Northwest tribes awarded EPA grants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded five Northwest tribes a total of $498,601, boosting programs that restore habitat and protect tribal water quality across three Northwest states. Grant funds have been awarded to the Colville, Nez Perce, Nooksack, Quinault, and Umatilla tribes, through EPA’s Clean Water Act Nonpoint Source program.

“These funds mean more ‘horsepower’ for tribal environmental programs,” said Chris Hladick, EPA’s Northwest Regional Administrator in Seattle. “Projects delivered under this Clean Water Act program reduce sediment from forest roads; control invasive species; improve stream channel stability and upgrade salmon habitat. Best of all, they are creative solutions to tough problems for tribes, by tribes.”

Here are a few specific project profiles for this round of funding:

- Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation

Stream crossing and road improvements in Little Jim Creek Watershed, $100,000 grant.

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation will implement nonpoint source water pollution best management practices to improve water quality in the Little Jim Creek watershed with two new stream crossing and critical road improvements. The project work will improve water quality by reducing sediment from roads to streams and will improve in-stream channel hydraulics on this tributary to the Columbia River, complementing other restoration efforts by CTCR in the watershed.

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

Meacham Creek Floodplain and Riparian Restoration Project, $98,604 grant.

Meacham Creek was constrained years ago by the construction of an adjacent railway that included extensive levees (to force the stream away from the tracks), channel relocation, channelization, vegetation alteration, and harvesting of wood for fuel to power trains. Primary use of the EPA funds will be to excavate the side channel and main channels to reconnect the main channel to the floodplain, as well as providing erosion control best management practices through levee removal and channel reconnection/creation.

- Nez Perce Tribe

Water quality improvement project in the headwaters of the Lower Lapwai Creek watershed, $100,000 grant.

The Lapwai Creek watershed is part of the lower Clearwater River drainage. The watershed is approximately 175,000 acres and is located in both Nez Perce and Lewis counties.

This project will create approximately 14-acres of new riparian habitat along a heavily degraded stream reach, construct beaver dam analogues throughout the project area to promote reconnection of floodplain surfaces and increase habitat heterogeneity and quality.• Nooksack Indian Tribe

Riparian Restoration along black slough tributary to South Fork Nooksack River to address water temperature and salmon habitat impairments, $99,997 grant.

Both the North/Middle Fork and South Fork Nooksack River early chinook populations are considered essential for Puget Sound Chinook salmon recovery, but current abundances of Nooksack natural-origin spawners are critically low. While hatchery programs are in place to ensure persistence of both populations, recovery will require substantial improvement in habitat conditions.

- Quinault Indian Nation

Invasive plant species removal and native replanting in riparian areas to improve water quality in the Lower Quinault River, $100,000 grant.Invasive knotweed upsets native ecosystem functions that native salmonid species depend on by excluding native vegetation, influencing sediment transport, and impacting the food web by reducing the abundance and diversity of insects. Native trees and shrubs that would usually grow tall and provide shade and habitat structure are prevented from growing in areas infested with knotweed.

Information: epa.gov/nps/tribal-319-grant-program