Chelan County Receives $744K For Salmon Habitat Improvements

Chelan County has been awarded a federal grant in the amount of $744,804 to improve fish habitats in Eagle Creek near Leavenworth.

The funding is being specifically allocated to allow for the removal and retrofitting of numerous culverts within the creek that block the migration routes of fish.

"These are small culverts that private land owners have installed decades ago largely for private driveway crossings over Eagle Creek," explained Chelan County Natural Resources Director Mike Kaputa. "So when they were installed, they were installed to accommodate flooding but not necessarily for fish passage."

Kaputa says the grant is the latest step in a two decades-long effort aimed at restoring twenty miles of critical habitat for steelhead, spring Chinook, and coho salmon in the Chumstick Sub-Watershed.

"This continues a lot of fish barrier work that has been going on in Chumstick and Eagle Creeks for the last twenty-five years. So we're really excited to get this latest round of funding and want to thank the private land owners we've been working with to get that done."

Kaputa says the projects attached to the latest federal funding will be done next year.