Washington

Cascade Forest Conservancy
Building Instream Habitat Resilience in the Cispus Watershed (WA)
Install a minimum of six instream wood structures on confined salmonid-bearing tributaries of the Cispus River to benefit winter steelhead, Coho salmon, and other species. Project will slow peak flows, reengage floodplains and side channels, create refugia, and build climate resiliency in these streams.
$52,000

Chelan County Natural Resource Department
Wenatchee Subbasin Instream Flow Improvement Project (WA)
Develop and implement water transactions in the Wenatchee subbasin in Chelan County, Washington. Project will improve instream flows and restore habitat for native salmon and steelhead populations.
$39,225

City Fruit
Watershed Resiliency through Urban Orchard Engagement (WA)
Plant an urban orchard to provide stormwater management and community engagement opportunities within the High Point community in Seattle located within the Longfellow Creek watershed. Project will plant 30 fruit trees and engage roughly 4,000 High Point residents, furthering conservation efforts within the watershed, protecting local coho salmon habitats and providing fresh, organic fruit to the community.
$20,050

Conservation Northwest
Satsop River Habitat Connectivity (WA)
Restore 4 acres of riparian habitat by removing invasive species, planting native species and clearing refuse and debris along the Satsop River in the Chehalis Basin in Western Washington. Project will remove a riparian bottleneck, improve habitat connectivity, build community stewardship and will improve accessibility of a wildlife underpass.
$34,971

Conservation Northwest
Using Virtual Fence Technology to Enhance Big Game Habitat (WA)
Utilize virtual fence technology on a working ranch in the Columbia Plateau Mule Deer Management Zone of Washington to improve big game habitat and will serve as a model of this technology for future applications. Project will pilot virtual fence technology to control cattle on 47,700 acres in the shrub-steppe habitat of mule deer, sharp-tailed grouse, greater sage-grouse, and pronghorn.
$192,110

Fieldwork Communications
Advancing Stakeholder Partnerships Across the Fishtech Community (WA)
Support core operations for EM4Fish, an online community of practice that serves agency personnel, scientists and commercial fishing organizations. Project will develop and publish feature-level articles with industry leaders, as well as provide an outreach channel to the fishtech community through its monthly newsletter, social media, webinars, podcasts, events and workshops.
$127,500

Friends of Skagit Beaches
Monitoring Stormwater Pollution Entering Southern Resident Killer Whale Habitat (WA)
Expand the Anacortes Stormwater Monitoring Project to three North Puget Sound communities. Project will set up citizen science monitoring projects to identify baseline conditions for stormwater systems, educate residents about harmful effects of polluted stormwater, engage volunteers to help local governments find and mitigate sources of pollution, and improve killer whale habitat quality.
$74,423

Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group
Designing Big Quilcene River Restoration (WA)
Develop the final design of an integrated floodplain protection and restoration project on the Big Quilcene River. Project will provide a design for flood risk reduction, salmon habitat restoration, channel migration zone protection, education, and community economic vitality.
$572,500

Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership
Community-Based Hazards and Habitat Resilience Planning (WA)
Conduct outreach and adaptation planning workshops to prioritize project concepts to strengthen ecological and community resilience in the Columbia River estuary. Project will develop capacity and advance projects to be ready for additional assessment, design and implementation; and support planning for restoration of critical tidal floodplain habitat for juvenile salmonids.
$259,888

Lummi Indian Business Council
Creating a Coastal Resilience Plan for Lummi Reservation (WA)
Develop a coastal resilience strategy and project priority plan for the Lummi Reservation. Project will address high priority items identified in the Lummi Nation Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Plan 2016-2026 related to flood risk, water quality, salmon and shellfish harvest, instream flow, and protection of potable groundwater systems, and create a planning document will be developed prioritizing strategies.
$96,706

Lummi Indian Business Council
Preparing for Riparian Restoration for Chinook Salmon in the Middle Fork Nooksack River (WA)
Restore spawning, rearing and holding habitat to recover Nooksack Chinook populations and increase prey availability for the Southern Resident killer whale. Project will develop final designs to construct engineered logjams along 0.5 miles and plant 0.46 acres along 0.08 miles of priority habitat.
$200,000

Mote Marine Laboratory
Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery Electronic Monitoring (FL)
Continue the Center for Fisheries Electronic Monitoring at Mote’s efforts to streamline artificial intelligence driven data collection processes by creating a repeatable process for generating data and algorithms. Project will make strides in applying artificial intelligence in the Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishery to serve as a foundation for providing more timely and efficient data for management and industry applications.
$349,000

Nez Perce Tribe
Increase Flow Restoration Efforts in the Nez Perce Tribal Geographies (ID, OR, WA)
Increase flow restoration efforts in the Nez Perce tribal geographies. Project will increase tribal capacity to coordinate with other groups developing water transactions within the broad geography of ceded lands, and also enable the Tribe to propose transactions uniquely linked to tribal relationships, tribal treaty rights, and tribal sovereignty.
$17,617

NOAA Fisheries
Non-invasive Diet Characterization of Southern Resident Killer Whales (WA)
Test the use of stable isotopes to analyze dietary composition for Southern Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea using naturally occurring chemical tracers. Project will measure how stable isotopes in fecal matter and breath samples reflect diets from a feeding study on captive killer whales and compare to archived collected samples from Southern Resident killer whales.
$148,760

Nooksack Indian Tribe
Restoration of the South Fork Nooksack River for Chinook Salmon (WA)
Complete final engineering designs, obtain permits, and implement restoration of 0.4 miles of mainstem riverine habitat in the South Fork Nooksack River. Project will restore upstream migration, holding, spawning, and rearing habitat of endangered Puget Sound Chinook salmon to improve abundance and productivity of a primary food source of Southern Resident killer whales.
$153,000

Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association
Whatcom County Stream Stewards (WA)
Plant 4,000 trees to improve urban water quality and habitat conditions for Chinook salmon, bull trout and steelhead salmon on 10 acres in the Puget Sound. Project will engage five local resource management partners to host 25 Stream Steward events, bringing together 1,500 volunteers.
$34,076

Oceans Initiative
Protecting Puget Sound Chinook Salmon from Harbor Seal Predation (WA)
Implement a proven pinniped predation reduction strategy at Tumwater Falls over two years to increase passage of Puget Sound Chinook salmon through fish ladders on their return migration to Deschutes River spawning grounds. Project will mitigate a major threat to recovery of ESA-listed Puget Sound Chinook salmon, namely pinniped predation at bottlenecks, which will increase long-term abundance of this preferred prey species of southern resident killer whales.
$235,455

Palouse Conservation District
A Watershed Moment: Restoring a Community Green Space through Partner Engagement (WA)
Engage university, youth and other community volunteers in tree and shrub plantings and other conservation projects to restore 5.2 acres and 0.6 miles of streambank, in addition to monitoring water quality of the South Fork Palouse River and Paradise Creek. Project will implement 3rd-6th grade watershed educational activities and workshops for community members to build understanding, commitment and participation in watershed restoration.
$49,848

Skagit River System Cooperative
Design Alternatives to Improve Connectivity for Salmon through McGlinn Island Jetty (WA)
Explore opportunities at McGlinn Island to increase habitat connectivity and access for juvenile salmon. Project will evaluate potential modifications to the McGlinn Island Jetty that would improve connectivity for fish between the Skagit River and the Swinomish Channel without creating changes to sedimentation rates.
$108,537

South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group
Lower Greenwater Riparian Restoration: Headwater Investments with Downstream Communities (WA)
Survey and treat invasive species, plant native species and remove 1,500 pounds of water-contaminating garbage across 105 acres of salmon habitat in a 7-mile riparian corridor in the Greenwater River headwaters. Project will engage over 200 students and volunteers through field trips and native plantings, and establish a community partnership that includes youth from urban and rural communities.
$49,500

The Corps Network
Engaging Young People in Conservation and Natural Resource Implementation
Advance both Conservation Corps development and implementation and expansion across the Forest Service and sister land management agencies. Project will enroll a young, talented person to provide critical staff capacity will advance two essential priorities for the Service – climate and engaging diverse citizens in conservation action.
$75,100

The Nature Conservancy
Develop, Test and Deploy Machine Learning to Reduce Storage for Electronic Monitoring of Fisheries (multiple states)
Develop, widely test and deploy open source computer vision tools which identify and trim video segments to reduce archival video storage costs for fisheries electronic monitoring. Project will employ a two-step process where detection of humans is completed during video review and trimming is done only after video review is completed to reduce risk of eliminating important fishing activity and to facilitate adoption by regulators.
$144,889

Trout Unlimited
Elevating Instream Flow Enhancement in the Methow and Okanogan Basins (WA)
Identify, prioritize and develop water transactions in the Methow and Okanogan subbasins of Washington working in collaboration with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Project will increase habitat and instream flow in priority tributaries and will build capacity for working with agricultural landowners on conservation projects that will benefit Pacific salmon, steelhead and their habitat.
$80,305

Trout Unlimited
Hydrologic Flow Restoration in the Yakima, Entiat, and Wenatchee Basins (WA)
Identify, prioritize and develop projects with willing water right holders in the Entiat, Yakima and Wenatchee subbasins of Washington to complete significant instream flow enhancements to priority streams and tributaries. Project will improve tributary instream habitat to benefit listed salmon and other fish species and their habitats.
$216,227

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Prairie Habitat Restoration to Recover Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Populations Surrounding Joint Base Lewis-McChord
Enhance the habitat and population status of Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly outside of Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), reducing the need for military training restrictions and supporting military readiness goals. Project will improve management on 165 acres, with a total of 33 five-acre units across both medium- and high-quality landscapes, and will directly advance multiple objectives of the JBLM Sentinel Landscape Implementation Plan, by restoring and maintaining prairies on conservation lands, expanding partnership capacity for native plant production, improving population numbers for rare species, and supporting research to improve restoration outcomes for rare species.
$360,000

Washington Fish and Wildlife
Piloting Electronic Monitoring in the Coastal Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery - II (WA)
Continue evaluating a lite electronic monitoring system, with limited image collection, as a potential tool to modernize the management of the Washington coastal commercial dungeness crab fishery and address time-sensitive management needs. Project will improve the quality and timely accessibility of fishing effort and location information through increasing electronic monitoring coverage to 12 vessels; testing the flow of program data to partners; and reporting data on a larger scale.
$122,901

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Provide Streamflow Monitoring and Water Transaction Support (WA)
Provide stream monitoring and technical assistance to all Washington state Qualified Local Entities on prioritization, identification, and development of water right transactions. Project will provide review on monitoring plans to ensure that stream flow and, where appropriate, biological monitoring are incorporated into project monitoring plans.
$95,833

Washington Maritime Blue
Whale Sighting Network Participation in the WhaleReport Alert System (WA)
Enhance the Whale Report Alert System, a real-time geographically based alert system for commercial mariners, with timely, accurate United States whale sightings data. Project will increase the number of Washington whale sightings entered into the system and provide data analysis of the number of whale sightings, whale alerts, and mariner uses.
$50,930

Washington Water Trust
Stream Flow Restoration to Benefit Salmon, Steelhead and Trout in Columbia Basin (WA)
Restore fish-critical streams in the Columbia River Basin by implementing instream flow acquisitions in the Methow, Yakima, Wenatchee, Klickitat, and White Salmon River basins. Project will benefit ESA-listed Chinook salmon and steelhead.
$146,120

Washington Water Trust
Stream Flow Restoration to Benefit Salmon, Steelhead and Trout in the Columbia Basin - Umatilla (OR, WA)
Restore fish-critical streams in the Columbia River Basin by implementing instream flow acquisitions in the Walla Walla basin. Project will continue its partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation to benefit ESA-threatened summer steelhead and bull trout.
$124,290

Washington Water Trust
Stream Flow Restoration to Benefit Salmon, Steelhead and Trout (WA)
Restore fish-critical streams in the Columbia River Basin by implementing instream flow acquisitions in the Okanogan, Wenatchee, and Methow watersheds. Project will continue its partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to benefit ESA-listed steelhead, spring Chinook, and bull trout.
$98,731

Woodland Park Zoological Society
Amphibian Monitoring (WA)
Engage community members in amphibian conservation efforts through species monitoring and restoration of their wetland habitats. Project will implement a monitoring regime of 15 acres of wetlands for presence, absence and breeding of eight amphibian species, 3.3 acres of wetland habitat will be restored through native planting and invasive species removal, and 105 volunteers and six partners will be engaged in project activities.
$46,063