NOAA Fisheries has recommended USD 45 million (EUR 40 million) in funding for 27 projects dedicated to climate resilience and habitat restoration, including salmon recovery and other fisheries-related initiatives.
Nearly half of the spending will go to federally recognized tribes, while the remaining money will go to underserved communities.
“These projects demonstrate the power of community-driven habitat restoration,” NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit said. “Building the capacity of tribes and underserved communities will help ensure that their needs and priorities are at the center of this work happening in their communities.”
Although not all of the 27 projects are connected to commercial fisheries, many will directly help restore or conserve fish populations. Examples among NOAA Fisheries’ recommendations include USD 794,000 (EUR 712,000) for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission for salmon recovery in the Columbia River estuary, USD 550,000 (EUR 493,000) for the Salmonid Restoration Federation to work with tribes on salmon restoration projects, and USD 656,000 (EUR 588,000) for supporting salmon and other fish in the Skagit River in the state of Washington.
Several of the habitat-restoration projects selected by NOAA Fisheries also cite salmon or other fish-recovery efforts as a primary goal.
“This USD 45 million investment, part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda, will empower tribes and underserved communities on the front lines of the climate crisis to restore ecologically and culturally important coastal ecosystems and boost their resilience to climate change,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said.
The spending is the latest distribution of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act – two pieces of legislation that together have given the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden billions of dollars to spend on conservation and climate resilience. NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation has run four funding opportunities with money stemming from the two laws.
Elsewhere, earlier this month, the government announced USD 34 million (EUR 31 million) in Inflation Reduction Act spending on modernizing NOAA Fisheries’ workforce, infrastructure, and data efforts.
