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  U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

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**Department of the Interior**

**U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service**

**Pacific Regional Office**

**911 NE 11^th^ Avenue**

**Portland, Oregon 97232-4181**

**Phone: 503/231-6121**

**Fax: 503/231-2122**

[http://pacific.fws.gov]{.underline}

Date: April 28, 2006 06-041

Contact: Susan Saul -- 503.872.2728

**CATHLAPOTLE PLANKHOUSE PARTNERSHIP WINS NATIONAL AWARD**

Acting Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett will present the Secretary of
the Interior's Cooperative Conservation Award to the Cathlapotle
Plankhouse Project Steering Committee at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.,
on Thursday, May 4, 2006.

The committee is being honored for outstanding achievements in
conserving our Nation's cultural resources through construction of a
modern, full-scale replica of a Chinookan-style cedar plankhouse on the
Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Ridgefield, Washington, between
2002 and 2005.

The plankhouse represents the homes occupied by the Native American
people of the town of Cathlapotle, a community that thrived on the banks
of the Columbia River near modern-day Ridgefield for thousands of years.
Today, the town site is protected as a nationally recognized cultural
resource located on the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.

The goals of the committee were to create an opportunity for refuge
visitors to learn about the rich cultural and natural history of the
area, to commemorate the historic encounters between explorers Lewis and
Clark and the native peoples of the Columbia River, and to provide the
Chinook Tribe with an opportunity to practice their cultural traditions.

The plankhouse also serves as an educational resource for area schools
and as a tourism destination for Clark County residents and visitors.

The committee members include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees
Virginia Parks, Anan Raymond, Tom Smiley, Rebecca Young and Tom
Melanson; former Service employee Yvette Donovan; Chinook tribal
representatives Sam Robinson and Greg Robinson; community
representatives Truman Sturdevant and Pat Campbell; and Lewis and Clark
Bicentennial Committee of Vancouver/Clark County Executive Director
Arlene Johnson.

Raymond, Johnson and Sam Robinson will travel to Washington, D.C., to
accept the award.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency
responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and
plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American
people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge
System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of
small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69
national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological
services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws,
administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird
populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and
restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native
American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also
oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of
millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to
state fish and wildlife agencies.

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