Criminal prosecutions led to creation of the Columbia River Estuarine Coastal Fund
Portland, Oregon - Salmon, sea birds, eagles and Columbian white-tailed deer are among the species that will benefit from conservation and restoration projects funded with $1.2 million in community service payments from polluters.
Announced today, the 14 projects, all in or near the Columbia River Estuary, were selected by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to receive the first round of grants from the Columbia River Estuarine Coastal Fund. The fund was established in 2004 through the collaboration of the Foundation, the Service and the U.S. Attorneys for Oregon and the Western District of Washington. Money to start the fund came from fines imposed on shipping companies that illegally discharged oily waste into the Pacific Ocean near the mouth of the Columbia River. The U.S. Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agencys Criminal Investigative Division and the Washington Department of Ecology investigated the cases.
Among the largest community service payments ever allocated to restoration in the Pacific Northwest, the grants will directly benefit the natural resources impacted by the pollution.
Recipients of the grants are being notified this month, with work on some projects expected to start right away. The grants range from $5,000 to $160,000, with recipients providing additional money.
"We are positively thrilled to receive these grants to complete the acquisition of two ecologically important properties," said Glenn Lamb, Executive Director of the Columbia Land Trust in Vancouver, Washington, whose group is providing about $900,000 for the purchase. "This will allow us to restore prime estuarine habitat."
The Trust received two grants totaling $240,000, which will help buy 155 acres of riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.
Learn more about riparian habitat along Germany Creek near Cathlamet, Washington, and 105 acres of historic floodplain habitat along the Walluski River south of Astoria. The projects will help restore natural tidal and estuarine functions and will open up wetlands to salmon.
"Every species of salmon in the Columbia system passes through the estuary, either migrating up to the spawning areas or out to sea," Lamb said, "and they rely on off- channel habitat as they make their transition between saltwater and freshwater."
Other projects receiving grants range from a variety of habitat restorations and acquisitions to public use and education programs and research. A full list of the projects is at the end of this release.
"These projects will mitigate for the environmental impacts of the illegal dumping and bring additional benefits to the fish, wildlife and communities that were affected," said Dave Allen, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Pacific Region. "I want to thank everyone who worked to ensure that these fines would be used in the affected areas and I?m proud that the Service is part of this collaborative effort to protect and restore the unique natural resources of the area."
The Columbia River Estuarine Coastal Fund was established with community service payments stemming from the successful prosecution of three foreign shipping companies charged in 2004 with violating federal pollution laws. Tipped off by whistleblowers, inspectors from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Washington State Department of Ecology conducted on-board investigations and found evidence of intentional discharges of oily waste from these ships. The U.S Attorneys Offices in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, prosecuted the shipping companies, which ultimately pleaded guilty to felony violations of environmental laws. The companies were ordered to pay criminal fines and develop comprehensive environmental compliance plans to prevent future violations. A significant part of the criminal fines in each case was suspended on the condition that the suspended amounts be made as community service payments to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for conservation and restoration projects in the areas impacted by the discharges.
"Oregons rivers and wildlife are part of what makes it such a special place, which is why we are firmly committed to enforcing environmental laws," said Karin Immergut, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon. "I am especially pleased that the fines in these cases will be spent here in our community to improve habitat for eagles, deer, salmon and other wildlife, and to improve the quality of the rivers and streams we share with them."
Immergut called the settlements a tribute to the hard work and coordinated efforts of a multi-agency task force that included the U.S. Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology.
John McKay, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, agreed. "I am pleased to see these dollars from polluters going to work to improve the fragile ecosystems that have been damaged by their criminal conduct," McKay said. "The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Washington is committed to working with our federal partners to pursue the vessels, personnel and companies that violate our environmental protection laws."
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is developing a similar fund for Puget Sound. The fund will be established with community service payments from criminal convictions for environmental offenses that impact the Puget Sound coastal marine environment.
Together with the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation established the Columbia River Estuarine Coastal Fund as a grant-making program for projects in and along the Lower Columbia River, below Bonneville Dam, and the coasts of Oregon (south to and including Tillamook Bay) and Washington (north to and including Willapa Bay). The Foundation will oversee implementation of the grants.
An additional $745,000 in new community service payments from criminal prosecutions were added to the Columbia River Estuarine Coastal Fund in 2005. The Foundation will request more proposals for conservation projects for the Lower Columbia River during summer 2005.
"The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, as a private, non-profit foundation, is in a unique position to receive and leverage funds from settlements, as well as from private donors, to create partnerships and invest in innovative conservation projects," said Krystyna Wolniakowski, Director of the Foundations Northwest Regional Office in Portland. "We are extremely pleased that the courts directed these community service payments to the Foundation."
To further its goals of increasing resources for conservation and recovering viable and healthy ecosystems, the Foundation partners with natural resources management agencies to manage and administer funds that result from impacts or damages to wildlife and their habitats. In carrying out these partnerships the Foundation ensures that these funds are delivered directly to conservation projects benefiting the injured resource. Currently the Foundation manages 63 funds of this type nationwide with a cumulative value of $116 million as of September 30, 2004.
The Columbia River project proposals were reviewed by representatives from Oregon and Washington, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Service and the Foundation. The proposals also were reviewed by nine other representatives from local non-profit organizations, technical experts and federal agencies with expertise on natural resources of the Lower Columbia River ecosystem.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is a nonprofit organization established by Congress in 1984 and dedicated to the conservation of fish, wildlife and plants, and the habitat on which they depend. The organization creates partnerships between the public and private sectors to strategically invest in conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources. The Foundation distributed 709 grants in 2004 and has leveraged -
With its partners - more than $305 million in federal funds since its establishment, for a total of more than $918 in on-the-ground conservation. For more information, visit www.nfwf.org.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
Following is a list of grants and the projects they will help finance. More details are available at www.nfwf.org.
