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Grants offered to landowners for waterway projects
August 29, 2007 11-07
News media contact: Monte Turner, OWEB in Salem, 503-986-0195
Projects must benefit aquatic species, wildlife or waterway health
Landowners looking for financial help to prevent erosion along streams, increase irrigation efficiency or upgrade bridges or culverts that will improve fish access should consider applying for a grant tailored for these and similar small projects.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board Small Grant Program provides up to $10,000 in Oregon Lottery funds for individual projects that help restore watershed elements such as creeks, rivers or wetlands. Projects must benefit aquatic species, wildlife or waterway health. At least 25 percent of the OWEB funds must be matched from other sources. “The program is a happy marriage of on-the-ground benefits to watersheds with on-the-ground benefits to landowners,” said Tom Byler, OWEB executive director.
Watershed councils, soil and water conservation districts and tribes submit applications on behalf of landowners. Teams with representatives from councils, districts and tribes have established priorities for types of projects to be funded under this program in each of 28 areas within the state. Local evaluation committees review applications and forward recommendations for funding to OWEB.
Anyone interested in applying should first talk with the local Small Grant Team contact, said Bev Goodreau with OWEB’s Grant Program. Find a list at www.oregon.gov/OWEB. Click on “Grant Program,” then “Small Grant Program,” or call Goodreau in Salem at 503-986-0187.
Application deadlines and review schedules vary with each team, but the review process usually takes less than 60 days, Goodreau reported. Successful applicants have two years to complete the funded project.
The Small Grant Program has helped agricultural landowners comply with Agricultural Water Quality Management Area Plans designed to ensure that agricultural operations protect water quality. More than 75 percent of program projects have supported the plans.
Examples of recently funded Small Grant Program projects include:
- Columbia County--$10,000 to replace four East Creek culverts that prevented fish passage with a steel bridge and to plant native vegetation in the area.
- Clackamas County--$10,000 to install a system to collect rainwater from the roof of a house and store the water in an underground tank. A pump feeds an irrigation system for a two-acre homestead with a large vegetable garden and orchard.
- Benton County--$1,500 to remove trees and shrubs competing with white oak in an area near the Marys River. The site provides native prairie habitat for the second largest population of Fenders Blue Butterfly in the Willamette Valley.
- Coos County--$9,000 to improve 11th Street in the City of Lakeside to reduce erosion into Tenmile Lakes. The funds paid to replace an undersized culvert with a larger one, dig seven settling ponds, properly design the street slope and create a new ditch.
- Sherman County--$2,700 to construct terraces and basins to capture, store and slowly release runoff from winter precipitation on 53 acres of cropland to reduce erosion and keep sediment out of streams.
- Grant County--$7,000 to build water troughs to provide a year-round water supply for livestock, to seed 800 acres of rangeland and to build a cross fence to allow livestock rotation, helping rangeland and streambank vegetation to grow.
Since 2002, the Small Grant Program has awarded more than $7.8 million to nearly 1,200 projects.
Other OWEB grant programs fund more complex projects and support a variety of related activities. For more information about OWEB activities and programs, visit www.oregon.gov/OWEB or call OWEB in Salem at 503-986-0178.
OWEB projects support the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds that emphasizes private, voluntary actions to restore wild salmon populations. OWEB is a state agency led by a policy oversight board. The agency provides grants and services to citizen groups, organizations and agencies working to restore healthy watersheds in Oregon. Funding comes from the Oregon Lottery as a result of a citizen initiative in 1998, sales of salmon license plates, federal salmon funds and other sources.
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