Family Forest Fish Passage Program (FFFPP)

This page last updated January 29, 2008

Purpose: This program is to assist small forest landowners in complying with the forest and fish rules by providing financial assistance in repairing or removing fish passage barriers.

Eligible Grant Recipients: A small forest landowner is defined in section 11 of SSHB 1095 as an owner of forest land who, at the time of submission of required documentation to the department, has harvested from his or her own lands in this state no more than an average timber volume of two million board feet per year during the three years prior to submitting documentation to the department and who certifies that he or she does not expect to harvest from his or her own lands in the state more than an average volume of two million board feet per year during the ten years following the submission of documentation to the department. However, any landowner who exceeded the two million board feet annual average timber harvest threshold from their land in the three years prior to submitting documentation to the department, or who expects to exceed the threshold during the following ten years, shall still be deemed a "small forest landowner" if he or she establishes to the department's reasonable satisfaction that the harvest limits were, or will be, exceeded in order to raise funds to pay estate taxes or for an equally compelling and unexpected obligation, such as for court-ordered judgment or for extraordinary medical expenses.

Match Requirement: For a fish passage barrier, a small forest landowner is required to provide a match of the lesser of either: (1) 25% of any costs associated with the removal or replacement of a particular fish passage barrier; or (2) $5,000 for the removal or replacement of a particular fish passage barrier. The maximum total amount required by a small forest landowner must pay in any calendar year of removing or replacing fish passage barriers shall be determined based on the average annual timber volume harvested from the landowner's lands in this state during the three preceding calendar years and whether the fish passage barrier is in eastern or western Washington.

	Calendar Year Match Requirement
Board Feet Harvested	Western Washington	Eastern Washington
Average annual timber volume of less than 500,000 board feet	$8,000	$2,000
Average annual timber volume between 500,000 and 999,000 board feet	$16,000	$4,000
Average annual timber volume between 1,000,000 and 1,499,000 board feet	$24,000	$12,000
Average annual timber volume of greater than or equal to 1,500,000 board feet	$32,000	$16,000

Small forest landowners are not required to provide to provide a match if the fish passage barrier was installed under an approved forest practices application or notification and an approved hydraulics approval.

Grant Selection Process: The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) in coordination with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and lead entity groups, will establish a ranked inventory of fish passage barriers on land owned by small forest landowners based on the principle of fixing the worst first within a watershed consistent with the fish passage priorities of the forest and fish report. Once projects are selected, the Recreation and Conservation Funding Board (RCFB) will administer the grants.

Some fish passage barriers are more of a threat to public resources than others; therefore, no small forest landowner will be required to repair a fish passage barrier until higher priority fish passage barriers on other lands in the watershed have been repaired.

Revenue Source: State funding from general obligation bonds has been provided in the capital budget. The DNR is seeking additional funding to augment the states $2.0 million appropriation.

To Apply:

Application Process

For More Information See:

A Brochure on the Family Forest Fish Passage Program (PDF, 1.3MB)

2007 Annual Report (PDF, 2.4MB)

Fact Sheet (PDF, 184KB)