State aids grazing habitat

By STEVE KADEL

H&N Staff Writer

May 27, 2007

   The Klamath County and Lake County watershed councils will each receive more than $100,000 in funding to operate for the next two years. 

   The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) voted last week to make the biennial allocations. It is distributing $5 million to 60 watershed councils throughout the state. 

   Lakeview’s council will get $113,280 and Klamath County ’s will get $101,260. 

   Lakeview council coordinator Anna Kerr said Beatty Butte grazing habitat improvement is one of its top priorities. Water will be piped from springs four miles in one direction and five miles in another, with a series of troughs to allow livestock watering. 

   Kerr said the habitat benefits by distributing grazing over a wider area. 

   Juniper thinning 

   Several hundred acres of juniper thinning also is scheduled, Kerr said. 

   She added the OWEB funding would allow the coordinator’s position, which she shares with Marci Schreder, to become full time rather than part time as in the past. That means the funding will leverage more additional money through grant applications, Kerr said. 

   Klamath County Watershed Council spokeswoman Danette Watson was unavailable for comment about projects currently under way. 

   Additional funding 

   In making its funding allocations, OWEB fell short of the $7.8 million in requests from councils. The agency’s board will consider additional funding after the legislative session ends and OW EB’s final budget has been approved, said OWEB executive director Tom Byler. 

   “Councils are the key to success of cooperative conservation work,” Byler said in a news release. “ The council coordinators help interested landowners and community members identify non-regulatory approaches to protect clean water and recover salmon populations.” 

   Watershed councils coordinate natural resource improvement programs in almost every river basin in Oregon . Council funding from the Oregon Lottery and the federal Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund are for the two-year period beginning July 1.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed  a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and  educational purposes only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Source:  http://pioneer.olivesoftware.com/Daily/Skins/heraldandnews/

navigator.asp?skin=heraldandnews