State Awards more than $26 Million for Salmon Recovery Projects Statewide

For Release:
December 16, 2019

The Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board today announced the award of $26.1 million in grants for projects across the state aimed at bringing salmon back from the brink of extinction. This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the board’s creation and the suite of projects announced today brings the total amount of salmon recovery since the board’s start as follows:

713 barriers to migrating fish corrected, giving salmon access to 2,082 miles of habitat
537 miles of streams conserved to ensure they remain healthy habitat for generations of salmon to come
More than 48,500 acres of shorelines, estuaries, wetlands, and other stream habitat restored
More than 17,700 acres of land along rivers, wetlands, and estuaries cleared of invasive species

With today’s decisions, the board has approved a total of 3,093 grants and surpassed the $1 billion investment mark since 1999, including matching funds from grant recipients. “The work being done across the state on salmon recovery is critical,” said Gov. Jay Inslee. “These grants for on-the-ground projects will help us restore salmon to healthy levels that allow for both protection and a robust fishery. We must do everything we can to restore this beloved Washington icon and help orcas, which are starving due to lack of salmon, before it is too late.” “These grants create many other benefits for local communities, such as better water quality, less flooding, more resiliency to climate change and a boost to our statewide economy,” said Phil Rockefeller, chair of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board. “Since the board’s beginning, its grants have created or sustained more than 4,000 jobs and contributed to the state’s economy as grant recipients spend the money for products and services.” The Salmon Recovery Funding Board awarded grants to organizations for 96 projects in 28 of the state’s 39 counties. Grant recipients will use this funding to remove barriers that prevent salmon from migrating to and from the ocean, increase the types and amount of salmon habitat and conserve pristine areas.

Descriptions of Grants

Click below for details on each project:

For the first time, the board reserved funding for targeted investments in three areas where the species is closer to recovery goals and de-listing under the Endangered Species Act:

The Tri-State Steelheaders, Inc. will use $2.7 million to retrofit about 1 mile of a 2-mile concrete, flood control channel to allow fish passage in Mill Creek through Walla Walla. Often by mid-May, fish get trapped in the flood control channel because there isn’t enough water and what’s there is too warm and the fish die. Upstream of the channel is a critical and underused area for spawning and rearing. Restoring passage to upper Mill Creek provides an important recovery opportunity for steelhead and bull trout, both of which are species listed as threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The Kittitas County Conservation District will use $883,088 to correct four barriers to fish passage in several creeks in the Kittitas Valley near Ellensburg. The conservation district also will begin designs for removing three additional fish passage barriers. The district will be working with farmers to fix irrigation systems and make them more fish friendly. This work is part of a larger effort to improve fish passage in the Wilson-Naneum-Cherry watershed, which includes 394 square miles and about 270 stream miles, much of which is inaccessible because of barriers. The watershed is used by steelhead trout, which is a species listed as threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act, and by Chinook and coho salmon.

The Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group will use $2.7 million to design the removal and replacement of U.S Route 101 causeway and the reconnection of the north channel. Redesigning the crossing of the highway across the lower Duckabush River will allow natural processes to occur across the area and will reconnect the river and tidal habitats within the Duckabush Estuary. The river is used by Chinook and chum salmon and steelhead trout, all of which are listed as threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act, and by coho salmon, which are a federal species of concern.

How Projects are Chosen

Projects are selected by lead entities, which are watershed-based groups that include tribes, local governments, nonprofit organizations and citizens. This ensures that the projects selected are community priorities. Lead entities vet projects based on federally approved, regional salmon recovery plans and prioritize projects to submit to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board for funding. Regional salmon recovery organizations and the board review each project for cost-effectiveness and to ensure they will benefit salmon. “This community-based approach, combined with regional and state scientific review ensures that we are picking the projects that will benefit salmon the most,” said Kaleen Cottingham, director of the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, which administers the grants. “While salmon are not recovered yet, these grants have had a significant impact on slowing the decline of salmon and in some cases helping to bring them close to recovery goals. This is not easy work and change won’t happen quickly, but without these grants, it won’t happen at all.”

Why Save Salmon?

Washington salmon populations have been declining for generations. As Washington grew and built its cities and towns, it destroyed many of the places salmon need to live. In 1991, the federal government declared the first salmon as endangered. By the end of that decade, salmon and steelhead and bull trout populations were listed as threatened or endangered in three-quarters of the state. Those listings set off the formation of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board to oversee state and federal investments in salmon recovery. Funding for the grants comes from the Legislature-authorized sale of state bonds and from the federal Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, which National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service administers.