The Olympian ran a story this morning about flights sponsored by the Nisqually Tribe to show the extent of habitat restoration in the Nisqually watershed:
Elected officials from the Nisqually River watershed saw by air Monday four major initiatives under way to restore salmon habitat, then offered opinions on the immediate future of two of the projects.
The Nisqually Tribe seeks $2.6 million in state capital budget funds to restore one mile of Ohop Creek and complete the second half of a 3.4-mile habitat restoration project on the Mashel River near Eatonville.
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Since 2008, the tribe and its many partners have started or completed 11 major habitat and salmon recovery projects on the Nisqually valued at more than $20 million, noted Nisqually Tribe salmon recovery program manager Jeanette Dorner.
Just last month, water started flowing in an 0.8-mile stretch of a restored Ohop Creek channel after being stuck in a ditch for 100 years, she said.State funding by the 2011 Legislature would allow the tribe to do an additional mile of the nearly five miles of creek that flow into the Nisqually River west of Eatonville, Dorner said.
David Troutt, the Nisqually Tribe’s natural resource director, said it would be shortsighted to suspend funding for the Nisqually projects.
“We can’t walk away from environmental protection,” he said. “For a sustainable economy, we need a healthy environment.”
