A $2 million infrastructure project to replace two undersized culverts on Resighini Rancho Tribal lands has been announced by the Department of the Interior and the U S Fish and Wildlife Service.
The federal funding will replace the Waukell Creek and its tributary Junior Creek culverts on the Klamath River Estuary. The Tribe has been working to complete these projects for the last decade in an effort to reopen access to threatened juvenile Coho salmon, steelhead trout and coastal cutthroat trout. The culverts fill with sediments and regularly flood, isolating the Resigni Rancheria community during and after major storm events.
The funding is part of a $35 million infrastructure investment for 2023. 39 projects in 22 states will address outdated or obsolete dams, culverts and other barriers fragmenting America’s rivers and streams. The bipartisan Infrastructure Law will invest $3 billion in fish passage and connectivity projects. Nine of the projects were led by Tribal partners.
The announcement came on the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act.