The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is looking for proposed restoration activities to help Oregon's Klamath Basin recover from years of severe drought with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The Department of the Interior recently held a series of stakeholder meetings to discuss how to best use the $162 million invested into Klamath Basin ecosystem restoration by President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, according to a March 8 DOI news release.
“Clean water, healthy forests and fertile land made the Klamath Basin and its surrounding watershed home to tribal communities, productive agriculture and abundant populations of suckers, salmon and other fish and migratory birds,” DOI Secretary Deb Haaland said in the release. “But recent water scarcity has had a tremendous impact on the area’s fishing, farming and ecosystems.”
The DOI held virtual meetings Jan. 24-Feb. 4 with six tribes within the basin, according to a Feb. 11 news release. Those consultations were followed by a series of meetings with federal and state officials, as well as tribes and local stakeholders of the Klamath Basin Feb. 1-10.
"The transformative investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, collaboration with states, tribes and local governments, and the input from every impacted community will help us innovate in the face of adversity and restore balance to this river system,” Haaland said. “Together, we must work to respect tribal treaty rights and trust resources, ensure predictable and sustainable water supplies and restore this once abundant ecosystem for the benefit of all its inhabitants."
Federal officials held a hearing focused on the needs of the Klamath Basin March 8, according to Herald and News. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a drought emergency for Klamath County March 7 as the Klamath Basin has only received 69 percent of normal snowpack and just 75 percent of normal precipitation for the 30-year period spanning 1991-2020, according to the Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Proposals for funding can be submitted through the grants.gov website. The deadline to submit applications is May 8.
