FORKS — A project to create a 30-mile-long conservation corridor along the Hoh River is moving ahead, bolstered by its newest grant of $3.7 million in federal funds to buy acreage in the river valley.
But as the land acquisition continues, so do the concerns of river valley residents and some government leaders who say they have been left out of the process.
State Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland and U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, last week announced a federal Interior Department grant approved for the Hoh River Conservation Corridor Project that will allow for the purchase of 1,755 acres of private land along the river.
The grant, administered through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Natural Resources, was already essentially approved when state Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, hand-delivered a letter of opposition to the secretary of Interior last month after learning of the project.
“We expected this one to go through,” Buck said last week.
But the question he and others have is whether similar federal funding will be approved in the future.
The 1,755 acres is already owned by Western Rivers Conservancy of Portland, Ore., which aims to purchase 10,000 acres along the river’s lower 30 miles to put into the Hoh River Trust for habitat protection of marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, bald eagle, bull trout and other species.
Paying off the loans
The recently approved $3.7 million grant will allow the non-profit Hoh River Trust to buy the land and enable Western Rivers to pay off its loans on the land, said Western Rivers Project Manager Josh Kling.
The conservancy originally purchased the land from timber company Rayonier Inc.
In 2003, the conservancy received $3 million in federal funds to buy acreage.