NOAA FUNDS $129,650 OF ALASKA FISHERIES HABITAT RESTORATION IN 2002
NOAA
Fisheries has provided $129,650 worth of funding in 2002 to help Alaska
communities restore aquatic habitat through NOAA’s Community-based
Restoration Program and restoration-oriented partnerships. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
is an agency of the Commerce Department.
“These
habitat restoration projects play an important role in the long-term
sustainability of salmon and other fisheries across the region,”
said Jim Balsiger, regional administrator for NOAA
Fisheries in Alaska. “Community involvement in restoration
projects is vital and citizens have strongly supported restoration
projects.”
2002
Awards
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NOAA
awarded $52,000 to the Southeast
Alaska Guidance Association to reconfigure the stream channel,
remove sediment, and re-vegetate the Duck Creek stream bank in Juneau’s
Mendenhall Valley. These efforts will restore stream flows, uncover
spawning gravel and improve water quality for spawning habitat.
Stream bank re-vegetation and new in-stream woody debris will provide
cover for fish, reduce erosion and filter urban runoff. Since 1996,
several Mendenhall Watershed habitat restoration projects have been
completed through coordinated efforts by NOAA Fisheries, the association,
Duck
Creek Advisory Group, Mendenhall Watershed Partnership and others.
-
In
partnership with the FishAmerica
Foundation, NOAA awarded $20,000 to the Youth Restoration Corps
to continue restoring stream bank and riparian areas along Quartz
Creek on the Kenai Peninsula. The project is part of an ongoing,
multi-agency effort to restore fish habitat along streams on the
Kenai while providing educational opportunities and work experience
for Alaskan youths.
-
NOAA
and the FishAmerica
Foundation jointly awarded $9,300 to the Copper River Watershed
Project for salmon habitat restoration on Eyak Lake in Cordova.
The goal of this project is to restore natural shoreline on city-owned,
lakefront property. Volunteers are removing rip-rap, regrading the
shore, re-vegetating streambanks and adding fish cover. These efforts
will benefit spawning coho salmon, rearing coho and sockeye salmon,
cutthroat trout and Dolly Varden. The city plans to convert some
of the land to a public park, where interpretive signs will educate
residents and visitors about the importance of this habitat to salmon.
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NOAA
awarded $22,000 jointly with the FishAmerica
Foundation to Alaska
Department of Fish and Game to restore salmon habitat in Stormy
Lake and the Swanson River system on the Kenai Peninsula by controlling
and removing illegally introduced, invasive northern pike populations.
This river system provides important spawning and rearing habitat
for several species of salmon and trout.
-
In
partnership with Ocean Trust
and the National Fisheries Institute,
NOAA awarded $16,350 to the Prince
William Sound Science Center to restore razor clam populations
in Orca Inlet, adjacent to the city of Cordova. Razor clams are
an important resource for commercial and subsistence fishermen,
as well as a food source for dungeness crab and several commercial
fish species.
-
Through
the 5-Star Challenge Grant program, NOAA and the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation awarded $10,000 to the Matanuska-Susitna
Borough for stream bank restoration on Willow Creek. The project
will stabilize degraded stream banks. Educational signs and activities
related to watershed protection and enhancement will educate residents
about the importance of watershed protection.
NOAA
Fisheries awarded $165,000 worth of funding for three community based
habitat restoration projects in 2001.
NOAA’s
National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA
Fisheries) is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation’s
living marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement
and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine
species and their habitat.
NOAA
is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through
the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events
and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal
and marine resources.
To
learn more about NOAA, please visit:
http://www.noaa.gov.
To
learn more about NOAA fisheries in Alaska, please visit:
http://www.fakr.noaa.gov.
For
more information on the NOAA Community-based Restoration Program and
its restoration partnerships, visit:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/restoration.
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