PORT ANGELES — The North Olympic Lead Entity for Salmon will continue to study fish passage barriers in Clallam County with a new round of state funding.
Clallam County commissioners Tuesday approved a $295,102 agreement with the state Recreation and Conservation Office to fund the county-led consortium of nonprofit groups, citizens and tribes working to advance salmon restoration and recovery through June 2015.
The consortium has been working with Streamkeepers, the county’s volunteer stream-monitoring program, on a culvert inventory to identify fish passage barriers from Blyn to Cape Flattery.
Culverts can block salmon from migrating upstream.
“They go out in the field, and they take a lot of technical measurements and pictures and field surveys,” North Olympic Lead Entity for Salmon coordinator Cheryl Baumann told commissioners Monday.
“What you’ll end up with is this prioritization, the worst offenders to the least offenders, so then conceivably the county or other partners could come in and say, ‘OK we want to fix this particular culvert, and we need funding to do so.’
“So this lays the groundwork to do the prioritization.”
Working on plan
The North Olympic Lead Entity also is working on a salmon recovery plan for Water Resource Inventory Area 19 from Freshwater Bay to Cape Flattery.
The agreement with the state Recreation and Conservation Office includes $215,102 from the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration fund.
Baumann said she expected to bring forth a contract amendment next July for another year’s worth of base funding for the consortium.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.