LAND TRUST BUYS VITAL SALMON HABITAT
Friday, January 26, 2001
By ERIK ROBINSON, Columbian staff writerCalling it the most significant acquisition in its history, the Columbia Land Trust on Thursday obtained 871 acres of prime salmon habitat near the mouth of the Columbia River.
Glenn Lamb, the Vancouver-based land trust's executive director, was jubilant about the acquisition.
"This is, by more than double, the largest land area we've conserved in a single project, and the fisheries biologists have consistently expressed that this is probably the most important salmon recovery project in the entire Columbia River, without any question," Lamb said.
A federal official said the acquisition clears the way for what will be the largest estuary restoration project on the West Coast.
Founded in 1990, the nonprofit land trust works with landowners to meet voluntary land conservation goals and has so far completed more than 2,500 acres of conservation projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The organization has gained momentum over the past year, winning a grant of almost $1 million from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to acquire and restore wetlands on the lower Columbia River.
The trust used $210,000 of that grant to pay Washington State University for the 871 acres along the Chinook River that were donated to the school years before by a farmer.
That owner willed the land to WSU for the purpose of generating money to the university's agriculture research program in Puyallup, Lamb said.
The Natural Resource Conservation Service, a federal agency, paid $1.8 million for a conservation easement on the property in 1998, meaning WSU could no longer use it as a cottonwood tree farm.
Without the ability to develop or farm the land, Lamb said, it still had a "residual value" of $210,000.
The land trust bought the land, then immediately donated the property to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Once restored, the estuary will provide the last feeding and rearing habitat for juvenile salmon before they make the saltwater transition to the Pacific Ocean.
Biologists are enthusiastic about the acquisition because of the potential to improve life for imperiled stocks of salmon and steelhead living in a river basin roughly the size of France.
Twelve stocks of Columbia basin salmon and steelhead have dwindled nearly to the point of extinction, making restoration of the Chinook River a priority.
The most dramatic restoration activity will involve removal of a tidegate that swings below a Highway 101 overpass east of Ilwaco.
Huge wooden planks swing out from the bridge, allowing the Chinook River to drain into the Columbia. But the gate, installed in 1927, slams shut when high tides or floodwater from the Columbia intrude.
The gate allowed the development of the low-lying area for homes and farms, but it robbed salmon and waterfowl of a prime rearing and refuge area.
In compensation for removing the gate, project managers will build a new levee capable of protecting adjacent landowners from flooding.
Meanwhile, drain ditches will be filled, tidal swales restored and trees planted along streamsides. Just over $1.6 million in restoration funds will be provided by the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Act, the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the North American Wetlands Coordinating Council. Ducks Unlimited will design many of the projects.
The state will provide public access to the area for hunting, fishing, bird watching and other traditional uses, state Fish and Wildlife director Jeff Koenings said.
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This page was last updated on November 13, 2001Site maintained by staff of Columbia Land Trust.
