December 15, 2003

Contacts:

Sue Doroff, Western Rivers Conservancy
503-241-0151 x12 sdoroff@westernrivers.org

Brad Pruitt, Washington Department of Natural Resources
360-902-1102 brad.pruitt@wadnr.gov

Joanne Stellini, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
360-753-4323 joanne_stellini@fws.gov

$3 Million Grant Awarded for Hoh River Basin, Washington

Portland, OR – Western Rivers Conservancy has been awarded a $3 million grant by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS) through the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for land conservation along the Hoh River, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced recently more than $70 million in grants to twenty-nine states, including the $3 million to Western Rivers Conservancy, made from the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund and authorized by Section Six of the U.S. Endangered Species Act. This program helps protect endangered and threatened species by providing federal funds to acquire high quality forest land to enhance landscapes managed under existing Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP). Section Six funding does not replace habitat commitments contained in an approved HCP. Using these funds, lands along the Hoh River will be protected to provide permanent habitat for threatened and endangered species, including the marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, bald eagle, bull trout and coastal cutthroat trout.

Western Rivers Conservancy is working in partnership with the Wild Salmon Center to conserve the Hoh River corridor from the Olympic National Park boundary to the Pacific Ocean. The project goals are to protect threatened species, provide habitat connectivity in the Hoh basin, safeguard some of the strongest salmon and steelhead runs remaining in the lower 48 states, and provide for increased public access and recreation along this legendary river. Properties acquired within the Hoh corridor by Western Rivers Conservancy will be conveyed to the Hoh River Trust, a private non-profit organization with a mission to provide long-term conservation stewardship within the corridor.

"Today’s grant awards recognize the important work that states and their partners are doing to conserve and recover threatened and endangered species," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

"Grants are an important tool in our efforts to empower local governments and citizens as they seek to develop voluntary conservation partnerships that provide real benefits to listed species."

The Hoh River grant was strongly supported by Representative Norm Dicks and Senator Patty Murray and Washington State Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland.

"These grants help contribute to a healthy, living mosaic of forest habitat for birds, fish and wildlife in Washington’s forests," said Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland. "This habitat along the Hoh River corridor can play an important role in complementing Washington’s Habitat Conservation Plan and making working forests and healthy ecosystems work hand-in-hand."

"The Hoh River may present the best opportunity in the continental United States to conserve a truly healthy wild salmon river, while at the same time protecting habitat for many listed and non-listed species. At last, there will be a protected river ecosystem from the Olympic Mountains to the beaches of the Pacific. The benefits to fish, wildlife and people will be tremendous," said Phillip Wallin, Western Rivers Conservancy's President.

Western Rivers Conservancy was founded for the specific purpose of creating significant new refugia along outstanding Western rivers, to be managed for ecological and compatible recreational uses. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Western Rivers Conservancy operated for many years as a program of another organization, but has now taken its place as an independent non-profit organization. Western Rivers Conservancy has a fourteen-year track record of successful land acquisition. Working with few staff and modest capital, Western Rivers Conservancy has established major refuges on such rivers as the Skagit, Stillaguamish and Icicle Rivers in Washington, the Chetco, Sandy and Snake Rivers in Oregon, the Sun, Clark Fork and Madison Rivers in Montana, and Big Chico Creek in northern California.

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