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| Funds offer employment opportunities for fishing crews to advance salmon recovery efforts | ||
| 06/23/2006 | ||
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OWEB will distribute $2.2 million in Lottery Funds for five projects
07-06
For more information:Tom Byler 503-986-0180 The Legislative Emergency Board today approved $2.2 million in funds that will not only provide work for coastal fishing crews displaced by restrictions on salmon fishing, but also will allow those crews to help rebuild salmon populations to restore the fishery. The decision allocates Lottery Funds for the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board’s budget to support five projects. “In the near term, these projects offer work opportunities to offset hardships resulting from fishery restrictions,” said Tom Byler, OWEB executive director. “In the long term, these projects can help rebuild coastal salmon populations to support a sustainable commercial and recreational fishery,” he added. The projects respond to an April executive order by Governor Ted Kulongoski declaring a state of emergency for Oregon’s coastal counties impacted by the fishing restrictions and directing 10 state agencies to provide assistance. The approved projects, which could employ a significant number of coastal fishers, include collecting information about specific types of salmon in coastal ocean waters, restoring stream and lake fish habitats, developing prospective restoration projects, and working with local communities to increase participation in salmon recovery efforts. Funds would be spent during the current two-year budget ending June 30, 2007. The project to gather information from ocean waters involves contracting with skippers of as many as 50 vessels. They will chart the location, species, and ocean conditions to identify the distribution of salmon stock in coastal ocean waters. They also will collect DNA samples to identify the river of origin for fish. The work will be done in coordination with the Coastal Oregon Marine Experimental Station and Oregon State University scientists. Two projects fund stream and lake restoration work and development of future work. In coordination with local watershed councils and soil and water conservation districts, OWEB will employ displaced fishing crews to restore fish habitat. Typical work could involve building fences, preparing sites for project work, and planting trees and shrubs along lakes and streams. In addition, OWEB will ask watershed councils and soil and water conservation districts to accelerate the development of future lake and stream restoration projects that could employ fishing crews along the coast and in the Klamath Basin later this year and into next year. Another project will employ fishing crews to conduct on-the-ground research to aid in the identification, planning and design of future restoration projects. The information will be used to prioritize future salmon recovery projects. One project may employ several displaced fishers to raise awareness of Oregon’s salmon recovery efforts, to collect comments from the public about Oregon’s coastal salmon recovery plan and to promote actions by groups and individuals to help implement that plan. For more information about salmon restoration projects, visit www.oregon.gov/OWEB or call OWEB in Salem at 503-986-0178. OWEB projects support the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds that emphasizes private, voluntary actions to restore wild salmon populations. OWEB is a state agency led by a policy oversight board. The agency provides grants and services to citizen groups, organizations and agencies working to restore healthy watersheds in Oregon. Funding comes from the Oregon Lottery as a result of a citizen initiative in 1998, sales of salmon license plates, federal salmon funds and other sources. |
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