MOUNT VERNON — The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board announced this week that it is awarding $26 million to projects throughout the state to help bring salmon back from the brink of extinction.
The grants include $2 million for four projects in Skagit County, in areas from Marblemount to Mount Vernon.
The largest, a $750,000 grant, will allow the Skagit River System Cooperative to complete the first phase of habitat restoration in the Barnaby Reach east of Rockport.
The Barnaby Reach is a network of side channels, sloughs and wetlands left behind as the Skagit River changed its course over time, and an abandoned hatchery facility there has long blocked fish passage in the area.
Removing a culvert and the hatchery infrastructure will open about 33 acres of habitat to young fish, including threatened chinook salmon and steelhead, and coho salmon, according to the project description.
This year’s grants will also help the Skagit Land Trust complete a purchase of 62 acres of fish habitat near Marblemount; the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group complete work to restore wetlands around Britt Slough southwest of Mount Vernon; and multiple groups work to replace invasive plants with native trees in areas along the Skagit River.
Skagit Watershed Council Executive Director Richard Brocksmith said in a news release that combined with about $684,200 in matching funds from the agencies sponsoring the local projects, the grants mean at least $2.6 million will be invested in salmon restoration work and the local economy.
“These newly funded projects not only implement the most beneficial actions currently possible for chinook salmon and Southern Resident orca whale recovery, but also continue the necessary work to adapt to climate changes our communities are already feeling such as warming stream temperatures and increasing flood risks,” Brocksmith said.
Since the Salmon Recovery Funding Board was formed in 1999 it has invested $1 billion statewide. Brocksmith said in the Skagit watershed there has been about $96 million in grants from the state board and matches from local project sponsors invested in 170 salmon-focused conservation and restoration projects.
“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,” Kaleen Cottingham, director of the state Recreation and Conservation Office that administers the grants, said in a news release from the organizations. “This is not easy work and change won’t happen quickly, but without these grants, it won’t happen at all.”
