$12 million given for salmon

The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board awarded more than $12 million Tuesday to 39 projects designed to restore and conserve Puget Sound salmon habitat.

Nine of the projects, totaling about $1.35 million, are in Mason and Thurston counties. The state and federal grants are awarded through the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration fund created in 2007 as part of Gov. Chris Gregoire’s initiative to clean up Puget Sound.

In most cases, local governments, nonprofit agencies or tribes contribute matching money to the projects.

“The fund has already enabled implementation of more than 150 high-priority projects about Puget Sound to reconnect five floodplains, restore estuaries and remove barriers to fish passage,” said Puget Sound Partnership director David Dicks. “Further, these projects have created much-needed jobs.”

South Sound projects receiving funds include:

 • The South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group received $293,000 to remove fish-passage barriers in a tributary to Goldsborough Creek in Mason County.

 • The Skokomish Indian Tribe received $291,000 to help pay for restoration of the Skokomish River estuary, providing rearing habitat for chinook and summer chum salmon, which are both listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

 • The Capitol Land Trust secured $165,089 to remove a dirt dam at the northwest end of the Gull Harbor estuary in Budd Inlet. The dam blocks fish passage.

 • The Thurston Conservation District received $113,861 to design and secure permits to construct fish-friendly logjams in areas of the Deschutes River plagued by erosion.

John Dodge: 360-754-5445 jdodge@theolympian.com