The McSorley Creek Shoreline and Estuary Restoration Project in Des Moines will receive $200,000 from the King County Flood Control District to help restore 1,000 feet of shoreline and one acre of pocket estuary.
This is part of a total of $10,585,155 in grant funding earmarked for salmon recovery and habitat restoration work in King County.
Grant funding will also support a summer internship program focused on ecological restoration. The internship – Youth Engaged in Sustainable Systems – was created in partnership with Highline School District and Pacific Education Institute.
The grants, known as Cooperative Watershed Management (CWM) Grants, fund critical projects and activities throughout the Snoqualmie, Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish, Green/Duwamish and Puyallup-White watersheds. The projects funded were proposed by local Watershed Resource Inventory Areas (WRIA).
Funding for the CWM grants were doubled in 2020 when Flood District Chair Dave Upthegrove led changes to make the Flood District a better environmental partner while still providing essential flood protection along the County’s major rivers.
“Two years ago, the Flood District made the bold move to reorient our work to not only protect people and property from flooding, but also help our threatened Chinook salmon in the process,” Upthegrove said. “These grant dollars are just one example where the Flood District has committed to doing our work in a way that improves the environmental health of our river systems. The increase in funding will ensure an additional $50 million is available for salmon recovery efforts over the next decade.”
More information on the Cooperative Watershed Management grants can be found here.
