Our Work

• Building the 2020 Action Agenda
• Advance work conducted for the Action Agenda
• Current work on Puget Sound
• Education and public engagement
• Science
• Accountability

The Puget Sound Partnership, a state agency created in 2007, will bring together citizens, governments, tribes, scientists and the business community as it works to return the Sound to health by 2020.

Initially, the Partnership will focus the bulk of its time on building a long-term plan of action based on the recommendations from the Governor’s original Puget Sound Partnership advisory commission. The Partnership also will oversee on-the-ground work in the state’s current plan of action for Puget Sound. The Partnership will educate and engage the public through a variety of means including grassroots education efforts. The Partnership’s work will be solidly grounded in science. And, the Partnership will track progress and ensure that all parties are publicly accountable for achieving needed results.

Bill Ruckelshaus, chair of the Partnership’s Leadership Council, says the Partnership has a chance “to show not just the country but the world how to manage an ecosystem.” Ruckelshaus, who oversaw the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, knows all too well that managing an ecosystem as large and complex as Puget Sound is a monumental challenge.

“Nobody’s figured out how to do it right so far,” Ruckelshaus says. “We’ve made a lot of progress toward specific problems—that has to be stressed—but ecosystemwide we’re still in trouble.”

Building the 2020 Action Agenda
The Partnership’s first task is to create a comprehensive plan for Puget Sound called the 2020 Action Agenda and to adopt it by September 2008. This long-term plan will be science-based, and it will cover the entire ecosystem affecting the Sound. The agenda will identify and assign priorities to actions, identify those responsible for the actions, identify funding needed and set firm timelines. The Partnership will track progress and report the results publicly.

The Action Agenda will strive to acheive the following 6 goals:

• A healthy human population supported by a healthy Puget Sound that is not threatened by changes in the ecosystem.
• A quality of human life that is sustained by a functioning Puget Sound ecosystem.
• Healthy and sustaining populations of native species in Puget Sound, including a robust food web.
• A healthy Puget Sound where freshwater, estuary, nearshore, marine, and upland habitats are protected, restored and sustained.
• An ecosystem that is supported by ground water levels as well as river and stream flow levels sufficient to sustain people, fish and wildlife, and the natural functions of the environment.
• Fresh and marine waters and sediments of a sufficient quality so that the waters in the region are safe for drinking, swimming, shellfish harvest and consumption, and other human uses and enjoyment, and are not harmful to the native marine mammals, fish, birds and shellfish of the region.

As specified in the law creating the Partnership, the Action Agenda will be built to achieve eight objectives:

• Protect habitat
• Restore habitat
• Reduce toxic pollution
• Reduce human and animal waste
• Better manage stormwater
• Assure an adequate water supply for people and wildlife
• Protect ecosystem biodiversity and recover imperiled species
• Increase the capacity for action

Every two years, the Partnership will develop a short-term work plan from the Action Agenda that will correspond with the state’s budget cycle.

The work to build the new Action Agenda is being done by the Partnership’s Leadership Council, Ecosystem Coordination Board and Science Panel and a host of individuals and groups from the business, environmental, tribal and government arenas. Everyone is welcome at the table. Learn more about the 2020 Action Agenda and how you can get involved.

Advance work conducted for the Action Agenda
Recognizing that the Partnership’s Leadership Council and Executive Director would quickly need to make decisions about the content, process and staffing needed to create the 2020 Action Agenda, the co-chairs of the 2006 Partnership in early 2007 set in motion advance work on the task. Volunteer task groups prepared eight papers on a number of subjects.
>> Read more.

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Current work on Puget Sound
Until the Action Agenda and its two-year work plans are put in place, the current long-term plan for Puget Sound, the Puget Sound Management Plan, and its current two-year work plan, the 2007-2009 Puget Sound Conservation and Recovery Plan remain in effect.

The 2007-2009 Puget Sound Conservation and Recovery Plan outlines the priorities, actions, expected results and budget for Puget Sound. It was developed by the former Puget Sound Action Team and its advisors on the Puget Sound Council as required by law.

The Legislature funded $438 million for the 2007-2009 biennium, a significant step to drive us toward the goal of a healthy Puget Sound by 2020.

The 2007-2009 work plan is focused around eight core priorities that address critical threats to the future of Puget Sound . These eight priorities track closely with the eight objectives of the 2020 Action Agenda that the Partnership is creating. The work plan provides specific information on key results to be achieved under each priority, with the responsible parties and budgets identified. Responsible parties are accountable for the results outlined in this plan.  

Learn more about the 2007-2009 Puget Sound Conservation and Recovery Plan.

Education and public engagement
In 2006, the Partnership commissioned a public opinion poll and found that only about 25 percent of the region’s population had a high awareness or concern about the Sound’s environmental health. Research shows that awareness and concern of an issue must be maintained at high levels for citizens to be willing to make and support personal and government actions necessary to bring about change.

The Governor’s original Puget Sound Partnership Advisory Commission adopted a Public Awareness and Engagement Plan in late 2006 that will act as a guide for the new Partnership as it gets up and running. The plan calls for a highly visible education campaign to bring ordinary citizens, businesses and others up to speed on the Sound’s health issues and to spur them to action.

In addition, the plan calls for the Partnership to create and manage a network of organizations and citizens who are already running communications, education and outreach activities on behalf of the Sound. The network would increase the opportunities for average people to make a difference for the Sound.

The Leadership Council will explore the education campaign and involvement network during its first few months of existence.
>> Learn more about these two efforts and how you can get involved.

Science
The integration of scientific information into the decision-making process is of the utmost importance to the Partnership. In November 2007, the Leadership Council appointed a 9-member Science Panel to provide independent, nonrepresentational scientific advice to the council as well as to identify the environmental indicators and benchmarks that must be achieved in the 2020 Action Agenda.

The Science Panel will develop a science program which will include a biennially updated science work plan addressing the following activities:

• Monitoring
• Research
• Modeling
• Data management

A lead scientist from the Partnership staff will be assigned as a liaison to the Science Panel.

Additional science duties: The Puget Sound Partnership will continue to oversee the Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program, and to produce the Puget Sound Update, a regular scientific report on the state of Puget Sound’s health. The Partnership will also continue to serve as co-sponsors with Canada on the biennial Puget Sound Georgia Basin Research Conference.

Learn more about the Partnership’s work on Science.

Accountability
The Partnership is required to oversee the work that will be outlined in the 2020 Action Agenda, with tools to hold entities publicly accountable.

What the Partnership can do: The Partnership has the authority to adopt measures ensuring that state funds used for the Action Agenda get spent in a way that will achieve the stated results. This includes establishing detailed performance agreements with those entities and, in fact, the Partnership is required to sign performance agreements with a number of state agencies in 2007-2009.

Entities receiving state funds for work on the Action Agenda are required to report publicly on their progress to the Partnership every two years. The Partnership itself then is required to report publicly to the governor every two years on progress made toward the Action Agenda.

In creating the Partnership, the 2007 Legislature wrote into law that “all governmental entities within Puget Sound will exercise their existing authorities to implement the applicable provisions of the Action Agenda.” In the event the Partnership determines that an entity is in “substantial noncompliance” with the Action Agenda, it will work with that entity to remedy the problem. If the problem persists, the Partnership has the ability to recommend to the governor that state funds be withheld until the situation is fixed.

What the Partnership can’t do: The Partnership does not have regulatory authority nor can it review or approve permits, or adopt plans or regulations. It cannot legally force government entities into compliance with the Action Agenda except for the aforementioned funding option.

Learn more about accountability.

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