NOAA-NFWF Pacific Coast Fish Habitat Projects

NOAA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation have awarded $135,000—and leveraged nearly $320,000 in matching, non-federal funds—for five fish habitat protection projects on the Pacific Coast.

The funding program was developed to promote voluntary coastal and marine protection activities within the National Fish Habitat Partnership. Each of the funded projects was endorsed by the Pacific Marine and Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership and/or the California Fish Passage Forum.

The projects will incorporate the support of community conservation organizations, farmers, homeowners, recreational anglers, and boaters to protect habitat for threatened and endangered salmon and other commercially and recreationally valuable fish.

Funded projects include:

Increasing water flow during critical Coho salmon and steelhead trout migration in the San Gregorio watershed, California (American Rivers)

Establishing a voluntary, no anchor, eelgrass protection zone in Port Townsend, Washington (Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Foundation)

Setting up a neighborhood conservation easement program to protect salmon habitat in San Juan County, Washington (Friends of the San Juans)

Acquiring 167 acres of coastal estuary and freshwater wetlands at Sand Lake, Oregon (North Coast Land Conservancy)

Protecting 120 acres of tidal wetlands in Tillamook Bay, Oregon (Wild Salmon Center)

source: NOAA FishNews