Funds given to salmon recovery projects

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Salmon recovery projects totaling more than $1.8 million were awarded Tuesday in four Central Washington counties.

The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board approved the grants based on recommendations from local groups.

Statewide, the board allocated nearly $43 million to projects designed to improve fish habitat.

Central Washington is home to two species listed as threatened on the Endangered Species List: the middle Columbia River steelhead trout and bull trout.

Yakima County received the lion's share of the area funding, $1.1 million for four projects. Among them are removal of fish barriers on Cowiche Creek and Nile Creek, reconnecting Tepee Creek in the Klickitat River subbasin to its floodplain, and relocating the levee at the county's Eschbach Park, northwest of Yakima.

The Kittitas County Conservation District will receive $328,500 to remove a small irrigation dam on the Teanaway River, northwest of Ellensburg, and modernize an irrigation delivery system.

In Klickitat County, $265,650 was awarded to purchase six acres of flood plain that salmon use to spawn.

The Benton Conservation District will receive $115,362 to install fish screens on 13 irrigation diversions.

The recovery board has approved $404 million in grants to more than 1,300 projects over the past nine years. The funding comes from the federal government and a state match generated by the sale of bonds.