Two Jefferson County projects are to receive more than $225,000 for salmon habitat restoration as part of $61million in grants announced this week by the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Puget Sound Partnership.

The funding supports projects across 30 counties, aimed at reversing declining salmon populations that are vital to the state’s ecosystems, fishing industries and tribal communities.

The 10,000 Years Institute, a Washington nonprofit focused on ecological restoration, was awarded $86,060 to continue efforts to remove invasive plants along the Snahapish River, a tributary of the Clearwater River, in western Jefferson County.

According to the project description, the group will “control reed canarygrass and other non-native plants along the banks of the Snahapish River to protect rare, high-quality fish habitat and restore natural river processes.”

The Snahapish River supports Chinook and coho salmon, as well as steelhead trout, all of which are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.The river also supports cutthroat trout and Pacific lamprey.

Additionally, the Hoh Indian Tribe is set to receive $139,991 to develop preliminary designs for replacing a culvert, which will restore fish passage in Ruby Creek, a tributary of the Hoh River. The culvert currently in place was installed in 2021 as an emergency repair following a flood that washed out Oil City Road.

According to the grant description, “The culvert completely blocks fish because it is too high. It has not been fish-passable since the previous culvert was installed in 1998.”  

Replacing the culvert would restore fish access for more than a mile of habitat for bull trout, coho salmon and steelhead trout, reducing the likelihood that the road could wash out again.

“These grants fund important work,” said Jeff Breckel, chair of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board. “They are funding organizations to undo the damage we have done to our rivers, bays and shorelines in the past and helping us make our waterways more hospitable to salmon.”

“Recovering salmon in Puget Sound is urgent work,” said Larry Epstein, deputy director of the Puget Sound Partnership. “We have seen significant declines in salmon populations, and we cannot afford to lose ground. We also have seen that when we do the right things in the right places, salmon can begin to recover.”

The Salmon Recovery Funding Board was established by the Washington State Legislature in 1999 to allocate state and federal funds for salmon recovery projects. Since then, projects across the state have included planting streamside forests, reconnecting floodplains, improving fish passage and restoring estuaries.