County asked to sponsor grant

The Lower Clark Fork Watershed Group (LCFWG) approached the county last week, asking commissioners to agree to sponsor an application for a planning grant from the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC). The grant would help fund the continuation of the Vermilion River restoration project.

Green Mountain Conservation District voted last September to apply for the grant and the application was approved by DNRC. However, GMCD voted at a meeting this month to not accept the funding. “We had a vote on the project and the majority of the board members, five, voted against it and rejected it,” Nancy Mehaffie, the new chairperson of the GMCD board, told the county commissioners on Thursday. “Personally, there’s a lot of work being done with the project that the citizens don’t really agree with. They are working on the stream bed and digging it up and citizens wonder why.”

Sarah Busmire with LCFWG is also the executive director of GMCD. Speaking for LCFWG on Thursday, Busmire detailed the Vermilion restoration project and what the planning grant would fund. Brita Olson with LCFWG said after the project is designed, they will be looking to implement it on the river. She added that during implementation, the project will hire local contractors and bring funding into the county.

“It’s been 20 years in the making to get to where we are and to get to the next phase of the project,” said Cabinet District Ranger Michael Feiger. “We look forward to furthering that work.”

Three restoration projects have already been completed on the Vermilion, encompassing approximately 4,000 feet. The new project would plan restoration for an additional 7,500 feet of the river. The DNRC planning grant is $50,000 of the total project cost of $292,000 for 2023. Additional funding sources include in-kind contributions, funds from the county Recreation Advisory Committee, the U.S. Geological Society and Avista’s Clark Fork Settlement Agreement committee has committed $110,000.

Jon Hanson is a fisheries biologist. He told commissioners on Thursday that one of the biggest benefits of the project is the larger scale being proposed. “You will really start to have an impact and create positive benefits with a larger scale project,” Hanson said. “All in all this is continuing to build off from previous work that has been done. To see population changes you need to do restoration on a larger scale.”

Bill Naegeli is a supervisor for GMCD. He noted that the planning grant is for monitoring the river. “The monitoring will document whether the money we’ve spent is justifiable and if it’s a benefit for that stream and it will encourage other projects. That is why we voted to support this in September,” he said.

Greg Hinkle of Thompson Falls was concerned about the funding. “One thing that hasn’t been dealt with is where the exact funding is coming from. The county doesn’t need to be spending more money on something like this. The state doesn’t. This country has a big problem financially and we don’t need to be contributing to it. We ought to be listening to the people we elected in the Green Mountain Conservation District.”

After more than an hour of discussion, the commissioners opted not to take action on the request and planned to meet again Wednesday, April 5. Results of that meeting will be published in next week's Ledger.