For Immediate Release

July 15, 2003

CONSERVATION GRANTS AWARDED IN STATE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of the Interior has approved grants totaling $17 million in Washington State for endangered species-related land acquisitions and planning assistance, including the purchase of two key tracts of land on the Olympic Peninsula, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said.

                        The grants were approved today by the U.S. Department of the Interior as part of its $70 million nationwide effort to assist states in upgrading habitat for threatened and endangered fish, wildlife and plant species.  The grants provide planning assistance as well as land acquisition funding to states –often working in cooperation with private landowners -- to expand and improve critical habitat areas, Rep. Dicks said.  

                        The congressman, who serves as the top-ranking Democratic member of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, said that the two Olympic Peninsula acquisitions will preserve key parcels of valuable habitat that had been threatened by development.  The purchases, both recommended highly by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, were:

• The Butterfly Rayonier Project -- $8.45 million for the purchase of 724 acres of old growth forested areas in the vicinity of Forks, in Clallam County, owned by the Rayonier Co. These tracts represent important habitat for 29 various species as well as for threatened spotted owls and marbled murrelets.   It addition to the acreage that will be purchased to form a more contiguous conservation area the project will serve as a bridge from Olympic National Park to state-managed forest lands.  Rayonier has also agreed to donate another parcel of land that can be used to produce revenues needed to maintain the protected lands.
• The Hoh River Conservation Corridor -- $1.5 million to purchase critical tracts along the Hoh River in Jefferson County that represent important wildlife habitat adjacent to Olympic National Park.
  

                        Through the same grant program, the Department has issued a $70,000 planning assistance grant Jefferson and Clallam Counties to help develop a Dungeness Comprehensive Irrigation District Management Plan and a Habitat Conservation Plan.  These two plans will provide conservation benefits for federally-listed fish while meeting the long-term water needs of irrigation districts.

                        In addition to the Olympic Peninsula grants, the Interior Department announced $7 million in other awards throughout Washington State, including $1.5 million for protection of lands in the Cedar River Watershed, $1.8 million for the Yakima River Wildlife Corridor acquisition, and $1.1 million for completion of the statewide Habitat Conservation Plan. 

                      “These Section 6 grants provide valuable assistance to states as they carry out vital habitat conservation functions to improve conditions for threatened and endangered species,” Rep. Dicks said.  “I am very encouraged that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working so closely and cooperatively with Washington State because of the large number of listed fish and wildlife species we have here and because of growth-related threats to our environment,” he added.

Home >> Newsroom >> Press Releases