Almost a third of the stimulus money promised to Washington for coastal restoration Tuesday will end up in Skagit County projects meant to improve chinook salmon habitat and improve the Skagit Delta’s capacity to hold floodwater.

Nature Conservancy Restoration Manager Jenny Baker has been working on expanding Fisher Slough to 60 acres since 2004. With news that the Nature Conservancy is receiving $5.2 million in recovery money for the project, Baker said she’s ready to start in September.

Two Skagit County projects received $6.2 million to restore estuaries in the county vital to juvenile salmon and increase the area’s floodwater capacity. But the projects will also retain some jobs and create dozens of new jobs in the area over the next two years.

Baker said without this funding, the Conservancy would have to seek what few grants and funding streams are available elsewhere.

“The funding sources in these economic times are not what they once were,” Baker said. “It would have been difficult to get funding. We would have had to piece it together from a lot of sources.”

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, former governor of Washington, announced Tuesday that $167 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will go to 50 projects across the United States. The funding will be distributed through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Washington’s six projects received $16.5 million, nearly 10 percent of the total allotment. Two estuary improvement projects in Skagit County make up 31 percent of Washington’s total.

The projects will receive $6.2 million to expand or restore floodplain vital to the growth and survival of chum, coho and the threatened chinook salmon.

Additionally, the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe will receive just over $1 million to restore 140 acres of forested habitat on the Hansen Creek floodplain, just east of Sedro-Woolley.

Scientists say that problems created by manmade changes to the land in the Hansen watershed have contributed to a decline in juvenile salmon, between 31 percent and 83 percent, according to the 2002 management plan for the watershed.

The Nature Conservancy received the largest amount of money in the Northwest, $5.2 million, for a project at Fisher Slough, a mile south of Conway. The project would expand the 10-acre estuary to 60 acres, reroute a water drainage ditch and replace tide gates.

The project is meant to expand habitat for juvenile chinook while improving flood protection to nearby residents and agricultural land. The tide gate portion of the project is paid for and will begin construction in September, funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Recreation and Conservation Office.

The $5.2 million of recovery money will go toward the rest of the project. Baker said the Conservancy’s project would create 50 new jobs and retain 13 through the Conservancy.

To expand Fisher Slough, crews will start building a new dike in 2010. Once the dike is finished one year later, the crews will level an existing dike on the south side of the slough.

The crews will also move Big Ditch, a drainage line stretching from south Mount Vernon to the east. The ditch currently runs underneath the existing slough, creating what Baker called a “speed bump” in Fisher Slough.

Baker coordinated the project with Skagit County, Dike District 3, the Western Washington Agricultural Association and Drainage and Irrigation District 17.

The project will create more space for chinook salmon to grow and allow the tide gates to remain open longer. By creating more sponge-like space for flood waters to flow, the tide gates can remain open for most of the time chinook salmon will travel through the area.

Baker, who was hired specifically for this project, said the Nature Conservancy applied for the grant months ago. She said the Conservancy was eligible for the project because all the planning and design had already been paid for and completed.

By meeting the Recovery Act’s “shovel ready” requirements, they were able to accelerate the project with the single, lump sum $5.2 million grant.
Mike Shelby, executive director of the Western Washington Agricultural Association, said the project has handled all of his concerns for the farming community. Shelby said projects like these always set off “red flags” for agricultural organizations.

“If you’re going to do a habitat project, you’ve got to consider everybody’s needs,” Shelby said. “You can’t just do a project and ignore the infrastructure you’ve got going on here.”

But he said local farmers will benefit from the project because of the estuary’s ability to take on more flood water. The project can now take in 250 acre feet more of flood water than the existing slough.

Jeff McGowan, Skagit County salmon habitat specialist, said salmon require these estuaries for survival.

“Chum love the estuary,” McGowan said. “They stay there a few months until they get a certain size and then head out to the ocean.”

McGowan said good estuary space allows salmon to gain weight, and greatly increases their survival rate once they enter the ocean.

• Marta Murvosh contributed to this report.