State grants $11.9 million to eight organizations for salmon recovery projects in Skagit County

When the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Puget Sound Partnership awarded $81.5 million through 150 grants in 29 counties Sept. 18, they were sending $11,948,293 to eight organizations and institutions in Skagit County for recovering at-risk salmon species.

In a news release, Gov. Jay Inslee said, "These are important projects that will help us restore our salmon populations. They also provide many other benefits. When we clean up our rivers, we not only help salmon, we reduce flooding, help our communities adapt to climate change and preserve jobs that rely on healthy salmon and natural resources."

The funds into Skagit County are 14.7% of the total distributed across 29 counties. The 18 projects here are 12% of those funded. Sixty-six grants totaling $53.7 million will target projects in and around Puget Sound, Washington state's biggest estuary, the news release states.

The $3.8 million going to the Department of Fish and Wildlife is for restoring estuary habitat on Milltown Island in the South Fork Skagit River delta. The department will remove portions of the perimeter dike and cross-dike, excavate channels and tidal headwaters, manage weeds and plant native estuarine vegetation. The work will restore water, sediment and wood delivery to the 220-acre site allowing natural processes to maintain newly connected estuarine habitats.

The Lummi Nation has two grants totaling $2.1. Their $1.4 million grant will place 17 logjams and 37 habitat structures in the South Fork Nooksack River, north of Lyman. The Tribe will plant twenty-two acres of riverbank to restore spawning, rearing and holding habitat for Chinook salmon.

Their $950,771 project is to restore habitat in the South Fork Nooksack River, west of State Route 9, at Cavanaugh Island. It will also place logjams, 14, and plant trees and bushes on the river's banks.

The Skagit River System Cooperative received seven grants totaling $2.8 million with projects ranging from $150,000 to $1.9 million. The largest grant designs the restoration of Tenas Creek, a tributary of the Suiattle River. Their other projects are restorations of the middle Skagit River floodplain; the banks of Davis Slough and Barnaby Slough; replanting the banks of Alder Creek and the Skagit River; and planting and maintaining lands in the Skagit River basin and its watershed.

The SRSC provides natural resource management services for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

The Skagit Land Trust expects to buy 75 acres of riverfront and floodplain in the Skagit River watershed to conserve high-quality habitat and enable restoration of impacted habitat.

The Skagit County government's two grants are fish passage design for Mill Creek, $458,263 and Martin Slough, $391,000.

The Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group's three grants total $502,194. Its $224,000 grant is for treating invasive plants and replanting the floodplain and banks of the middle and upper Skagit River. The $150,000 award will help remove competing plants and controlling invasive weeds working with eight landowners on 121 acres of Skagit River floodplain and land along waterways. The $128,194 funds a feasibility study for reconnecting a historic tidal wetland with Bowman Bay.

The Upper Skagit Indian Tribe has $180,000 to improve habitat in Clark Creek and the nearby Cascade River by determining the preferred alternative for a suite of projects.

Seattle City Light has $62,120 to partner with Skagit Land Trust to buy eighteen acres of Skagit River waterfront and floodplain habitat near South Lyman Ferry Road and Cape Horn Road to conserve high-quality habitat in the Skagit River system.

Whatcom County organizations were awarded $13,686,204 for five projects, with almost $10 million to the Nooksack Indian Tribe for restoring the South Fork Nooksack River at Fish Camp reach.