For Immediate Release

June 25, 2003

HOUSE PANEL BOOSTS ELWHA RESTORATION FUNDING,
CONTINUES NORTHWEST SALMON PROGRAMS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Appropriations Committee today approved another $12.9 million for the Elwha River restoration project, another important step in the effort to restore what could be the region’s most plentiful salmon run, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said Wednesday.

            The approval of these funds will allow the Elwha project to proceed on schedule in the next fiscal year, Rep. Dicks said, including continued engineering work related to the removal of the two dams, replacement of the city’s water supply and restoration of the river habitat.  “Because much of the Elwha has been protected by the Olympic National Park boundaries for the past 65 years, it offers great potential for restoring a robust salmon fishery and a healthy new spawning area,” Rep. Dicks said.

            The congressman, who serves as the senior Democratic member of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, said the local and regional consensus that exists to restore the Elwha has helped to assure the committee’s support again this year.

            Rep. Dicks said that the Interior appropriations bill will also fund several other important conservation programs that improve fishery management and habitat protection in the Pacific Northwest.  He said that a total of $11 million is included in the bill to continue an effort he launched last year to repair culverts that block fish passage Northwest streams and rivers.  “Removing these barriers that prevent salmon from swimming upstream to spawn is a critical piece of our overall strategy to boost the survival of these threatened and endangered species,” Dicks said.

            Another key piece of the strategy is developing a method for conducting a selective catch of salmon stocks, he said, in order to protect threatened and endangered species.  The congressman has pioneered the federal government’s effort to identify hatchery-raised salmon, which can be visibly distinguished by clipping its small, unused adipose fin.  Funding and direction inserted into the bill by Rep. Dicks in the current fiscal year mandated the complete marking of hatchery-raised salmon stocks in the Northwest through the use of automated machinery developed specifically for this use.

            The Interior appropriations bill for the next fiscal year will contain $2.5 million within the budgets of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to conduct the marking of all salmon from federal hatcheries, as well as assistance and direction to the states of Oregon and Washington for similar work at state hatcheries.

            Another important element of the salmon recovery effort in the Northwest is the work that small groups throughout the region are doing on specific streams and watersheds to improve habitat and to increase data collection that is needed to track progress on species recovery.  Rep. Dicks added funds again this year to continue the work of the Regional Salmon Enhancement Groups ($1.4 million), the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group ($175,000), and the “Long Live the Kings” non-profit organization ($200,000) in Washington State.

            The Interior bill also allocates $3 million for the hatchery reform initiative in Washington State continuing the scientific review of hatcheries that is vital to their enhanced role in salmon recovery, the congressman said.

            Finally, the bill contains $4 million in needed utility improvements at the Mount Rainier National Park Visitors Center, Rep. Dicks said.


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