BP wins community award

By Tara Nelson

The BP Cherry Point Refinery received the Association of Washington Business Community Service Award for its salmon habitat restoration efforts on Terrell Creek. The award was given at an AWB spring board meeting this past week.

The creek, located south of Blaine, was once a flourishing habitat for chum, coho and steelhead salmon but state agencies declared it lifeless in some areas because dissolved oxygen levels were so low as a result of logging, farming activities and crowding by non-native plant species.
British Petroleum employees along with Nooksack Salmon

Enhancement Association volunteers helped remove non-native grasses such as reed canary grass that had a choking effect on the stream. Volunteers also introduced thousands of chum salmon eggs into the stream and introduced woody debris to create pools, offering protection to juvenile fish in January 2005. The company could not be reached for comment.