The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) selected the Coos Watershed Association to receive a Salmon License Plate grant at their October 27-28, 2015 Board Meeting. Salmon License Plate revenues are generated from the extra fee Oregonians pay when they purchase Salmon Plates for their vehicles. The grant, titled “East Fork Millicoma Oxbow Reconnection and Habitat Restoration Project” totals $1.26 million and will reconnect over 16 miles and restore stream functions to support Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon and Steelhead populations in Coos County. “This project is a great investment of the state’s Salmon License Plate dollars,” says Meta Loftsgaarden, OWEB’s executive director. “This investment will provide habitat improvements for Coho Salmon, while also improving water quality and supporting the local natural resource economy.” In addition to East Fork Millicoma, the OWEB Board selected three other projects to be awarded Salmon License Plate funding: • Fivemile-Bell restoration – Siuslaw Watershed Council (Douglas County) – a $300,000 project to reconstruct stream channels to increase Coho Salmon habitat complexity; • Deer Creek Floodplain Enhancement Project – McKenzie Watershed Council (Lane County) – a $118,580 project that will place large wood in Deer Creek to increase the stream’s complexity and reconnect the stream to the surrounding floodplain, improving habitat for Chinook Salmon and Bull Trout; • Oxbow Dredge Mining Restoration – Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs (Grant County) – a $525,000 project that will improve Chinook Salmon and Steelhead habitat by reconnecting the Middle Fork John Day River to its floodplain and planting streamside (riparian) vegetation.
