We all want a healthy, abundant Puget Sound that supports wildlife such as salmon and provides food and enjoyment for all of us. But to do this we need to protect and restore habitat, provide for healthy shellfish and clean up stormwater. Our Strategic Initiative Lead teams are proud to be part of this ongoing effort. And to help us do our part for Puget Sound recovery we’ve recently revamped our website. 

We’ve setup our new website to quickly help you learn more about why we need to restore and protect Puget Sound. 

The site is split between our 3 strategic initiative leads: 

We work closely with each of our Strategic Initiative Advisory Teams to select a suite of actions to invest in with EPA NEP Geographic Funds that advance Puget Sound recovery goals described in the Action Agenda for Puget Sound. These investments build capacity, enable approaches to be replicated in other parts of the Puget Sound, create commonly used tools and learn from our collective experience.   

 Check out our funded projects page to dive into our funded work! 

Habitat Strategic Initiative Lead 

The Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Natural Resources (DNR) serve as the Habitat Strategic Initiative Implementation Lead. As the Habitat Strategic Initiative Lead, our role in Puget Sound recovery is to implement community-developed and supported strategies that improve the health of the rivers, forests, shorelines, and estuaries that make up Puget Sound.  

Our work is focused on four main arenas: Floodplains and Estuaries, Land Development and Cover, Marine Vegetation, and Shoreline Armoring.   

Shellfish Strategic Initiative Lead 

The Department of Health (DOH) leads the Shellfish Strategic Initiative, partnering with the Departments of Ecology and Agriculture. Our role in Puget Sound recovery is to put in place strategies that accelerate progress towards restoring and protecting harvestable shellfish beds. We do this by leading and supporting the strategic actions of the Shellfish Beds Implementation Strategy which focus on preventing and reducing pathogen pollution  

Stormwater Strategic Initiative Lead 

The Washington Department of Ecology, the Washington Stormwater Center, and the Washington Department of Commerce lead the Stormwater Strategic Initiative Implementation Lead Team. Our team represents a diverse set of perspectives and skills which we bring to our work, adding important context for addressing stormwater and learning from our advisors and collaborators.  

We fund diverse projects—research, green infrastructure, decision support tools, and collaborative approach pilots, among others, and uses its water quality Implementation Strategies- the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity, Toxics in Fish and Marine Water Quality--to identify opportunities, strategic invention points and communities of practice for implementation.  

Why We do the Work 

We came to the world of Puget Sound recovery through our various expressions of awe, adoration, culinary delights, desire to do good and leave a positive legacy for our kids and other generations. We are trained in different areas, had previous careers- sometimes vastly different from what we do now.    

But the tie that binds us together and with you, is our dedication to sustaining and improving the vitality and health of a truly unique place that is wildly productive-- nearly exploding with agricultural and seafood bounties—a history charted by 10,000 years of tribal cultural pathways and traditions, and a wildness juxtaposed against an international economy.