NOAA Fisheries News Releases
NEWS RELEASE
December 18, 2002
Sheela McLean, Public Affairs
(907) 586-7032
Jon Kurland, Alaska Habitat Conservation Division
(907) 586-7638
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
- 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.
- 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.
For more information on the NOAA Community-based Restoration Program and its restoration partnerships, visit: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/restoration/
NOAA Fisheries (the National Marine Fisheries Service) 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.
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