TEP's Local Grant Program

Partners may receive financial and technical assistance from TEP in one of two ways.
Applicants may:

To read TEP's Local Grant Program application guidelines click here.

To dowload TEP's Local Grant Program application click here.

Under our Local Grant Program (LGP) the TEP has awarded over $215,000 to support the implementation of environmental restoration and enhancement projects in Tillamook County. The TEP initiated the LGP to support locally-driven projects that implement the Tillamook Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan, or CCMP. In selecting projects for funding, priority is given to those that undertake on-the-ground environmental enhancement and restoration. Only projects within the TEP study area are eligible. The Study Area includes the five estuaries of Tillamook County and their associated watersheds.

Habitat Enhancement Local Grants

The Upper Nehalem Watershed Council received $15,000 to initiate the first phase of a multi-phase, multi-year project to restore riparian and instream habitat conditions at ODFW's Jewell Meadows Wildlife Management Area. Three creeks, totaling over 10 stream miles, are located within Jewell Meadows including Fishhawk Creek, Beneke Creek, and Humbug Creek. Phase One of this project will restore riparian and instream habitat conditions within a reach of Fishhawk Creek by planting over 200 conifers along 1000 feet of stream (minimum of 50-foot setback) and placing instream large woody debris within a side channel and small tributary of Fishhawk Creek. A fish passage barrier culvert will also be removed and replaced with a stream ford.

The Tillamook Bay Watershed Council received $4,000 to support completion of the design and engineering phase of the Munson Creek fish passage project. This preconstruction phase will provide final, stamped engineering designs for the replacement of three fish passage barriers and provide restoration designs for instream restoration and understory riparian planting.

The City of Tillamook received $10,000 to clean up contaminated soils found beneath the recently-demolished Coast Tire building in downtown Tillamook. The grant supports the application of a compound which, once hydrated, releases oxygen to enhance the natural breakdown of contaminants found on site (primarily benzene). Once free of contamination the site is anticipated to be used as open space.

The Tillamook Bay Watershed Council was granted $4,000 to begin gathering information and performing initial outreach to address limiting factors on Holden Creek. The Council will coordinate the development of a limiting factors analysis and stakeholder group to discuss next steps towards the development of a restoration action plan for Holden Creek. The action plan will identify potential restoration projects to improve water quality, restore fish passage and riparian habitat, and eliminate other limiting factors.

The Nestucca Neskowin Watershed Council received $3,700 to assist a private hobby farm owner with riparian enhancements along Slick Rock Creek. The project provides an off-channel watering system for livestock to reduce animal impacts on riparian vegetation, and enhances degraded riparian areas with native plantings.

The TBWC has been provided $15,000 to develop a Restoration Plan for Mill Creek, an important tributary of the Trask River. The project will: complete an Aquatic Habitat Inventory (AQI) for Mill Creek; survey culverts and compile culvert data; identify restoration actions needed at each landowner's property; meet with landowners to discuss restoration alternatives; and generate at least two grant proposals for restoration projects. Mill Creek is a 2,879 acre watershed that drains into the Trask River. The Tillamook Bay Watershed Council's Trask River Action Plan identifies Mill Creek as a high priority for restoration.

Working with Sunyata Consulting Services, a private landowner was granted $2,500 to enhance 1,800 feet of riparian habitat. Enhancmeent includes invasive species removal and conifer release. Restoration of riparian and upland habitats will achieve landowner goals of mature (non-industrial) conifer forest in the Little Nestucca watershed.

The Lower Nehalem Watershed Council was awarded $5,200 to place a large woody debris installation along a privately owned section of the North Fork of the Nehalem River. The structure was designed to recruit large wood and facilitate deposition to stabilize and rebuild an extremely eroded streambank. Upon installation of large wood, the LNWC followed up with riparian planting of native conifers and hardwoods.

The Tillamook County Soil and Water Conservation District was awarded $11,300 to maintain four streamside enhancement projects that the District implemented with private landowners in the Nestucca basin. Maintenance activities consisted of controlling competing vegetation, replacing protective devices as necessary, watering, and recording mortality, general condition of seedlings, and other relevant data.

The Tillamook County Soil and Water Conservation District was awarded $24,775 to maintain nine streamside enhancement projects that the District implemented with private landowners. Ongoing maintenance of these sites ensured that over 21,000 trees were not lost to predation or overcome by invasive species. The ultimate goal of the project was to ensure shading on almost 30,000 linear feet of stream in the Tillamook Bay basin.

The Tillamook Bay Watershed Council received $15,425 to replace a failing culvert with a flatcar bridge on Jacoby Creek in Bay City. Jacoby Creek is a tributary of Patterson Creek, which drains directly into Tillamook Bay. The culvert created a barrier to migrating coho, cutthroat, and steelhead. High water as a result of the blocked culvert, also accelerated erosion and contributed bacteria to the stream. Installation of the bridge restored fish passage, while reducing bacteria and sediment loading.

The City of Tillamook was awarded $15,350 for the construction of a fish ladder around the City's water diversion on Killam Creek, a tributary of the Tillamook River. Killam Creek is a designated essential anadromous habitat that supports coho, chinook, and chum salmon as well as steelhead and cutthroat trout. This project substantially improved juvenile and adult access to almost four miles of mainstem habitat and another two miles of tributary habitat. To learn more about Killam Creek click here.

The City of Tillamook received $4,000 to complete an appraisal and environmental assessment of a 20 acre wetland within the City limits. Once the appraisal was completed, TEP worked with the City of Tillamook and other partners to acquire the property for the City. The long range goal of this project is to incorporate the property into an interpretive trail that is being constructed along the Hoquarton Slough.

Working with Watershed Works, a local landowner was awarded a $14,550 grant to remove invasive species and replant a five acre property along the lower Tillamook River. Roughly 200 linear feet of denuded riparian zone on an adjacent property was also be planted with native species (cedar and spruce). The goal of this project was to eradicate extreme infestation of non-native vegetation and improve water quality through riparian enhancements.

The Nestucca-Neskowin Watershed Council received a $16,920 grant to support the participation of Nestucca High School students in the Council's Streamside Planting Program. The project involved over 120 students and planted to two linear miles of native riparian vegetation along several tributaries in the Nestucca and Neskowin basins.

Environmental Education Local Grants

Cart'm Recycling, a non-profit community organization located in Manzanita, received $2,500 to strengthen its programs in the areas of: prevention of toxic contamination of local watersheds and estuaries; community education to reduce the spread of the invasive plant Japanese knotweed; and estuary clean-ups.

The Tillamook Bay Watershed Council was granted $4,000 to conduct pre and post project monitoring on Munson Creek. The Council will partner with Tillamook High School on the project, providing a hands-on watershed education opportunity for students. Students will report back to the Council their findings on the initial effectiveness of several enhancement projects including: fish passage barrier replacements; instream restoration; understory planting of conifers; and road decommissioning.

The Lower Nehalem Community Trust received $2,600 to continue implementation of its Watershed and Estuary Education Project. This project provides K-5 students enrolled in the NeahKahNie School District with a field and classroom curriculum focused on the local (Nehalem Bay) watershed and estuary. The school district is incorporating the Trust's project into school curricula.

Tillamook School District #9 received $2,500 to host a two-day workshop in which local educators will develop a collaborative science curriculum aimed at providing hands-on science experiences in natural resources. This project is part of a broader effort within the District to integrate natural resource education into other academic disciplines including math, English, history, economics, etc.

Oregon State University Extension received $2,100 in support of a 4-H after-school science program for upper elementary students that focuses on watershed education. One day per week for seven weeks, twenty youth will attend this after-school course that introduces them to science through hands-on activities and field trips. The focus of the Ridges to Rivers: Watershed Exploration program is to provide an overview of watershed processes and how the components of coastal ecosystems interact.

Oregon Trout received $3,500 to support the continuation of Salmon Watch in Tillamook County. Students who participate in a Salmon Watch field trip spend a day at a local stream where they are taught about fish biology, water quality, macroinvertebrates and healthy riparian zones. Hands-on activities reinforce the information presented. Salmon Watch also provides educational mentoring opportunities for high school students, who are trained to lead field trip stations for their younger peers.

The Nestucca Neskowin Watershed Council received $1,400 for continuation of its tidepool education program known as KELP. A popular summer event at Cape Kiwanda for several years, KELP volunteers move through tidepool areas to explain the complex ecology of tidepools. Volunteers also set up tables with microscopes and small touching pools to provide close up views of intertidal plants and animals.

Diane Griffin, a sixth-grade teacher at Garibaldi Grade School, received $1,155 to refurbish her in-class salmon rearing station, originally funded with a small grant from TEP in 1995. For over ten years, students in Mrs. Griffin's class have partnered annually with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to raise fall Chinook, releasing them into Tillamook Bay as fingerlings. Following in the footsteps of a project originally started by the Patterson Creek Pals, the sixth-graders become experts in salmon biology, adaptation, natural selection, transmission of traits, understanding life cycles, and collecting-organizing-interpreting data. Beyond science, their learning is expressed through creative writing, research, history, civics, art and geography.

The Lower Nehalem Community Trust received $2,875 to develop K-6 curriculum focused on the local estuary and watershed. The Trust owns the 55-acre Alder Creek Farm on Nehalem Bay, where approximately 400 students will attend field trips that compliment in-class instruction. The variety of habitats on the property - fresh and salt water marsh, fish bearing stream, upland farm - provide an excellent outdoor classroom for experiential learning in the natural sciences.

Research & Monitoring Local Grants

Oregon State University received $2,500 to support a student intern, who will work with ODFW on two fish monitoring projects. The North Coast Spring Chinook Stock Assessment has documented the relative abundance of spring chinook in the Wilson, Trask, and Nestucca rivers since 1965. The intern will work with ODFW to analyze spring chinook spawner escapement, distribution, hatchery/wild composition, pre-spawn mortality, age structure and sex composition. The Nestucca Hatchery Winter Steelhead Broodstock Evaluation surveys the Nestucca basin for evidence of hatchery steelhead residualization.