NRCS PROVIDES DISASTER RECOVERY FUNDING IN NORTHWEST OREGON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact information:
Dave Dishman: (503) 414-3252, Dave.Dishman@or.usda.gov
 

PORTLAND, OR, July 25, 2008 – Landowners and communities in Columbia and Clatsop Counties will receive supplemental conservation funding to address damage and hazards resulting from last winter’s floods. Approximately $1.2 million will be directed to stabilize streambanks and restore streams clogged with sediment and debris. These areas are threatening homes and other properties.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is providing $905,000 of the funding through the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program. As a local sponsor for the program, the Columbia County Soil and Water Conservation District is providing an additional 25 percent of associated project costs.

The funding for northwest Oregon was made available earlier today when Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced nationwide EWP funding totaling $390 million to cope with the aftermath of recent floods, fires, drought, tornadoes and other natural disasters.
The funds are included in a $162 billion supplemental spending bill that helps the Midwest states with areas ravaged by recent flooding. However, it also provides funding to cover about $140 million in EWP projects from earlier natural disasters, including the December storms in Oregon.

"USDA employees work shoulder to shoulder with their neighbors at the outset of these emergencies, and remain involved as a member of these communities," said Schafer. "I'm proud that we follow up with emergency support to recover an area's damaged watersheds and remove hazards to life and property."

USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers the EWP program, which provides technical and financial assistance to address public safety and restoration efforts on private, public and tribal lands. Through sponsorships, NRCS can pay landowners and communities up to 75 percent of the cost of protecting eroded streambanks, correcting damaged drainways, reseeding damaged areas, and removing sediment and debris from choked stream channels, road culverts and bridges.

Information about EWP is available at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/ewp

Additional information about NRCS is available at: http://www.or.nrcs.usda.gov 
 

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