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| OWEB Board approves $5 million to support work of 60 watershed councils | ||
| 05/17/2007 | ||
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08-07
News media contact:Monte Turner 503-986-0195 Board will consider additional funds after legislative session ends The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board voted to provide $5 million in funds to support the work of 60 watershed councils at meetings this week in Salem. Recognizing that the $5 million allocation falls short of the $7.8 million in funding requests from councils, the board will consider additional funding after the legislative session ends and a final OWEB budget has been approved, according to Tom Byler, OWEB executive director. Watershed councils coordinate a wide variety of natural resource improvement activities in nearly every river basin in Oregon. Council funding covers the next two-year budget period beginning July 1, 2007. The funds pay for basic administrative costs for the organizations--generally staff and operating expenses and costs of managing watershed improvement projects. “Councils are the key to success of cooperative conservation work in Oregon,” Byler said. “The council coordinators help interested landowners and community members identify non-regulatory approaches to protect clean water and recover salmon populations,” he said. “The resulting restoration projects wouldn’t happen without coordinators obtaining funding and overseeing all aspects through planning, design, construction and monitoring results,” Byler said. Councils and their volunteers help community members learn about water-related issues through events and presentations and show them ways to get involved in making improvements, he added. At the $5 million funding level, grants to councils will average nearly $84,000 over the two-year period, Byler noted. Funding comes from the Oregon Lottery as determined by Measure 66 approved by voters in 1998 and the federal Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. Councils received $4.4 million during the current two-year budget. In other business, the board authorized spending $363,500 to complete the purchase of 30 acres along the Sandy River near ZigZag. The board allocated $364,000 for the purchase at the March 2007 meeting, but reserved total payment pending determination of a long-term owner of the property. Since then, the Columbia Land Trust has agreed to serve as the long-term owner. Another board action establishes a new type of monitoring in the John Day River basin. The Middle Fork John Day River contains an active partnership including the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, private landowners such as the Boulder Creek Ranch, The Nature Conservancy, North Fork John Day Watershed Council, Malheur National Forest, Grant Soil and Water Conservation District, and many others implementing extensive restoration in the watershed. The board action provides $390,000 for monitoring individual projects, as well as the entire upper basin, in an attempt to identify the overall benefits provided to watershed health, fish and wildlife populations, water quality, and habitat through restoration actions. The research will include a University of Oregon economic analysis to determine whether local communities also are benefiting from the restoration and monitoring efforts in the basin. Funding is provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service through a grant from the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Daniel Heagerty, Portland, and Jane O’Keeffe, Adel, serve as co-chairs of the 17-member Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. Members represent the public at large, tribes, state natural resource agency boards and commissions, the Oregon State University Extension Service, and federal natural resource agencies. The board is supported by a state agency of the same name that provides grants and services to citizen groups, organizations and agencies working to restore healthy streams, lakes and rivers in Oregon. OWEB actions support the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, created in 1997. Funding comes from the Oregon Lottery as a result of a citizen initiative in 1998, sales of salmon license plates, federal salmon funds and other sources. For more information, visit www.oregon.gov/OWEB or call OWEB in Salem at 503-986-0178. #######
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