North Olympic Peninsula agencies have received a total of $2,407,258 in state grants awarded by the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board from federal money.
The grants are part of $20.7 million given to agencies throughout the state to fix damaged rivers and streams, replace failing culverts and replant riverbanks with the goal of helping recover salmon from the brink of extinction, the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board said Monday.
Clallam County agencies have received $1,074,347.
Jefferson County organizations have received $1,332,911.
Jefferson County also will share an award with Mason County.
The Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group will use $126,745 to remove invasive knotweed from five river systems: the Union, Tahuya, Dewatto and the Big and Little Quilcene rivers. The Hood Canal group will contribute $110,880 from a federal grant and donations of equipment, labor and materials.
The grant awards are funded by the federal Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. The funding was approved by Congress earlier this year.
The awards announced Monday are in addition to awards that the Salmon Recovery Board reported in October.
Those grants — in which $696,459 went to three Peninsula projects — were funded by the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund.
Then, 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.
This week’s awards are to projects developed by local watershed groups to develop projects based on regional recovery plans, which are approved by the federal government.
Individual projects are reviewed by regional salmon recovery organizations and the state’s technical review panel before awards are made.
“This local, state and federal partnership has made Washington a national model in salmon recovery,” said Steve Tharinger, chairman of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.
Grant awards are listed by county.
Clallam County
• Jamestown S’Klallam tribe: $50,000.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe will use this grant to build logjams in McDonald Creek to increase salmon habitat. The project is the second phase of a plan to return habitat to the creek.
The tribe will contribute $13,277 in donations of labor and materials, while the state Department of Natural Resources is donating wood.
• Lower Elwha Klallam tribe: $578,048.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe will use this grant to place logjams in the Elwha River. Removal of two hydroelectric dams is set to begin in 2011, and this project is an extension of the tribe’s efforts to restore the floodplain of the lower Elwha before the dams are removed.
This project will extend restoration activities to a previously untreated portion of the river.
The tribe will contribute $173,209 from federal and state grants and donations of labor and materials.
• North Olympic Land Trust: $213,799.
The North Olympic Land Trust will use this grant to buy and conserve 0.8 miles on the Pysht River and 0.5 miles of tributaries to permanently protect the river’s floodplain and channel migration area.
The land trust will buy about 37 acres and protect another 57 acres using a voluntary land preservation agreement that will prevent development.
This is the second phase of a multiphase, multiyear vision to protect up to 10 river miles reaching from the Pysht River’s estuary, which is protected by a Cascade Land Conservancy easement.
The land trust recently purchased 22 acres of nearby Pysht River floodplain using a $417,459 grant.
The land trust will contribute $277,331 in a state grant and donated property interest from the sellers.
• Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition: $70,000.
The Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition will use the money to complete a preliminary design for a project to upgrade a concrete fishway in Mill Creek, a tributary of the Bogachiel River near Forks, and a culvert crossing under Russell Road.
The edges of the concrete fishway are being undercut, and two culverts are likely to fail soon.
• Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition: $162,500.
The Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition will replace a culvert on Camp Creek, a tributary to the Sol Duc River, with a 70-foot-long bridge.
The work will open nearly 1.5 miles of spawning and rearing habitat for coho, Chinook and steelhead trout.
The coalition will contribute $87,500.
Jefferson County
• Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group: $35,000
This grant will go toward planning for conserving the Big Quilcene Estuary
The salmon group hopes to buy 20 acres of land along the lower Big Quilcene River, below Linger Longer Road and within the estuary, and restore it for improved salmon habitat.
• Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group: $35,820
This grant will fund the placement of logjams in the Little Quilcene River between Center Road and U.S. Highway 101 to improve salmon habitat.
The group will contribute $30,785 from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Landowner Incentive Program.
• North Olympic Salmon Coalition: $199,295.
The funding will pay for designing projects to improve the salt marsh habitat in Snow Creek on land owned by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Jefferson Land Trust.
The coalition will contribute $24,925 from a federal grant.
• North Olympic Salmon Coalition: $70,042.
The money will fund planting the shorelines of Salmon and Snow creeks.
The coalition will contribute $14,000 in staff labor, a federal grant and donated equipment.
• Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition: $300,055.
The grant will fund replacement of three undersized culverts on Donkey Creek.
The culverts are under Clearwater Road, south of Quinault Ridge Road, and now block fish passage on Donkey Creek.
The coalition will contribute $113,987 in cash, donated labor and another grant.
• State Parks and Recreation Commission: $390,000.
The commission will buy 129 acres along the south side of the Dosewallips River, another phase in extending a protected corridor for about five miles from Dosewallips State Park at the mouth of the river to Olympic National Forest.
State parks will contribute $351,225 in donated labor and a state grant.
• Wild Fish Conservancy: $302,699.
The Wild Fish Conservancy will place logjams in the middle Dosewallips River in Olympic National Forest.
The conservancy will contribute $97,000 from federal funding through the Pacific Salmon Treaty.
In October, the Wild Fish Conservancy was granted $97,000 to place logjams in the middle and upper reaches of the Dosewallips River in the national forest.
Information about the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Recreation and Conservation Office is available online at www.rco.wa.gov.
