A public comment session will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday to discuss funds proposed in an environmental impact statement regarding the 1999 grounding of the New Carissa wood chip ship.

The 98-page report released last month describes a preliminary plan for several million dollars reaped from a lawsuit settlement with the shipping company and a yet-to-be acquired sum available under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

The draft report is aimed primarily at compensating for the deaths of thousands of birds after the grounding and attempts to move the ship resulted in tens of thousands of gallons of oil spilled.

Among the dead were Western snowy plovers and marbled murrelets, birds listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

According to the report, restoring murrelet populations will involve buying private timberland from willing sellers. Also, additional funding has been proposed to provide supervision at critical habitat locations of the Western snowy plover and to fund education programs about the shorebird. The report also earmarks about $400,000 for recreation projects on the North Spit, where the stern of the ship remains near the South Jetty.

But the bulk of the money will be directed at acquiring and protecting habitat of the murrelet. It nests high in alder and Douglas fir stands up to 50 miles inland.

According to wildlife biologist Larry Mangan, acquisition efforts will be focused first on Oregon's northern coast range and if funding remains, the central and southern parts of the state. The report calls for purchasing, at an as-yet-undetermined cost, 1,300 acres of habitat, along with surrounding lands for access roads. That could add up to three or four times the 1,300 figure, Mangan said.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management led the study because it is in charge of protecting plover habitat on the North Spit and elsewhere. It was surmised that the tiny bird would the hardest hit, though no more than eight plovers died and the murrelet population suffered the loss of 240. Land for the seabird would be acquired by the BLM or one of the study's other trustees, including the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians; and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

The public comment meeting will be held at the North Bend Public Library, 1800 Sherman Ave. A copy of the draft can be obtained at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Web site, http://OregonFWO.fws.gov. The deadline for comments is at the close of business on Friday, June 24.