2023 Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund Featured Projects
Explore the efforts of NOAA's 2023 PCSRF grant recipients and the different projects they're working on to restore pacific salmon and steelhead populations.
Every year, we highlight some projects to illustrate how our partners across the region are addressing the factors that limit salmon recovery and building ecosystems resilient to climate change. What is being done to save Pacific salmon? The featured projects below are a sample of the thousands of salmon restoration projects that have been completed since the fund’s inception in 2000. The PCSRF Project Reporting Database provides the full list of all restoration efforts funded by PCSRF.
Alaska
2023
Strategic Conservation of Priority Salmon Habitat – Phase 7
Protecting Salmon Habitat and Traditional Use Sites for the Native Village of Tazlina
With $627,000 of PCSRF funds, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) supported the Native Village of Tazlina in protecting salmon habitat and traditional use sites on ancestral land. ADF&G and Great Land Trust, a non-profit land conservation organization, assisted the Native Village of Tazlina (NVT) in purchasing a portion of Ahtna Athabaskan homeland. This purchase protects salmon habitat and access to traditional subsistence fishing camps from future development.
Archaeological work supported by oral history indicates that the property, situated at the confluence of the Tazlina and Copper rivers, has been used continuously for subsistence purposes for the last 300-700 years. In 1956, the federal government sold this land to the Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau to build a boarding school. In 2018, the Archdiocese signed an agreement to sell the land to NVT, the original stewards. ADF&G’s Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund program contributed towards the total purchase price for 162 acres of undeveloped land that supports riparian and migratory habitat for Chinook, coho, sockeye, and steelhead populations. This parcel, a portion of the more than 400-acre Tazlina homelands site, holds subsistence fish wheels and tribal education fish camps along nearly 1 ½ miles of river frontage on the Copper and Tazlina rivers near their confluence. The terms of the purchase prohibit development beyond the maintenance of fish camps to ensure habitat conservation while protecting cultural and subsistence uses in perpetuity.
“We are so happy to know that all future generations of tribal members will have access to this land and will be able to use it in the same way that we do today and have in the past. The people who live here have a huge connection to this place.” – Marce Simeon, NVT Tribal Administrator
Funding
Source Amount |
PCSRF $627,000 |
Match & Other Funds $1,046,185 |
TOTAL $1,673,185 |
Project Partners
Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau, Great Land Trust, and the Native Village of Tazlina.
California
2023
California Conservation Corps Watershed Stewards Program in Partnership with AmeriCorp
Working to revitalize watersheds that are important for endangered and threatened west coast salmon and steelhead
With $608,880 of PCSRF funds, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fisheries Restoration Grant Program supported the California Conservation Corps’ (CCC) Watershed Stewards Program (WSP). WSP works in close partnership with state and federal agencies, nonprofits, and tribal groups to revitalize watersheds that contain ESA-listed salmon and steelhead. For this particular effort, WSP recruited 44 Conservation Corps (CC) Members throughout coastal California to enhance the recovery of California Coastal Chinook salmon, Northern California steelhead, and Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast coho salmon. CC members complete watershed protection projects in the field, organize volunteer restoration projects, lead classroom lessons, and facilitate outreach events. In advance, CC members receive needed skills-based training, including how to conduct watershed and stream surveys. These surveys assess current fish populations, stream flow, water temperature, habitat conditions, and other threats to salmon recovery. WSP provides Corpsmembers with the skills and hands-on experience they need for a successful career in environmental assessment, community engagement, and science communication. WSP not only revitalizes watersheds and advances salmon recovery, the program strengthens our future workforce and educates the public on watershed stewardship, ensuring informed land use decisions going forward.
Funding
Source Amount |
PCSRF $608,880 |
Match & Other Funds $1,091,697 |
TOTAL $1,700,577 |
Project Partners
AmeriCorps, Bureau of Land Management, California Conservation Corps Watershed Stewards Program, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Sea Grant, California State Water Board, Central Coast Wetlands Group, Community Businesses, Grassroots Ecology, Marin Municipal Water District, Marin Water Fisheries Program, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, Point Reyes National Seashore, Resource Conservation District Santa Monica Mountains, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Luis Obispo Steelhead Initiative, Six Rivers National Forest, and US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Idaho
2023
Loon Creek Habitat Improvement Project
Saving water to support Snake River salmon and steelhead at the Diamond D Ranch
With $464,513 of PCSRF funding, the Idaho Office of Species Conservation (ID OSC) supported a landowners effort to conserve water and improve habitat important for Snake River salmon and Steelhead. Upper Loon Creek contains critical spawning and rearing habitat for ESA-listed Snake River spring/summer-run Chinook salmon and Snake River Basin steelhead. At the headwaters of Loon Creek, the Diamond D Ranch has operated as a summer vacation, fall hunting destination, and working ranch for more than 60 years. In 1981, the ranch began operating a hydropower system, which reduced the quality of a ½ mile of Chinook salmon and steelhead spawning and rearing habitat. The hydropower system also reduced access to more than 11 miles of Chinook salmon habitat and nearly 25 miles of steelhead habitat. ID OSC supported the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Custer Soil and Water Conservation District as they worked with the landowner to install an improved hydropower facility, resulting in significant water savings. This water savings remains in the channel through the summer, even while the ranch is at peak operation. Additional flows are saved throughout the winter months and into spring due to the functionality of the new hydropower system. A newly installed headgate and fish screen provide adequate water to the new hydropower facility and allow proper water management during the peak flows. The Loon Creek project was extremely difficult to implement due to the remote location and timing. Overcoming these challenges and the ultimate success of this project was made possible by the willing ranch owners, who were very supportive of this project to recover salmon and steelhead populations in Loon Creek.
Funding
Source Amount |
PCSRF $464,513 |
Match & Other Funds $159,371 |
TOTAL $623,884 |
Project Partners
Custer Soil and Water Conservation District, Diamond D Ranch, and Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
Oregon
2023
Vinegar to Vincent Fish Habitat Improvement
Addressing past land use impacts on a tribally-owned conservation to advance salmon and steelhead habitat restoration
With $508,159 of PCSRF funds, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board supported the restoration of land impacted by legacy effects of historic land use. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (CTWS) restored 1.2 miles of salmon habitat in the Middle Fork John Day River. CTWS reconnected and reestablished diverse habitat types on a tribally-owned conservation property, increasing quality habitat for multiple life stages of salmon and steelhead. These efforts are part of a three-phased project, beginning in 2020, that aims to address persistent legacy impacts from past land use practices to advance the recovery of ESA-listed Middle Columbia steelhead, as well as benefit unlisted spring-run Chinook salmon. Legacy impacts from historic railroad and agricultural use along the Middle Fork John Day River degraded instream and riparian habitat and led to poor water quality. CTWS reconnected the river to its floodplain by removing the railroad grade. The project included reactivating historic stream channels, creating additional side channel habitat, and revegetating the riparian area with more than 74,470 plants. They also installed large wood and gravel to improve instream habitat complexity and provide additional resources for spawning and rearing. Finally, the floodplain and riparian areas were fenced to exclude livestock and wildlife and allow vegetation to regenerate.
Funding
Source Amount |
PCSRF $508,159 |
Match & Other Funds $1,252,406 |
TOTAL $1,760,565 |
Project Partners
BCI Contracting, Big Mike General Contracting, Bonneville Power Administration, Bureau of Reclamation, Cargill Fencing, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, Inter-fluve, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, and Wildlands Inc.
Washington
2023
Lower Mainstem Skokomish LWD - RM 5
Large wood installation on the Lower Skokomish River
With $452,350 of PCSRF funds, the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) supported restoration on the Lower Skokomish River. Mason Conservation District (Mason CD), and Skokomish Indian Tribe partnered on the lower mainstem Skokomish River to restore nearly 1 mile of salmon habitat. The Skokomish River is the largest river system in the Hood Canal basin of Puget Sound, and historically produced the region’s largest runs of salmon and steelhead. The project included installing engineered log jams and creating side channel habitat to improve the natural rearing, spawning, and migration success of salmon. This was one of the first efforts in this section of the Skokomish River that used methods to create habitat complexity as a way to address legacy impacts. Legacy impacts from forest management practices in the upper Skokomish watershed include excessive instream sediment deposits in the lower, less steep parts of the watershed. When river flows are low, excess sediment pushes river water underground, resulting in temporary fish passage barriers to adult salmon migration. Excess sediment can also smother redds and reduce spawning success. In the summer of 2023, engineered log jams were installed to facilitate sediment processing and create and maintain natural channel patterns meant to support migrating and spawning salmon. Additionally, a side channel was created to provide off-channel juvenile rearing habitat. In the summer and fall of 2023, there were considerable salmon returns to the Skokomish River, seen via drone footage. These salmon were able to make immediate use of the newly restored reach.
This is the first phase of a larger, ongoing effort to recover the Skokomish Chinook salmon population, which are listed under the ESA along with other Puget Sound Chinook. Restoring this portion of the Skokomish River watershed also supports many other salmon populations, including Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon (ESA-listed) and Puget Sound coho salmon, each critically important to the region and the Skokomish Indian Tribe.
Funding
Source Amount |
PCSRF $452,350 |
Match & Other Funds $171,167 |
TOTAL $623,517 |
Project Partners
Mason Conservation District, Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Funds, Skokomish Indian Tribe, and Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office.