The mission of the Alliance for a Healthy South Sound (AHSS) is to support coordinated and collaborative decision-making aimed at restoring and protecting the ecological and socio-economic health of South Puget Sound. AHSS developed the South Sound Strategy (Strategy) in late 2015 and throughout 2016 with funding from the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP). The purpose of the Strategy is to serve as a science-based resource that identifies key South Sound focus areas, attributes associated with these focus areas, pressures affecting those attributes, and strategies for protecting and improving the species and habitats that make South Sound unique. The Strategy provides a framework for decision-makers as they consider what actions to emphasize as part of the broader effort to restore and protect Puget Sound and establishes a set of recovery targets.
Focus areas provide a logical framework for organizing recovery. As the Strategy was developed, the Alliance decided on the following six focus areas: Prairies and Oak Woodlands, Forest and Freshwater Habitats, Marine Nearshore Habitat, Water Quality, Shellfish, and Salmon. Within these focus areas, the AHSS assigned attributes, which are characteristics of ecosystem function. Each attribute can be further defined by existing and regularly updated data that can be spatially mapped within a discreet set of inlet and island groups in the South Puget Sound. To measure progress, several attributes have been assigned numeric recovery targets. The strategy is organized around focus areas and their attributes, and for each, includes a description of the background, baseline conditions, and current strategies, existing programs and actions to address restoration and protection.
Forests and freshwater habitats continue to be impacted by population and development growth in the South Sound. Key threats affecting these habitats include conversion of land to housing and urban areas, roads and railroads, dams, tourism and recreation, spread of invasive species, and habitat fragmentation. These threats can be alleviated through continued work toward direct protection of intact areas, support and implementation of land management plans and policies, incentive programs for protecting and restoring natural areas and open space, supporting sustainable forestry efforts, educating people about the importance of ecosystem functions and services.
The nearshore is the transitional zone between terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Its physical complexity, high productivity, complex food webs, and diverse habitats and organisms make it a focus of Puget Sound protection efforts. Pressures affecting this habitat include conversion of land for housing and commercial/industrial areas, roads and railroads, dams and marine levees, shoreline alterations and infrastructure, and tourism and recreation areas. Strategies to address these pressures include direct protection of intact areas, support and implementation of land management plans, supporting landowners to protect and restore riparian areas, and education and outreach on the importance of nearshore and marine processes.
South Sound is home to the only remaining location of native prairies and oak woodlands in the Puget Sound region. Key threats to the remaining habitat are the conversation of land to agriculture or urban/suburban development, lack of natural disturbance, spread of invasive species, overgrazing, and habitat fragmentation. To address these threats, strategies focus on direct protection of intact areas, support and implementation of land management plans, implementation of local policies and regulations, and restoration of habitats through work with a variety of partners.
Salmon are vital to Puget Sound ecosystem processes, recreation, economy, and culture. There are ten species of salmon native to the area and South Puget Sound is a documented feeding ground for stocks from other Puget Sound waters. Salmon recovery work in Puget Sound is a longstanding and well-known process; the South Sound Strategy is intended to reinforce and complement and support existing salmon recovery plans, not replace current processes.
Shellfish are critical to the culture, economy, recreation and water quality of the South Puget Sound. Shellfish health and productivity are threatened by nonpoint source pollution from things like stormwater runoff, failing on-site sewage systems, sewage treatment plan outfalls, and marinas. Several strategies are intended to protect and restore shellfish beds, including reduction of contamination in stormwater runoff, improvements in maintenance and operation of septic tanks, identification and correction of point-source pollution, and conversion of on-site septic systems to sewer.
Clean freshwater and marine water are vital to people and to fish and wildlife. Water is affected by many factors, both natural and human. Significant threats to water quality in the South Sound include changing land cover and increases in impervious surfaces, pollution from point and nonpoint sources, increasing temperatures, pet waste, recreation, spills, invasive species, and other emerging contaminants. Strategies to address these threats include protecting marine and freshwater shorelines, programs to identify and correct pollution, collecting and treating urban stormwater, concentrating urban growth areas, and providing incentives to keep land in natural land covers.
Education and outreach are critical to Puget Sound recovery and protection. Without an active and educated citizenry, recovery and protection action can quickly be negated through unintended or intended collective detrimental behavior of individuals on the Puget Sound ecosystem. Given the projected population increase in the Puget Sound region over the short, intermediate, and long term, education and outreach are key to ensuring that gains in environmental health and human well-being in the Puget Sound are durable and sustainable. AHSS encourages organizations to incorporate outreach and education into project design since outreach and education are most effective at the project level. For organizations with limited outreach and education capacity, this may require partnering with outreach and education-focused organizations.
AHSS will accomplish adaptive management of the South Sound Strategy primarily through ongoing discussions with the South Sound Technical Team and the AHSS Council. The AHSS Executive Committee will continue to make decisions about changes to South Sound goals or targets in response to advice from the Technical Team and Council. The AHSS anticipates at least one plan review per year; the review may be implemented as a session at the longstanding and well attended South Sound Science Symposium.
The AHSS notes that adaptive management and evolutionary decision making involve a combination of responding to scientific and technical information and interactions with policy makers, project sponsors, and the broader community so the overall South Sound Strategy can continue to reflect what is needed and what can be done.
The Alliance will use the South Sound Strategy to facilitate broad conversations about the work needed to protect and restore the South Puget Sound and to inform selection of projects for the AHSS to endorse and advocate. Currently the AHSS (like other LIOs) controls very little project funding; however, the Alliance is hopeful that this will change over time and, as it does, the AHSS anticipates using the Strategy to inform funding decisions.
AHSS encourages and welcomes the opportunity to endorse and advocate for projects that are consistent with the Strategy. The AHSS is particularly interested in projects that accomplish habitat protection and restoration, protection and restoration or shellfish beds, and stormwater reduction and control. All actions proposed for AHSS endorsement should demonstrate a sound scientific and technical basis.