09/10/2007: "Ecology awards 50K For Watershed Restoration/Protection"

The SJC Salmon Recovery program has received a $50,000.00 grant to address four areas to “improve overall coordination and integration in the San Juan County watershed”.

SJC is one of fourteen Department of Ecology (DOE) grants that were awarded to14 Puget Sound watershed groups.

The Puget Sound Watershed Protection and Restoration grants will help the groups weave together the many protection and restoration plans already in place within each watershed, and according to the SJC grant proposal, the money will be used to conduct the following:

1. Spatially Explicit Shoreline Permit and Policy Analysis
2. Hydrologic Modeling and Estuarine Wetland Data
3. Salmonid Habitat Study Integration
4. Analysis and Synthesis of Data Gaps

The Friends of the San Juans will receive some of the money to work on item number one, which will be the “development of a spatially explicit, searchable database for 28 primary categories of SJC shoreline permits, exemptions, variances and violations.”.

The second project will “scan and geographically reference estuarine wetland survey maps circa 1970. The geographically referenced rasters will then be digitized to create a GIS data layer.

The third project will help fund Wyllie-Echeverria Associates updates on the status of Chinook recovery for the Puget Sound Conservation and Recovery Plan.

And the forth project will analyze and combine the “best available science for … permitting reverse osmosis systems, affects of mari-culture net pens… identification of sensitive areas at risk from oil spills, and habitat issues around proposed electric power turbines.”

Barbara Rosenkotter, Lead Entity Coordinator for Salmon Recovery, provided a summary of the what the grant will accomplish

1) To finish the Shoreline Permit and Policy analysis work already started by the Friends of the San Juans. FOSJ will identify policy recommendations back to the County and other agencies and organizations; the San Juan Initiative will use these recommendations as well.

2) To provide hydrologic modeling and estuarine wetland data in order to better understand these habitats. This information may be used with the CAO updates set to occur in San Juan County and also for helping to fulfill freshwater data gaps in the local salmon recovery plan.

3) To provide updates on the status of salmonids habitat studies for the salmon recovery plan and integrate these results into the San Juan County database.

4) Develop a series of white papers/map books on the data gaps that hinder the progress of local salmon recovery in order to prioritize research, protection and restoration activities. Since the San Juan Initiative is focusing on policy recommendations, it will also use this technical analysis for guidance on policy prioritization.