Pacific Salmon to Be Restored Through Community-Led Efforts

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TO NATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Pacific Salmon to Be Restored Through Community-Led Efforts

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, Jul. 17 -/E-Wire/-- The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation today awarded $630,000 to the Pacific Grassroots Salmon Initiative for 20 salmon protection and enhancement projects in California and Oregon. The Pacific Grassroots Salmon Initiative projects protect and restore chinook and coho salmon and steelhead stocks by restoring and/or purchasing in-stream and riparian habitat or water rights on private lands, improving fish passage, removing exotic vegetation, and assisting with collaborative policy efforts to improve salmonid management by responsible agencies.

"Salmon typify the best of American virtues -- vigor, wildness, and persistence. The Foundation is proud to support efforts that engage various community groups to develop win-win methods for restoring healthy salmon populations," said John Berry, Executive Director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. "It is with locally based efforts like these that we can create workable solutions for conservation."

The Pacific Grassroots Salmon Initiative program, now in its fourth year, will provide grants ranging in size from $2,700 - $71,300 to non-profit groups and local agencies. Major funding for these grants is provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Restoration Center and the Bureau of Reclamation. Grantees of the Pacific Grassroots Salmon Initiative have committed over $4.2 million in additional "challenge" funding to these programs, leveraging federal dollars at a greater than 4:1 ratio.

The projects were selected by a committee comprised of agency and Foundation personnel. The selected projects have a high degree of public/private collaboration, a good organizational track record, a high probability of success, and address a conservation priority. Both agencies are responsible for protection and recovery of endangered Pacific salmonids -- National Marine Fisheries Service through its responsibilities under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), and Bureau of Reclamation through its need to comply with ESA and other fish protection statutes in the course of operating its water storage and conveyance facilities. These projects help the agencies to fulfill these obligations, while involving willing landowners in collaborative conservation.

"The National Marine Fisheries Service is thrilled to be participating in the Pacific Grassroots Salmon Initiative program," said Bill Hogarth, Assistant Administrator for NMFS (acting). "Restoring endangered salmon to the northwest through public/private partnerships like this is proof positive that the government, conservation groups and private landowners can work together to achieve great things."

"The Bureau of Reclamation supports challenge grant approaches to environmental restoration because these partnerships set the stage for further collaboration and cooperation that build the foundation needed to restore and protect our natural resources for today and in the future," said Shannon Cunniff, Director, Research and Natural Resources, Bureau of Reclamation.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

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