For Immediate Release

October 10, 2001

HOUSE-SENATE CONFERENCE PANEL APPROVES
ELWHA PROJECT FUNDS IN INTERIOR BILL

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A House-Senate conference committee today approved the final version of the Interior Appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, including the $25.8 million for the Elwha River restoration project that was originally approved by the House in July, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said.

The funds will allow for engineering and design work in the next fiscal year, leading to the eventual removal of the two Elwha River dams and the restoration of one of the most historically-robust salmon runs on the Olympic Peninsula, Rep. Dicks noted. 

The conference committee also endorsed the second of six years of increased conservation programs funding, originally approved in 2000, that dramatically expands federal  land acquisition programs, maintenance and wildlife habitat protection in national parks, forests and refuge areas.  The final version of the bill restores current spending levels for the Department of Energy’s conservation and energy research programs, which the Bush Administration had proposed to cut by about 20 percent in the next fiscal year. 

The Interior funding bill also addressed several key Washington State priorities, including:

-- A total of more than $14 million for fish habitat enhancement and protection of salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest region, conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  The agency will pursue additional research on Bull Trout habitat, hatchery reform and it will issue salmon habitat protection grants in Washington with funds from next year's Interior Appropriations bill. 

-- In the budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the bill provides $4 million for the state’s “Timber Fish and Wildlife” program and it funds other important tribal health, salmon and economic development initiatives in Washington.

-- Innovative forestry strategies, including the “landscape ecology” concept pioneered at the University of Washington, will receive continued funding in the next fiscal year, in addition to another $9.4 million for assistance to timber communities in the budget of the U.S. Forest Service and another $3 million for the "Jobs in the Woods" employment program. 

-- Repairs totaling $1.5 million will be made to the barracks at the Vancouver National Historic Site in the next year by the National Park Service.

--  $250,000 for the Factor Home rehabilitation project at Fort Nisqually, Point Defiance Park in Tacoma.  The federal funds will be matched by state and local contributions.

-- The bill also funds critical land acquisitions that will augment and expand parks and wildlife refuge areas within Washington State:

Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge - $1 million
Ebey’s Landing National Historical  Reserve - $1 million
Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area - $6 million
I-90 Corridor acquisitions, Cascade partnership - $4 million
Olympic National Park inholdings - $1.21 million  
Land Acquisition along Skagit River - $2 million


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