Facebook parent company Meta awards a $50,000 grant to support two local conservation projects.
The grant goes to the Deschutes Land Trust and the Crooked River Watershed Council. It also helps create new floodplains and wetlands at the Ochoco Preserve and restores the natural habitat by adding more side channels and structures like nests, beaver dams and bridges for fish and wildlife.
“They awarded us a total of $30,000 to help with planting trail construction community connections,” said Jason Grant, Deschutes Land Trust Restoration Specialist.
“Phase one will be completed after most likely next week when planting is done. So we have planting left to do and then we’ll have some volunteer events and things like that. All the dirt moving is done,” Grant added.
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Grant says the hope is for phase two to start in 2023, but it will more likely be 2024.
Funding also goes for a fish passage project on Ochoco Creek. The current barrier blocks salmon from getting to the last two miles below the Ochoco Dam. The plan is to create an open channel to replace it.
