FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT: Kevin Hyde, 360.819.3045, kevin.hyde@psp.wa.gov
OLYMPIA — Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council has adopted the 2022-2026 Action Agenda, our community’s shared, four-year plan for recovering Puget Sound. The Action Agenda is a bold plan, based on robust science and collaborative problem-solving, that includes strategies and actions to achieve long-term Puget Sound recovery.
“The waters of Puget Sound – as well as the orca and salmon who journey through these waters – are among our state’s most iconic features, but below the surface our marine ecosystems are struggling for survival,” said Gov. Jay Inslee. “The continued partnerships, investments in science-based recovery efforts, and a sharp focus on the key threats to Puget Sound are all urgently necessary.”
The 2022-2026 Action Agenda confronts the challenges we face in recovering Puget Sound, including dwindling orca and salmon populations; habitat loss in forests and shorelines; a failure to honor tribal treaty and sovereign rights and protect communities from health risks, economic pressures, and a loss of traditions; and the growing threat of climate change and population growth to species, infrastructure, and our livelihoods.
“Release of the updated Action Agenda by the Puget Sound Partnership is an important event,” said Dennis McLerran, chair of the Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council. “The Action Agenda establishes the roadmap for restoring the health of Puget Sound. Our salmon and orca populations are at great risk from loss of habitat to growth and the impacts of climate change. We are excited to get to work implementing the Action Agenda with our many partners including U.S. EPA, tribal nations, state agencies, local communities and residents, and the many non-governmental organizations that cherish our beloved Puget Sound.”
The 2022-2026 Action Agenda charts the course for the science-based recovery of Puget Sound. It also guides funding for Puget Sound recovery, serves as the funding authority for the Clean Water Act’s National Estuary Program investments, and helps align other restoration and infrastructure investments. The Action Agenda ensures accountability by describing what we must achieve, how we will achieve it, and how we will measure our progress.
“This Action Agenda includes strategies and actions for five key areas,” said Laura Blackmore, executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership. “The Action Agenda will help us protect and restore habitat and habitat-forming processes, improve water quality, protect the food web and threatened species, prevent the worst effects of climate change, and ensure human wellbeing. This is the plan we need now to set us on the right course for the coming decades.”
The 2022-2026 Action Agenda sets targets for six Puget Sound Vital Sign indicators. The Vital Signs and their indicators are measures of ecosystem health. Vital Signs also articulate the statutory goals for Puget Sound recovery and describe how we will know whether the statutory goals are achieved. These six targets represent iconic and valued components of the Puget Sound ecosystem, and they are strongly linked to the work proposed in the Action Agenda.
-
Number of Southern Resident killer whales – By 2030, increase the population to 86 individuals. By 2050, increase the population to 110 individuals.
-
Chinook salmon abundance – By 2050, two or more populations of natural origin Chinook salmon in each geographic area meet their abundance recovery goals and we see sustained, measurable increases in natural origin Chinook salmon abundance in all populations.
-
Toxics in aquatic life - By 2030, 95 percent of the samples gathered across Puget Sound habitats show a declining trend of contaminant levels or are below thresholds of concern for species or human health. By 2050, 95 percent of the samples gathered across Puget Sound exhibit contaminant levels below thresholds of concern for species or human health.
-
Eelgrass site status – By 2030, see no significant difference between the number of sites with increases and declines in eelgrass area in the three sub-regions of Puget Sound (no net loss). By 2050, sites with long-term increases in eelgrass area significantly outnumber sites with declines in the three sub-regions of Puget Sound.
-
Shellfish beds – Beginning in 2022, achieve an annual net improvement of at least 500 classified commercial shellfish acres in Puget Sound, based on a three-year rolling average.
-
Swimming beaches – Beginning in 2022, 95 percent of core beaches meet safe swimming standards annually.
Nathalie Hamel, Vital Signs reporting lead for the Partnership, said, “Targets are a critical way for us to bring scientists, practitioners, and decision-makers to the table and think collectively about the future of these precious resources, confront reality, and tackle hard questions about what we must achieve.”
In addition to the new Vital Sign indicator targets, the 2022-2026 Action Agenda integrates human wellbeing, our responsibility to tribal treaty and sovereign rights, equity, and environmental justice. It sets nine short-term targets as stretch goals for state agency programs to achieve over the next four years. The Action Agenda also includes 31 collaboratively developed and science-informed strategies, each with actions that will be a shared focus for the recovery community.
“The success of Puget Sound recovery depends on all of us,” Blackmore said. “We each have a role to play in working towards a healthy and resilient Puget Sound. The Action Agenda gives our region comprehensive guidance about how to work together to reach our goals.”
Visit our webpage to learn more about the 2022-2026 Action Agenda and how we all can contribute to Puget Sound recovery. You can also visit the Action Agenda Explorer, the online companion tool of the 2022-2026 Action Agenda. It includes dynamic search functions, 31 strategy profiles, linkages to existing ecosystem data, and downloadable content.
About the Puget Sound Partnership
The Puget Sound Partnership is the state agency formed to lead the region’s collective effort to restore and protect Puget Sound. Working with hundreds of government agencies, tribes, scientists, businesses, and nonprofits, the Partnership mobilizes partner action around a common agenda, advances Sound investments, and tracks progress to optimize recovery.
For more information, go to www.psp.wa.gov.
|
