Living Lab to Come
Newly awarded grants will help the Land Trust purchase wetland habitat for salmon restoration, as well as a future living laboratory for environmental sciences at Clatsop Community College.
This summer, Columbia Land Trust secured critical federal and state funding to purchase 90 acres of wetland and salmon habitat at South Tongue Point in Astoria, Oregon. In late July, the Land Trust’s Conservation Director Dan Roix and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici toured the site. The congresswoman expressed her support for local salmon recovery in the Columbia River estuary and is working to protect threatened grant programs that support projects like these.
Once the site is acquired, the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce will direct habitat restoration, and the site will be transferred to the Clatsop Community College as a living laboratory for a new environmental science program.
Our coastal land steward, Austin Tomlinson, who is originally from Seaside, told The Daily Astorian that college programs like these would have allowed him to stay near home instead of moving out of state for school. Additionally, the paper reported that the, ‘”National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that every $1 million invested from the fund leads to 17 news jobs and $1.8 million in economic activity.”‘
Read more details about this effort through coverage from The Daily Astorian and OPB.
Thank you to our funders including the USFWS’ National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.
And a special thanks to Congresswoman Bonamici once again for her support of critical funding for salmon habitat restoration in the Columbia River estuary.