Marin County officials are spending more than $1 million a year to protect endangered coho salmon. An audit of county spending on fishery restoration projects indicates that at least $5.3 million has been devoted to fish habitat and improvement initiatives since 2005, including $3.2 million for eight public works fish passage projects in the San Geronimo Valley. About half the money is from state and federal grants. The tally of county spending was issued by the county administration after the Independent Journal requested details backing county assertions that officials have worked diligently to restore the troubled coho salmon fishery. The Civic Center spending is in addition to more than $9 million allocated for fishery projects since 1997 by the Marin Municipal Water District. The county has spent more than $1.1 million this year alone on salmon programs - in spite of a budget crunch in which $20 million was cut from other public services to make ends meet - and intends to do more to help the endangered species, County Administrator Matthew Hymel said...more
Too bad we'll never get a figure on how much the ESA is costing us...feds, states and private sector.
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