Image courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Washington State will get more than $74 million in federal money to help coastal communities deal with climate impacts.
That infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act money will go toward 14 projects, including several that U.S. Senator, Maria Cantwell (D-WA), says will make improvements in what she calls the “powerhouse counties” around Puget Sound for salmon populations. “Whatcom and Skagit and Kitsap, and also the Lower Columbia River as a separate system,” Cantwell says, “that all are part of what we need to do to invest in salmon recovery.”
Congressman, Derek Kilmer (D-WA 6th District), says this is a big deal for communities he represents around the Olympic Peninsula he says are already feeling the impacts of climate change. Kilmer says, “Rising sea levels, coastal erosion, increased flooding threaten not only our homes and our infrastructure but also our lives and our livelihoods.”
An official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the grants typically run 3-5 years, but once habitat areas, like floodplains, are restored, they see salmon return almost immediately. Salmon need a combination of river channels that are not too narrow and fast-moving along with shallower water in areas like floodplains so they have places where they can lay their eggs and where the fry can go to grow.
The work also comes with a promise of job creation, with much of it in or around ancestral tribal waterways, where fisheries are critical. The list of grants also includes the “Restoration For All” program at Edmonds College, which will train members of the Latinx community to create a bilingual restoration workforce.
