Watching Our Water Ways

State and local officials are waiting anxiously to learn who will get the federal stimulus money passing through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The money will be targeted for habitat improvement.

I can’t find the national numbers, but I recall that NOAA had requests for maybe 10 times the money it had available. That means there are going to be a few disappointed people and groups around the country.

Some people expected to hear an announcement of the results several weeks ago, but the Obama administration appears to be making a list and checking it twice — maybe trying to figure out which groups are naughty and nice.

Anyway, the Puget Sound Leadership Council moved ahead to award some state funds to make sure critical projects get under way this summer one way or another.

The Nisqually estuary restoration has been named a priority and will receive a good share of the money, but Hood Canal also remains a priority, with projects moving from the drawing board to construction on the water. Two Hood Canal estuary-restoration projects, totaling $2.7 million, are among five Puget Sound projects approved for state funding this week.

The Hood Canal projects are a $1.7 million restoration in the Skokomish River estuary and a $1 million restoration in the Little Quilcene estuary. The other three projects, totaling $1.6 million, are associated with the Nisqually River restoration project.

Check out the press release from the Puget Sound Partnership. Here’s the brief story I prepared for Saturday’s Kitsap Sun:

Estuary Restoration Projects Will Get State Funding

OLYMPIA — Two Hood Canal estuary-restoration projects, totaling $2.7 million, are among five Puget Sound projects approved for state funding this week.

The Hood Canal projects are a $1.7 million restoration in the Skokomish River estuary and a $1 million restoration in the Little Quilcene estuary. The other three projects, totaling $1.6 million, are associated with the Nisqually River restoration project.

Funding was approved this week by the Puget Sound Leadership Council, which oversees money directed through the Puget Sound Partnership. The partnership has been charged with coordinating all Puget Sound restoration efforts.

“These ready-to-go projects will create much-needed jobs right now, during the 2009 construction season,” said David Dicks, executive director of the partnership, which pushed the projects ahead of the normal funding cycle.

Some of these projects may be available for federal economic-stimulus funding, which would then make state funds available for other projects.

The Skokomish project is focused on 214 acres of intertidal estuary and 2.4 miles of river shoreline around Nalley Island. The project would remove more than two miles of dikes, 7,000 feet of farm roads and 14,000 feet of man-made ditches. Restoration of 800 acres of outer estuary would follow.

The Little Quilcene project, the fifth in the area, would connect tidal and freshwater flows, restore seven acres of salt marsh and create salmon habitat with logs in four places.

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Tags: Little Quilcene River, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Nisqually River, Puget Sound Partnership, Skokomish River

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 5:10 pm by cdunagan and is filed under Education, Hood Canal, Land use, Puget Sound, Research, Salmon, Shorelines, Streams. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.