Gazette staff



Matriotti Creek is getting some work done on its curves.

The Clallam Conservation District received a $37,800 Pioneers in Conservation grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to do habitat work on Matriotti Creek, a Dungeness River tributary in the Sequim area.

In addition, the district received a $305,000 Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant for decommissioning four miles of U.S. Forest Service roadway along Goodman Creek, a tributary to the Sol Duc River on Clallam County’s west end. As a project sponsor, the conservation district will administer the grants.

Decades ago Matriotti Creek was ditched and straightened resulting in two unnatural 90-

degree turns in the creek. The stream sometimes jumps the banks at the turns. The conservation district will work with landowners to round out the corners in the existing channel. The district also will add logs to the stream’s channel and plant native trees and shrubs on about five acres along 2,000 feet of Matriotti.

Local funds and district staff time will provide about $24,576 in matching funds for the Matriotti grant, including engineering and design done by the district, a $10,000 cash contribution from the North Olympic Salmon Coalition and funding for the tree and shrub planting provided by the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, a joint federal, state and local government program administered by local conservation districts, can help restore habitat adjacent to salmon stream in farmland areas. The costs of replanting trees and shrubs are covered by the program as well as 15 years of compensation for the loss of agricultural land to habitat improvement.

The district’s project will fall in line with other improvements to Matriotti, which was listed as a success story of fecal coliform mitigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after the local Clean Water Workgroup helped to coordinate septic system maintenance and livestock management plans for surrounding farms.

For more information about the Clallam chapter, visit Clallam.scc.wa.gov or call 452-1912 ext. 5.