A Partnership Approach
Washington Sea Grant Takes an Active Role in the New Action Agenda for Puget Sound
In 2007, Puget Sound’s slow but steady decline became the focus of renewed rescue efforts. A new entity, the Puget Sound Partnership, was established by Governor Christine Gregoire and the State Legislature, specifically to mobilize communities, governments, tribes, industries and organizations to work together to create a comprehensive Action Agenda for saving Puget Sound.
The new Partnership is tasked with completing an Action Agenda by December 1 of this year. The Action Agenda will serve as a regional roadmap for restoring and protecting the Sound. It will look at several important issues: what counts as a healthy Puget Sound, what are the Sound’s biggest threats, which actions must be taken to ensure a healthy Puget Sound by 2020 and, perhaps the most difficult question, where to begin.
“Keep in mind that the Action Agenda is not solely the property of the Puget Sound Partnership,” says Pete Granger, Washington Sea Grant’s Program Leader for Marine Advisory Services. “Although the Partnership is coordinating the process, the final agenda will crafted by — and belong to — us all,” he says.
To ensure that the Action Agenda is accepted and successfully implemented, the Partnership must engage literally hundreds of involved parties, ranging from small, localized outdoor clubs and homeowner associations to huge, multi-faceted state and federal agencies. The Partnership must also coordinate the activities of this rich roster of helpers, to avoid duplication of individual efforts — a common shortcoming of previous Soundwide plans. A recent request by the Partnership for inventories from agencies and organizations engaged in Sound-related activities drew hundreds of responses, including one from Washington Sea Grant.
“Our program has a dual role in this massive undertaking,” says WSG Director Penny Dalton. “The findings from the many research projects we’ve funded are furthering everyone’s understanding of the Sound’s natural and human-influenced processes,” she explains. “Equally important, though, are our outreach efforts. They are helping people to understand the issues, get involved in shaping the Action Agenda and, ultimately, become positive forces in implementing the Agenda to protect our Sound.”
Outreach could easily be Teri King’s middle name. In her position as WSG Marine Water Quality Specialist, King helps coordinate efforts to meet the water quality needs of her constituents in Hood Canal and South Puget Sound. Her record of accomplishment in the Hood Canal watershed extends back 17 years, to the early days of the state’s Puget Sound Water Quality Authority (which, in 1991, became the Puget Sound Action Team and, earlier this year, was incorporated into the Partnership). King was hired originally to provide technical assistance and education support under the 1989 Puget Sound Management Plan.
King is well known throughout Puget Sound and across America for her innovative programs on shellfish protection and the proper installation, operation and maintenance of on-site sewage systems. She and assistant Janis McNeal have hosted numerous workshops and mounted widespread campaigns on “Blue Thumb Gardening” and “Simple Techniques to Reduce Nutrient Runoff.” Last year, they organized a “Sound Science” lecture series featuring experts from the University of Washington as guest speakers on important topics pertaining to Puget Sounds.
King’s active presence in Mason County has not gone unnoticed. In 2007, King was appointed to the Puget Sound Partnership’s 27-person Ecosystem Coordination Board, representing Hood Canal. She now devotes a portion of her time to advising the Partnership’s Leadership Council, helping to identify research and outreach needs for protecting the canal’s vulnerable aquatic ecosystem.
In Kitsap County, WSG Marine Water Quality Specialist Jeff Adams began working under the auspices of the Puget Sound Action Team. Today, with funding from the Partnership and other sources, Adams routinely hosts water quality events and workshops for residents of what is considered the most rapidly developing of the 12 Puget Sound counties. Most recently, he worked with Kitsap County’s Department of Community Development to co-sponsor several open houses on the County’s east shoreline. These events equip shoreline landowners and users with some of the resources and tools they need to become better stewards of Kitsap County’s extensive shoreline.
Adams is now facilitating periodic meetings of the Kitsap Nearshore Coordination Group that allows colleagues from agencies, tribes, non-profits and other organizations to exchange information, coordinate projects and hear from regional experts — all in support of a healthier Puget Sound. Many of the members of this group also are participating in the formation of a West Sound Watersheds Council. Adams helped organize a summit to explore the new Council’s relationship to the Partnership and to assist in crafting elements of the Action Agenda that specifically address issues along Kitsap’s portion of the Sound.
Other WSG staff routinely address Puget Sound issues in support of Partnership goals. As part of his state-funded position as WSG’s Small Oil Spill Prevention Education Specialist, Eric Olsson works with the Washington Clean Marina Partnership to recruit owners and operators of marinas and boatyards to voluntarily employ best management practices, recycling and other water quality measures to keep petroleum products and other pollutants from entering the Sound. In return, the owners and operators gain recognition as environmental leaders and stewards of our waters. They also obtain Clean Marina certification for their efforts.
Olsson provides one-on-one oil spill prevention training to fishing boat operators throughout Puget Sound during intensive WSG-sponsored fishing vessel safety workshops. Serving as chair of the Pacific Oil Spill Prevention Education Team gives him the opportunity to provide guidance in eliminating spills from spill-prone boating and marina operations throughout Puget Sound and to promote the “Spills Aren’t Slick” spill prevention campaign.
As field staff for the Partnership, King, Adams and Olsson formulate their outreach activities based on specific objectives and outcomes. “They are expected to meet or exceed these objectives — and they consistently do,” says Pete Granger. The three employ various evaluation techniques, such as follow-up surveys, testimonials and metrics-gathering and analysis.
Other Sea Grant specialists and field staff plan their activities carefully to help solve tough challenges facing Puget Sound, such as contaminated stormwater runoff, nearshore habitat degradation and introductions of aquatic invasive species. Evaluations suggest they are effectively motivating others to make significant differences to the Sound’s overall wellbeing.
“Washington Sea Grant is poised to respond to the Action Agenda’s outreach and education components with new field programs and specialists, as additional funding becomes available,” says Granger. “We look forward to continued collaboration with the Partnership throughout 2008.”
Contact David G. Gordon, Science Writer for Washington Sea Grant, for further information.