The Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) approved several salmon recovery and estuary protection projects worth nearly $11 million.
Projects led by the Nisqually and Skokomish tribes and the Lummi Nation are among those receiving funds.
“Salmon recovery is essential to the overall recovery of Puget Sound, and vice versa. We won’t achieve one without the other,” said David Dicks, the Partnership’s executive director. “The projects we have endorsed advance the priorities of the Action Agenda and our overall mission to bring the Sound back to health.”
The projects are supported by two separate appropriations the Partnership fought for this legislative session in the 2009-11 state capital budget, signed into law last week by the governor.
The PSP Leadership Council endorsed the following project requests:
Nisqually Tribe:
- $1,165,573 for Phase II of the Mashel Eatonville instream restoration project.
- $214,000 for the Red Salmon Slough levee removal.
PSP also is supporting Nisqually River restoration projects sponsored by the Nisqually Land Trust, Ducks Unlimited and the Pierce County Noxious Weed Control Board.
Skokomish Tribe:
- $1.7 million for the Skokomish Estuary Island tidal flow restoration.
Lummi Nation:
- $1.9 million for the Smuggler’s Slough tidal reconnection to enhance 620 acres of the Nooksack-Lummi delta.
