Representatives Deb Eddy and Ross Hunter, both Democrats from the 48th Legislative District, presented Mayor John Marchione with a ceremonial $8 million check from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) outside Redmond City Hall on Friday.

They were there to celebrate a partnership between the city and the state to begin the restoration of the lower portion of Bear Creek that runs alongside SR 520. Moving it further away from the freeway will make it more hospitable for salmon and other wildlife.

The total cost of this project, to enhance one of our area’s most significant salmon-spawning streams, will be $10 million, with the remainder funded through Redmond’s Capital Investment Program and grants. Completion is expected in 2011.

Eddy talked about the satisfaction of bringing this project to fruition, after 10 years of planning.

“Politics is like pushing a peanut up the hill with your nose and then watching it roll back down again,” she commented. But all the hours spent will be worthwhile because of the environmental, historical and cultural implications of making this happen, the legislators and mayor agreed.

Hunter said he used to live on Bear Creek and “it was sort of my introduction to the salmon of the Northwest … . Having my kids be able to see this is very different than the annual field trip to the Issaquah hatchery.”

The Bear Creek Restoration project will create more than 4,000 feet of enhanced channel, restore natural stream habitat, add logs and spawning gravel, restore streamside wetlands and backwater areas and restore native trees and shrubs that will shade the channel.

For more information about the project, contact Jon Spangler, natural resources manager for the City of Redmond at jspangler@redmond.gov or (425) 556-2823.