Willapa Bay Regional Fishery Enhancement Group

Willapa Bay Regional Fishery Enhancement Group operates as a sub-recipient on federal fisheries and habitat-restoration grants, with recent work concentrated in salmon and steelhead recovery projects under the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior. The organization functions primarily as a grant sub-recipient (57% of recent awards) rather than a prime grantee, and holds no federal contracts or contract IDVs in the source data.

The vendor's customer base centers on two federal agencies. The Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration accounts for four awards; the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service accounts for one award. These five awards represent 71% of the organization's recent federal activity and align with the vendor's environmental consulting and fisheries-resource-management focus captured under NAICS Environmental Consulting Services and PSC Natural Resources/Conservation—Fisheries Resources Management codes.

Recent grant work reflects habitat and population-recovery work in the Willapa River basin and Rue Creek drainage, Washington. In September 2023, Willapa Bay Regional Fishery Enhancement Group received a sub-award from The Recreation & Conservation Office (prime grantee) to design restoration of the Patton Creek and Willapa River confluence, including removal of a barrier culvert, restoration of approximately 5.2 stream miles across lower and upper project reaches, and habitat improvements for salmon and steelhead spawning and rearing. In the same timeframe, the organization received a second sub-award from The Recreation & Conservation Office for a remote site incubation (RSI) effectiveness study on two forks of Rue Creek, using parental-based DNA tagging to monitor naturally spawning salmon populations and support smolt monitoring through DNA tissue analysis.

The organization's award footprint is sparse and episodic. Seven awards span from 2008 to 2023, with four awards clustered in 2023; combined potential value stands at only $61 thousand, though combined obligated dollars reach $386 thousand—indicating that invoiced activity exceeds initial estimates. The long interval between the 2010 award and the 2023 cluster suggests either a gap in federal engagement or intermittent project cycles tied to restoration funding availability.