $12 million for 39 salmon protection projects in the state, with $696,459 going to three projects on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Clallam County received $599,459 for two projects, on the Dungeness and Pysht rivers, while Jefferson County was given $97,000 for a Dosewallips River project.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, based in Blyn, was granted $182,000 to buy and protect land along the Dungeness River.
The land includes 27 acres of forest and side channel habitat bordering a half-mile of river, and includes nine-tenths of a mile of river side channel next to other protected land.
Within this reach, the river is used by chinook, coho, chum and pink salmon, as well as steelhead and cutthroat and bull trout for spawning and rearing.
The tribe will contribute $60,000 from a federal grant.
Funding for this grant comes from the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund.
Pysht River
North Olympic Land Trust, based in Port Angeles, received $417,459 to buy and conserve 3.3 miles on the Pysht River.
The land trust plans to buy about 37 acres and protect another 57 acres using a voluntary land preservation agreement that will prevent development.
The land contains critical spawning habitat.
The land trust will contribute $73,670 in donated property interest.
Funding for this grant comes from the restoration Fund and state funds.
Dosewallips River
The Wild Fish Conservancy was granted $97,000 to place logjams in the middle and upper reaches of the Dosewallips River in the Olympic National Forest to create habitat for chinook salmon.
Logjams slow the river, creating places for salmon to rest and hide from predators.
This grant is from the Puget Sound Critical Stock Program.
Other projects
Whatcom County projects received the most funding, at $2.6 million. That amount includes nearly $1 million for restoring the Nooksack River at Lower Canyon Creek.
Other big projects getting funds include the Nature Conservancy in Snohomish County, which will receive $1 million for restoring Port Susan Bay Estuary; and Orting in Pierce County, which will receive $1.22 million to build a setback levee in the Puyallup River.
Steve Tharinger is the chairman of the salmon board.
Tharinger is also one of three Clallam County commissioners and a Democratic candidate running against Jim McEntire, a Republican and retired Coast Guard captain, for a 24th District seat in the state House.
“Without grants like these, there would be no hope that we ever would recover salmon from the brink of extinction,” Tharinger said in a statement.
Salmon were first put on the federal list of endangered species in 1991.
