ASTORIA (AP) - A natural gas company this week pledged $50 million toward salmon recovery efforts on the Columbia, but there's a catch.

The gift from Northern Star Natural Gas Co. is contingent on the company getting approval to build a proposed liquefied natural gas facility at Bradwood Landing, 38 river miles up from the Columbia River's mouth.

The project is one of five LNG terminals being considered in Oregon and the furthest along in seeking federal approval. Three other proposed terminals are on the Columbia River and a fifth is in Coos Bay.

Northern Star wants to build two LNG storage tanks at the Bradwood Landing site, with the capacity to pump about 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day - enough to meet about a third of the needs of the Pacific Northwest.

Officials with the company have said the promised $50 million is “above and beyond” the company's legal requirements to offset the impacts of the LNG project.

The $50 million wouldn't come in one big dose. Instead, it would be spread out over 35 years, with $7 million promised between the start of construction and operation of the facility in 2010.

Building the natural gas facility would mean dredging at least 12 acres of the river, to make way for LNG ships, as well as building a berth, filling wetlands at the terminal site and installing a 36-mile pipeline to deliver gas.

Environmental mitigation could involve purchase and restoration of 150 acres of an island in the Columbia River adjacent to Svensen, plus work on hundreds of acres of habitat for chinook, coho and chum salmon, steelhead trout and Columbia white-tailed deer on several sites in Columbia County.

The Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, which was created by Washington state and developed the first federally-approved recovery plan for endangered fish in the Northwest, said it will work with Northern Star on its proposed mitigation efforts.

The board will take no official position on the liquid gas proposal, said its executive director, Jeff Breckel.

But he said the company's plan is a “great opportunity” to bring the corporate world into salmon recovery.

The Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, however, declined the offer to help orchestrate the company's mitigation and enhancement plans in order to better assess whether the project fits with the group's goals, according to its director, Debrah Marriott.

Other environmentalists were also skeptical. Dan Serres, a member of Friends of Living Oregon Waters, said the $50 million proposal makes him wonder whether LNG development is necessary.

“We don't think further industrializing the lower Columbia River is an integral part of restoring the Columbia River,” he said.

But Dan Evans, a consultant for the Bradwood Landing project, said the company has put significant resources toward improving its project plans in light of environmental concerns.

“They saw the project could face a bumpy road through the permitting process and literally went back to the drawing board,” Evans said.

The company has “virtually eliminated” the threat to fish from engine cooling and ballast water intake and discharge, he said.