TEP awarded more than $440,000 for habitat enhancement
Posted on Nov. 19th, 2019
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) selected Tillamook Estuaries Partnership to receive more than $440,000 in grant funding at their October 15-16 board meeting in Condon.
The funding awards include a Salmon License Plate grant for the "Peterson Creek Aquatic Organism Passage Improvement Project", which will replace a fish passage barrier with a bridge on Peterson Creek. The stream is a tributary of the Miami River and provides important habitat for salmon and lamprey. The project will restore access to over six miles of stream habitat.
Salmon License Plate revenues are generated from the extra fee Oregonians pay when the purchase Salmon Plates for their vehicles. “This project is a great investment of the state’s Salmon License Plate dollars,” says Meta Loftsgaarden, OWEB’s executive director, in a press release. “This investment benefits Coho Salmon habitat, while also supporting local natural resource jobs.”
OWEB also awarded Tillamook Estuaries Partnership funding for the Tillamook River Wetlands project. Final engineering designs will be developed with the technical assistance grant to implement the 73-acre habitat restoration project located on a site in the Tillamook River estuary.
In total, the OWEB Board awarded 61 grants totaling $9,284,183 to local organizations statewide to support fish and wildlife habitat and water quality projects using Lottery, Salmon License Plate, and federal Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery funding provided by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration at their October meeting. A listing of all awarded grants is available at: www.oregon.gov/OWEB/Documents/2019-Oct-Spring-Board-Awards.pdf.