Senate hearing spotlights ‘salmon credit’ pilot to pay landowners for habitat restoration in Coos and Coquille

Summary

Supporters say a market-style Salmon Credit pilot would create permanent payments to private landowners and a trust fund to accelerate salmon habitat restoration in two southwest Oregon basins; conservation groups and state staff raised concerns about offsets, federal approvals and whether the program would produce net habitat gains.

Senator David Brock Smith, sponsor of Senate Bill 511, told the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire that the bill would create a voluntary Salmon Credit program, initially limited to the Coos and Coquille river basins, that would let developers purchase credits in lieu of conducting on-site mitigation.

The senator said the credits would cost twice the estimated restoration expense so half would pay for the restoration work and half would seed a permanent state Salmon Trust Fund to pay an annual “dividend” to the participating landowner. "If it costs a hundred thousand to restore a required mitigation acre to salmon habitat, a salmon credit would cost 200,000, with $100,000 paying for the restoration and the other 100,000 going into a permanent state of Oregon salmon trust fund," said Senator David Brock Smith, sponsor of SB 511.

The program, proponents said, is intended to remove barriers that keep private landowners from allowing restoration on working lands. Cam Perry, who identified himself as a…

Senate hearing spotlights ‘salmon credit’ pilot to pay landowners for habitat restoration in Coos and Coquille

Summary

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