We began with a meeting of interested stakeholders from throughout the region in January, 2009.   The vision that we began to formulate that day is slowly, but steadily taking shape.

Planning Committee Meeting Summaries

April, 2020

February, 2010

January, 2010

December, 2009

November, 2009

October, 2009

September, 2009

August, 2009

July, 2009

January, 2009 Scoping Meeting in Forks, WA

Meeting Minutes

Concept Paper

Keep checking back to this page to follow our progress.

REGIONAL SALMON PLAN "SCOPE"

All of Washington’s watersheds which drain directly into the Pacific Ocean between Cape Flattery in the north and Cape Disappointment in the south, together with their inland, estuarine and nearshore environments, lying within all or parts of Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, Pacific, Cowlitz, Mason and Lewis Counties.

DRAFT REGIONAL SALMON PLAN VISION

All watersheds in the Washington Coast Region contain healthy, diverse and self-sustaining populations of salmonids, maintained by healthy habitats and ecosystems, which also support the ecological, cultural, social, and economic needs of human communities.

KEY PLANNING PARTNERS

The Wild Salmon Center, with the generous support of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Community Salmon Fund, conducted a comprehensive Needs Assessment of the Region.  The goals of this process were to 1) describe the geographic, geological, social, cultural, fisheries, and fish-biological context for the region; 2) identify, synthesize and highlight major common gaps in relevant existing limiting factor assessments and action plans for salmon recovery/conservation for the region; and 3) recommend landscape-scale conservation actions among basins, building on existing prioritizations within basins.  Although still in DRAFT from, the report and data library can be viewed here.  This work will serve as a strong foundation for our Regional Salmon Plan.

We also formalized a relationship with The Nature Conservancy of Washington who has devoted staff time and planning expertise to help us craft our Salmon Plan following the Conservation Action Plan (CAP) process. 

Learn more about CAP HERE.

THE PROCESS: 

The Regional Planning Committee has been meeting every month since July to orchestrate developing the plan by bringing together all stakeholders and interested parties, utilizing the best science in consultation with the best salmon scientists, to 1) define the biological focal targets around which our salmon protection and restoration strategies can be built; to 2) identify stresses and assess the viability of these targets; to 3) identify critical threats; and 4) to develop strategies and objectives for action.

Workshop #1

Our first workshop was held December 8, 2009 at the Quinault Lodge.  The primary goal of this workshop was to select focal targets – essentially a limited suite of species, communities, or ecological systems that encompass the processes necessary for the long-term sustainability of all salmon species within the Washington Coast Region. 

FOCAL BIOLOGICAL TARGETS

 After extensive debate, the group voted to select the following

Focal Biological Targets:

Main Stems     Tributaries     Lakes     Wetlands/Off-Channel

      Uplands        Estuaries       Nearshore Marine      Ocean 

These habitat targets were chosen over another set of Targets which also included salmon life stages.  It as agreed and understood that life stages would be incorporated into the Focal Biological Targets above.  These alternate Targets are:

Spawning Habitat          Juvenile Rearing Habitat    

Juvenile Migration              Adult Returns

      Geomorphology/Hydrology           Riparian Habitat

Estuaries        Nearshore/Ocean 

The Planning Committee resolved the challenge - and demonstrated the flexibility of the CAP process – by selecting a set of Key Salmon Attributes (KSA) for each Focal Target.  The purpose is to capture the interrelationship between salmon and each target with attributes that are Key to salmon species and life stages within each habitat.

What follows is still in DRAFT form.  The current version proposes including riparian habitat components within the Upland Focal Target.  We’ll be reviewing and improving it prior to our next workshop.  Comments and suggestions are more than welcome!

Key Salmon Attributes

of each Focal Habitat Target

Key Species

In order to capture the species most closely associated with a Key Salmon Attribute, we’ve developed a DRAFT list of Key Species for each attribute.  For instance:

For the entire list of Key species identified for each KSA of each Focal Target, click HERE.

Indicators and Measures

To assess the condition of the Focal Targets, we need to look at the condition of each Key Salmon Attribute.  For each KSA, we’re identifying indicators of condition and how that condition would be measured.  For example:

To capture variability between different salmon species, different ratings can be used depending upon the needs of those species.  The temperature range, for instance, to indicate the condition of the habitat for Chinook might be different from the range used for other species:

A complete DRAFT list of Indicators and Measures for each KSA of each Focal Target is currently under review.  The detailed version in Excel of this draft Targets, Attributes, Indicators, Measures chart (TAIM) can be found HERE.

FIRST TECHNICAL SESSION

At the first Technical Session on March 23, 2010, we fine tuned the content of the TAIM chart, including:

• Confirming the Key Salmon Attributes for each Focal Target,
• Selecting the most important Indicators for each species-specific life stage,
• And confirming the most appropriate Measure for each Indicator.

THREATS WORKSHOP

The next session, the Threats Workshop, is scheduled for Tuesday, September 14, location to be deteremined.

For More Information…

… or to make sure you receive an invitation to the next session,

please call Miles or Dana at 360 289 2499 or email danajd@wcssp.org