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Pesky Beavers to be Exiled in Methow Valley

Flickr - Dana Styber: https://flic.kr/p/pu65Td

A combination of state and federal money will fund salmon recovery projects in 29 Washington counties. Most of the $18 million scraped together by the Washington salmon recovery funding board will go to removing barriers which block salmon from migrating, to dump logs and tree root balls into rivers and streams to give the fish hiding, feeding and spawning pools and to planting bank-side shade plants to cool the water.

But there are a couple of unusual projects in the Methow Valley.  More than $180,000 will be spent to trap nuisance beavers in the Methow River valley and exile them to tributaries further upriver. The idea is to increase water storage and improve water quality in the area for spring Chinook, steelhead and bull trout.

Another grant, more than $700,000, will go to Trout Unlimited to stop seasonal construction of irrigation district gravel dams in the Methow River which block flow in the main river channel. The conservation group plans to build a pressurized irrigation system further downstream for use by farmers in the growing season.

Even Pend Oreille County, in far northeastern Washington, will get a couple of grants - these to tear out and replace crumbling old narrow culverts on a couple of streams. The culverts will be replaced with bridges and give the endangered fish access to about 11 miles of water they cannot get to now.

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