The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board has selected the South Santiam Watershed Council to receive a Salmon License Plate grant.
Salmon License Plate revenues are generated from the extra fee Oregonians pay when they purchase Salmon Plates for their vehicles.
The grant, titled “Middle Crabtree and Upper Thomas Creek Riparian Restoration,” totals $148,834 and will restore native vegetation on 25 acres adjacent to two South Santiam River tributaries that “provide important spawning and rearing habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed spring Chinook Salmon and winter steelhead, which will benefit water quality in addition to improving fish habitat in Linn County,” according to an OWEB statement.
“This project is a great investment of the state’s Salmon License Plate dollars,” said OWEB Executive Director Meta Loftsgaarden. “This investment benefits spring Chinook Salmon and winter Steelhead, while also supporting the local natural resource economy.”
In addition to the Middle Crabtree and Upper Thomas project, the OWEB Board selected three other projects to be awarded Salmon License Plate funding:
– Walker Creek Fish Passage Improvement – Siuslaw Watershed Council (Lane County) – a $260,837 project to replace an undersized and failing culvert on Walker Creek in the Siuslaw watershed and restore passage for Coho Salmon to 1.5 miles of high-quality spawning and rearing habitat;
– Butcherknife Creek Culvert Replacement – Applegate Partnership (Josephine County) – a $153,731 project to replace a fish passage barrier culvert with a 14’x36’ bridge on Butcherknife Creek, a tributary to Waters Creek in the Applegate River watershed, which will restore access to more than 2.5 miles of cool water, “high value” Coho Salmon habitat;
– Fishers Bend Phase II Side Channel Restoration – Clackamas River Basin Council (Clackamas County) – a $186,854 multi-stakeholder cooperative effort to create off-channel habitat for threatened salmonids on the lower Clackamas River, which is a priority migration corridor and rearing habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed salmon and steelhead.
Salmon License Plate income totaled $250,000 for the grant cycle, so each of the identified projects is only partially funded with license plate revenues. The rest comes from a combination of Lottery and federal funding.