NOAA Recommends CRWP and The Eyak Corporation Projects for Funding

Sher 1 culvert on the Copper River delta is in critical conditional resulting in road failure in. It could be a total barrier and with NOAA funding will be addressed.

NOAA announced on December 14, 2022 nearly $105 million in funding for 36 new fish passage projects through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“These projects will help restore access to healthy habitat for migratory fish across the country through efforts including: on-the-ground fish passage restoration, engineering and design, future project development, and building the capacity of new and existing partners to design projects and manage multi-faceted restoration efforts”.

The Copper River Watershed Project was the only organization to have their project selected in Alaska through the Restoring Fish Passage through Barrier Removal funding opportunity. CRWP is recommended to receive $1,410,000 which will go towards the removal of two culverts and design of seven additional culvert removals of the Copper River delta.

Over $16 million in funding will go towards 13 projects led by tribal applicants for fish passage and to build tribal organization capacity through the Restoring Tribal Priority Fish Passage through Barrier Removal funding opportunity.

The Eyak Corporation will build capacity for planning and implementing fish passage and connection restoration projects in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Copper River Watershed Project. They have been recommended to receive $309,088 in the first year with up to $2,872,614 total over 3 years.

Through this NOAA funding opportunity there will be over another $4 million in BIL funding coming to the Copper River watershed!