By Hilary Franz / For The Herald
For centuries, salmon have defined Washington. They’ve fed our culture and spirit as much as they’ve fed our people and iconic orcas.
But over the past several decades, we’ve watched salmon runs — once so thick you could walk across rivers on their backs — dwindle to near extinction.
Our orcas are dwindling, too, deprived of the fatty salmon that sustain them.
There have been enormous efforts to restore salmon habitat and support these shrinking populations, including investments by tribes, government agencies, nonprofits and businesses. That work has undoubtedly produced tangible, positive results in building healthier habitat to help our salmon recover.
But we need to do more. And fast. Because despite our work to date, there remains a great need for bold, innovative and interconnected action across the state.
That is where the Department of Natural Resources’ Watershed Resilience Action Plan comes in. The plan coordinates, enhances and maximizes investments and work to protect and restore salmon habitat — at a watershed scale — in ways that also provide jobs and build healthier, more equitable communities. The plan builds on existing efforts and also deploys new resources on the ground.
We’ve focused this plan in the Snohomish Watershed, which has a community that is incredibly dedicated to recovering salmon (“Save salmon, create jobs: A new plan for Snohomish watershed,” The Herald, Feb. 22). Last month, I was honored to stand alongside some of our partners including Tulalip Tribes Chairwoman Teri Gobin, Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, Port of Everett Commission President David Simpson, and Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust Board President Doug McClelland at the Port of Everett to introduce the plan. Our goals focus on different parts of the landscape — headwaters, healthy forests and riparian zones, urban areas, estuary and nearshore — so that we address salmon habitat throughout the entire watershed and can replicate this model in the future for other watersheds.
The Watershed Resilience Action Plan is holistic and comprehensive: a Tree to Sea approach. We want to use every tool, not just those in the Department of Natural Resources toolbox, but in the toolboxes of all groups committed to saving our salmon. Salmon do not care about property boundaries or zoning. They just need the ability to get upstream to find a safe place to lay their eggs, cool clean waters throughout their journey and a sufficient food source in our riparian and nearshore areas to get strong enough to go out to the ocean.
This plan is guided by five goals:
- Protect and clean up aquatic habitat.
- Restore, conserve and connect forests and riparian habitat.
- Revitalize urban forests and streams.
- Engage and invest in communities.
- Reduce and combat climate impacts.
This includes a focus on what the department already does and how we can do more of what we do well at scale, including removing derelict vessels, correcting barriers to fish passage, reducing impacts of over-water structures, addressing stormwater pollution, improving salmon habitat, expanding tree canopies and preserving and restoring precious kelp forests and eelgrass meadows.
It also includes new initiatives and strategies to achieve resilience throughout the watershed, such as sourcing trees for woody debris projects and creating lands suitable for beavers that will do their own work to improve habitat and streamflow.
This plan coordinates with, and supports, ongoing work so that efforts amplify and complement each other and act as a magnet for new public-private partnerships and funding, which will build an even more effective and powerful salmon recovery community.
I’m especially proud of the accountability and transparency built into this plan. In order to secure additional investments, we have put together clear, accessible tools that will clarify needs and outcomes. All work will be captured by our interactive online dashboard, which allows anyone to track progress or identify opportunities to amplify efforts. This is part of a collaborative effort between the agency and the Snohomish Watershed core salmon recovery team to use local data to identify what does and doesn’t deliver meaningful results in the watershed.
This tool will also tell the story of return on investment, showing the multiple benefits of these projects, including job creation and environmental justice benefits that we know salmon recovery projects provide.
I’m honored to have worked closely alongside the vast teams of people committed to recovering salmon in the Snohomish basin, especially the tribes and local partners.
This is a plan that will advance many of our shared goals, and will bring in new partners to collaborate with to make the Snohomish a healthy and productive watershed for generations.
Saving Washington’s salmon is critical to preserving what makes this place so special. This plan urges us all forward, working collaboratively and collectively together, for a common purpose and a common benefit to preserve our culture, our heritage and ourselves. And our state will be stronger and healthier because of it.
Hilary Franz is the state commissioner of public lands and heads the state Department of Natural Resources.
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