Coast Restoration Projects Provide Better Habitat And Jobs

6/30/2009 OPB News, Rob Manning. Report on the Pacific Northwest projects NOAA is funding through the federal stimulus package - including funding for the study and removal of Gold Ray Dam.

Leading federal officials have announced close to $24 million in coastal restoration projects.

The plan is to improve habitat and provide jobs in Oregon and Washington.

Head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and former Oregon State professor, Jane Lubchenco, laid out the rationale for the 50 projects across the country.  They include nine along the coast of Oregon and Washington.

Jane Lubchenco: “In the Pacific Northwest, NOAA is investing recovery act funds to reconnect tidal wetlands, remove obsolete levies, and clean up marine debris by hiring dozens of out of work crab fishermen.”

NOAA is paying for projects both on the Oregon Coast and in Puget Sound to clean up abandoned fishing gear and crab pots.

Oregon’s biggest project is a $5 million grant to take out the Gold Ray Dam on the Rogue River. It’s the last of three dams being removed on the Rogue.

By late next year, that means salmon should have access to over 330 river miles on the Rogue and its tributaries.

The city of Eugene is getting over $1.5 million to improve Willamette River side channels.