Trust Fund project a John Chafee award recipient

May 13, 2011, PROVIDENCE – In recognition of the dam removal project at Lower Shannock Falls on the Pawcatuck River, one of the habitat restoration projects funded through the RI Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration Trust Fund, which is administered by the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, the team in charge of the project has received a Senator John Chafee Conservation Leadership award.

The honor, given by The Environment Council of RI, was awarded to the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association and members of the team that worked on the Lower Shannock Falls Fish Passage Restoration project in Richmond and Charlestown. The awards ceremony took place on May 12, 2011 at the Providence Marriott.

The project, which the CRMC funded through the Trust Fund for multiple years, included removal of the Lower Shannock Falls Dam. In 2010, the CRMC awarded $50,000 in funding for the continuation of the project. The removal of the dam was funded in FY 2008. In total, the project was awarded $135,000 from the Trust Fund. Completion of the project will open the Pawcatuck River system to nearly 1,300 acres of upstream spawning and rearing habitat for diadromous fish. The project also received ARRA funding in the amount of $576,226.

Each year, four community conservation projects are recognized statewide as Senator John Chafee Conservation Leadership Projects, undertaken and completed by local leaders. These projects provide significant benefits to the community and the state. The Lower Shannock Falls project was one of 25 applicants.

Habitat restoration projects are funded through the RI Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration Trust Fund and are selected from recommendations by the RI Habitat Restoration Team, established by CRMC, Save The Bay and the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program in 1998. Members of the team serve as a technical advisory committee for the CRMC as required by law. Funds for the program come from the state’s Oil Spill Prevention Administration and Response Act (OSPAR), established by the legislature following the 1996 North Cape oil spill. Each year, the Trust Fund and CRMC receive $225,000 from the OSPAR account to fund habitat restoration projects in the state. To date and including this year, the Trust Fund has awarded $1.87 million for 67 projects, which have leveraged more than $18 million in matching funds.