Salmon projects get new funding

King County's four major watersheds, stretching from the Cascade crest west to Puget Sound, will receive $3.4 million from the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board for eight projects to protect and restore salmon habitat.

Two projects in the Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watershed will get $1.5 million from the board, and four projects in the Green/Duwamish and Central Puget Sound Watershed will receive $1 million.

The Snoqualmie Watershed will get $320,000, and White River Watershed in southern King County will get $535,000. The grant money will be combined with funds from local governments, agencies and other groups to complete the projects.

The areas are home to Chinook salmon, which are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. These watersheds also are home to sockeye and coho salmon, cutthroat trout and steelhead.

The money will be used to protect up to 47 acres of mature forest, wetlands and streamside corridor along Issaquah Creek and to restore about seven acres of floodplain in the Snoqualmie Watershed along the Raging River.

Other projects include the purchase of land along the Cedar River and restoration of a flood plain, removal of part of an unneeded levee in Auburn to create a refuge for young salmon and restoration of the area where Mill Creek and the Green River merge in Kent, also to improve fish habitat.

The money also will buy and restore a part of a salt marsh on Vashon Island to create a pocket estuary for salmon and to study the impact of removing a quarter-mile of shoreline armoring in southern Normandy Park to provide sediment necessary for healthy beach formation.

And in the White River Watershed, natural conditions will be restored at the mouth of Boise Creek, a tributary to the White River.

The board will award $26.6 million for 104 habitat acquisition, restoration and assessment projects around the state. The board's funding comes from federal and state governments.

For more information on salmon-habitat conservation in the watersheds, go to www.govlink.org/watersheds.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618 or kgaudette@seattletimes.com