Land use / Habitat

Puget Sound concerns about land use and habitat include ecosystem processes and habitat structure for watershed and shoreline areas. Also of concern are Sound-wide habitat protection measures, including regulation, property rights acquisition, private property incentives and habitat restoration projects.

Puget Sound ’s population has doubled from 2 million to 4 million since 1960 and is projected to reach 5.4 million by 2025. This growth has damaged or destroyed habitats for a number of species that are part of the Puget Sound basin’s complex ecosystem.

The Puget Sound region contains an amazing variety of habitats, each supporting diverse communities of plant and animal life, and each an integral part of a healthy ecosystem.

In the last 100 years, many once-intact habitats along shorelines, rivers and streams have been damaged by:

• Extensive development.
• Land conversion (from forests to timber land, industrial use, agriculture, residential housing).
• Shoreline armoring, such as bulkheads or riprap.
• The introduction of non-native, invasive species.
• Derelict fishing gear, such as old “ghost” nets and abandoned crab pots.