The Washington State Department of Commerce is offering Salmon Recovery Planning Grants to local governments and tribes in Washington state.
Donor Name: Washington State Department of Commerce
State: Washington
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/17/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Communities across the state are working to balance increasing needs for housing and infrastructure with sustainable protections for salmon habitat and water quality that people, businesses, and wildlife need to thrive. Updates to local governments’ plans and regulations presents a window of opportunity to strengthen salmon habitat protection and restoration provisions, improve stormwater management, and advance equity and environmental justice.
Funding Information
Approximately $3 million in grant funding is available to cities and counties both fully and partially planning under the Growth Management Act, and federally recognized tribes.
Eligible Grant Activities
A minimum of one of the following seven activities must be completed, and we encourage the use of the Sound Choices Checklist to help determine where to focus efforts. To advance equity and environmental justice, each of the grant activities must engage underserved communities in the development process.
- Integrate salmon recovery plans, watershed characterization science, stormwater management, and habitat protection into the local planning process through updates to comprehensive plans and development regulations.
- Develop monitoring and adaptive management practices to improve implementation, consistency, and effectiveness of permitting for critical areas protection. This work could include collecting or analyzing data to evaluate the effectiveness of critical areas regulations and compliance; or developing, implementing, and institutionalizing programs to ensure habitat protection and incorporation of best available science.
- Improve code enforcement to identify and correct activity that creates negative impacts to salmon habitat. This may include: educational workshops, community engagement, development of standard operating and documentation procedures, and integration of technology to improve case management, daily operations, and public accessibility
- Create program(s) to incentivize developers to incorporate low-impact development approaches that go above and beyond existing stormwater permit requirements. Incentive programs may include fee discounts or credits, subsidized costs or rebate programs, development incentives, and awards and recognition programs.
- Advance program(s) that promote infill development. This could include alternative development standards, transfer, and fee-in-lieu programs. This could also include the integration of stormwater management and low-impact development approaches into overall design guidelines for infill development.
- Develop program(s) for preserving and enhancing forest hydrology and ancillary benefits such as urban tree cover and tree retention. This could include guidance, policies, and/or implementation of incentives.
- Coordinate public works funding for infrastructure development to improve stormwater protection. This could include redesigning or systematizing processes for ranking/prioritizing capital improvement projects and integrating requirements for stormwater retrofits and stormwater protection and benefits into capital facilities, transportation, utility, and other public works projects.
Funding Information
- Approximately $3 million is available for this grant.
- Individual award amounts up to $500,000
Eligibility Criteria
Grants are available to towns, cities, and counties both fully and partially planning under the Growth Management Act1, and federally recognized tribes in the state of Washington.
For more information, visit Washington State Department of Commerce.
