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Fzsh and Wildlife Enhancement 



Fish and Wildlife Enhancement (FWE) local offices within the Region conduct 

 environmental review of federal projects under the Fish and Wildlife 

 Coordination Act, and other development requiring federal permits. This 

 component of the Service also deals with endangered species (except anadromous 

 Balmonids), contaminants, wetlands, and habitat restoration. 



The Olympia Field Office of Fish and Wildlife Enhancement covers the Chehalis 

 Basin. FWE has contributed to protection of the Basin's fishery resource 

 principally through environmental review, but also through contaminant 

 monitoring in recent years. 



Environmental Review . FWE 'a environmental review work helped shape two major 

 federal projects: (1) the widening and deepening of the Grays Harbor 

 navigation channel; and (2) the construction and hydropower addition to the 

 Wynoochee Dam. They have also reviewed several Corps flood control projects 

 in the vicinity of Centralia. 



Contaminant monitoring . Recent contaminant monitoring has become the pivotal 

 factor in discussions of acquisition of additional land for the Grays Harbor 

 Wildlife Refuge at Bowerman Basin, just west of Hoquiam (Frederick 1991). 

 Additional Service monitoring now under consideration for a wider area of the 

 Harbor may also shed light on the salmon smolt survival issue. 



Habitat Restoration . The new Washington Ecosystems Project provides fish and 

 wildlife habitat restoration to landowners and may be useful in Chehalis Basin 

 restoration recommendations for specific habitat improvements. Providing at 

 least some of the project is on private land, partial funding may be available 

 on cooperative restoration projects. 



Refuges and Wildlife 



All the National Wildlife Refuges of western Washington are administered 

 through the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge Complex near Olympia. The only refuge 

 within the Basin is the Grays Harbor Refuge, located in Bowerman Basin just 

 west of Hoquiam. The Refuge was recently established to protect large, 

 seasonal concentrations of migratory shorebirds. Acquisition of further land 

 is conditioned upon absence of significant contamination, particularly dioxins 

 and furans concentrated in intertidal crustaceans that form the bulk of 

 shorebird prey. 



Seattle National Flshsrr Research Center 



The Seattle' National Fishery Research Center provides basic research in fiah 

 genetics, populations, physiology, and pathology for Service offices and other 

 federal agencies. Center personnel have been involved in Chehalis Basin 

 fisheries issues by studying the role of water pollution in poor survival of 

 Chehalis System coho smolts. This work has been reported in Schroder and Fresh 

 (1992). 



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