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| Calapooia Watershed Council receives award for Brownsville Dam work | ||
| 10/30/2006 | ||
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20-06
News media contact: Monte Turner, 503-986-0195Spirit of the Oregon Plan Awards presented Oct. 27 in Seaside The Calapooia Watershed Council was among 11 recipients from throughout Oregon honored for their work to protect and improve streams, lakes and watersheds at a luncheon Friday in Seaside. The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board presented the Spirit of the Oregon Plan Awards during the state agency’s biennial conference. “We are pleased to recognize the exemplary work and leadership of these dedicated people,” said Tom Byler, OWEB executive director. Calapooia Watershed Council Chair Bud Baumgartner and Denise Hoffert-Hay, project manager for the council, accepted the award. The Calapooia Watershed Council has worked for more than four years with the Brownsville community to consider fish passage options for the Brownsville Dam. While the dam has been a known fish passage barrier for decades, state and federal natural resource agencies were reluctant to tackle the project knowing that community resistance to removal could be extremely high, according to the award nomination. While initial community meetings with the owners of the dam, the Brownsville Canal Company, were tense and unproductive, the council persisted in its work, the nomination states. By January 2006, the Brownsville Canal Company unanimously decided to support removal of Brownsville Dam as long as flows in the historic canal could be maintained by some other mechanism. Once the dam is removed, the Calapooia will be a free-flowing river for the native population of winter steelhead and spring chinook salmon that have struggled to migrate past this structure for the past 100 years. Wendy Hudson, OWEB regional program representative, and Douglass Fitting, OWEB technical assistance/special projects coordinator, nominated the council for the award. OWEB projects support the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds that emphasizes private, voluntary actions to restore wild salmon populations. OWEB is a state agency led by a policy oversight board. The agency provides grants and services to citizen groups, organizations and agencies working to restore healthy watersheds in Oregon. Funding comes from the Oregon Lottery as a result of a citizen initiative in 1998, sales of salmon license plates, federal salmon funds and other sources.  Denise Hoffert-Hay, third from from right, and Bud Baumgartner, second from right, display their Spirit of the Oregon Plan Award with OWEB Board co-chair Dan Heagerty, right. Also pictured, from left: Tom Byler, OWEB executive director, and Jane O'Keeffe, OWEB Board co-chair.
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