Pacific salmon restoration efforts see massive influx of funding from US Congress

The article highlights the efforts of the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe in restoring salmon habitats along the Willamette River in Oregon through the installation of engineered log jams, supported by significant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These laws have increased funding for salmon recovery and habitat conservation, including an additional USD 99 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund and USD 27 million for habitat restoration in the Willamette River watershed. The article also notes that demand for fish passage improvement funds exceeded the amount awarded, indicating a high level of interest and need for such projects.

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in October as part of SeafoodSource’s Key Buyer Industry Update. Since publication, NOAA Fisheries has announced additional funding opportunities that can be used for salmon recovery projects, including another USD 99 million (EUR 94 million) in annual funding the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) and the final round of grant funding for habitat conservation under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.]As Pacific salmon navigate their way upstream to spawn along the U.S. West Coast, they desperately need patches of cold water to rest and replenish.Historically, log jams provided many of these fish refuge by diverting the flow of rivers and creating deep, cool pools of water for salmon to recover on their epic journey. Due to human interference, many of those naturally occurring barriers and the adjacent wooded areas that created them are gone, degrading salmon habitats and making passage more difficult for the species.In ...