County receives more grants than any other county in the state

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Jefferson County received more than 10 percent of the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board’s $14.6 million in grants announced at the end of 2016.

Of the $1,553,093 that was awarded to county projects to restore salmon habitat and bring the fish back from the brink of extinction, $797,916 went to the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group, which administered four of the seven projects that were awarded grants.

The Wild Fish Conservancy, the nonprofit 10,000 Years Institute and Jefferson County itself administered the remaining three projects.

Of all seven projects, state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) communications manager Susan Zemek noted that the three most expensive were the county’s $202,926 project to conserve the lower Big Quilcene floodplain, the Wild Fish Conservancy’s $389,251 project to restore the Dosewallips floodplain and estuary, and the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group’s $725,473 project for conservation and restoration of about 100 acres of farmland in the Moon Valley reach of the Big Quilcene River.

“It’s unusual for a smaller county to receive such a disproportionate amount of state grant funding,” Zemek said. “Jefferson County has some of the larger and more sophisticated salmon recovery projects in the state, in part because they’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Indeed, Zemek noted that even the more costly and far-reaching projects from this latest wave are merely the culmination of years’ worth of work.

“The Dosewallips floodplain and estuary restoration is actually one of the smaller portions of the Wild Fish Conservancy’s ongoing work since 2002,” Zemek said. “They’re all part of larger projects to restore river processes and the overall landscape.”

Funds for the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group’s other projects include $29,436 to buy 2.4 acres in the estuary and historic floodplain of the lower Duckabush River; $25,398 in partnership with the county conservation district and land trust to design and secure permits for habitat restoration and the removal of fish traps in the lower Duckabush River; and $17,609 to study surf smelt and Pacific sand lance in the nearshore of Hood Canal.

The 10,000 Years Institute is to use its $163,000 grant to remove invasive weeds in 38 miles of shoreline forest along the Hoh River’s floodplain and seven large tributaries.

Although Zemek believes salmon recovery efforts have made progress overall within the state over the past two decades, she acknowledges that factors such as population growth and climate change have at least partly counteracted the effects of that work.

“There are definite signs of improvement,” Zemek said. “Two of our salmon populations are near their goals.”

Zemek elaborated that the recovery goal for the Hood Canal summer chum population was between 18,600 and 21,500, while its actual number of fish in 2015 was 31,219. Likewise, the recovery goal for the Strait of Juan de Fuca’s summer chum population was between 4,500 and 5,100, while its actual number of fish in 2015 was 15,664.

However, Zemek reports that a number of other salmon populations are still failing.

To that end, Kaleen Cottingham, director of RCO, explained that prospective grant awardees go through “a very rigorous process” to ensure that their local communities support them, as well as that they’re scientifically valid and cost-effective.

“This is a bottom-up approach based on regional recovery plans, with checks and balances to ensure we invest the money very wisely,” Cottingham said.

Salmon species were first declared endangered by the federal government in 1991. By the end of the 1990s, salmon and bull trout were listed as threatened or endangered in three-quarters of the state. This helped inspire the formation of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, to oversee the investment of state and federal funds for salmon recovery.