Thirteen projects that support salmon recovery in the Snoqualmie and South Fork Skykomish watersheds have been awarded $872,286 in Cooperative Watershed Management (CWM) grants.
The Snoqualmie Watershed Forum recommended funding for the 13 projects that include salmon monitoring, community education, habitat restoration, land acquisition, and fish passage projects. With funding in place, some projects will begin as early as this year.
“The Cooperative Watershed Management Grant Program has been instrumental in helping us build partnerships with the tribes, nonprofits and cities in our area,” said Elissa Ostergaard, the Snoqualmie Watershed Forum salmon recovery manager. “It also brings our partners to the salmon recovery table where we all have to make some hard decisions to provide funding for projects that are the highest priority for improving local conditions for our salmon.”
The CWM grants are funded each year by the King County Flood Control District and are critical for leveraging funding at both the state and federal levels. The CWM grant program has been funded by the Flood Control District since 2012 and, before that, by the King Conservation District.
“I am so pleased with the high-quality projects that were funded by this year’s Cooperative Watershed Management Grants,” said King County Flood Control District Supervisor Kathy Lambert. “The partnerships built and the dollars leveraged by these investments will continue to provide increasing benefits throughout the Snoqualmie and South Fork Skykomish watersheds.”
Project award highlights:
• $99,898 to Sound Salmon Solutions to conduct 11.4 acres of restoration along the mainstem Snoqualmie River that involves planting trees along the river banks to create shade, which in turn creates cool water needed for salmon survival;
• $64,512 to the Tulalip Tribes for its beaver relocation program, now in its fourth year, which traps lowland beavers – often a nuisance to farmers in the Snoqualmie Watershed – and relocates them to small streams on federal lands where their dams create pools where young salmon can thrive;
• $60,000 to the Tulalip Tribes to continue their yearly count of young salmon heading downstream for Puget Sound from the Snoqualmie River and its tributaries;
• $75,000 to Forterra to purchase 26 acres of high-quality habitat along the South Fork of the Skykomish River near Baring; and
• $28,431 to King County to measure fish density in edge habitats at the Upper Carlson Restoration Project along the mainstem Snoqualmie River.
For questions about the Snoqualmie Watershed Forum contact Elissa Ostergaard at 206-477-4792 or elissa.ostergaard@kingcounty.gov.
