Puget Sound Ecosystem Recovery Targets


Photo Credits: Left: Flickr - Neil Banas Right: Flickr - Camknows
The Puget Sound Partnership's Leadership Council has adopted the following ecosystem recovery targets, which describe
desired future conditions of human health and well-being, species and food webs, habitats, water quantity, and water
quality. These targets are policy statements that reflect the region's commitments to and expectations for recovery, or
a trajectory toward recovery, by 2020 based on scientific understandings of the ecosystem. Although targets are not
regulatory, they are designed to guide the work of all organizations and people living in the Puget Sound region.
Dissolved Oxygen in Marine Waters        Management of On-Site Sewage Systems
By 2020, human-related contributions of nitrogen do not result in         By 2020, all on-site sewage systems in marine recovery areas and
more than 0.2 mg/L reductions in dissolved oxygen levels anywhere        other areas with equivalent enhanced operation and maintenance
in Puget Sound.                                         programs are inventoried, 95 percent are current with inspections,
and all failed systems are fixed
Eelgrass
Designations of marine recovery areas or designation of other areas
Eelgrass extent in 2020 is 120 percent of area measured in the 2000-
with equivalent enhanced operation and maintenance are expanded
2008 baseline period
to 90 percent of marine shorelines not primarily served by sewers.
Estuaries                         Marine Sediment Quality
By 2020, all Chinook natal river deltas meet 10-year salmon recovery     By 2020, all Puget Sound regions and bays achieve the following: Chemgoals
(or 10 percent of restoration need as proxy for river deltas         istry measures reflect "minimum exposure" (i.e., mSQS is <0.1 and the
lacking quantitative acreage goals in salmon recovery plans) and        SCI is >93.3), Sediment Quality Triad Index (SQTI) scores reflect "unim-
7,380 quality acres are restored basin-wide, which is 20 percent of       pacted" conditions (i.e., SQTI values >83), and no measurements exceed
restoration need.                                        the Sediment Quality Standards chemical criteria set in the Washington
State sediment management standards.
Floodplains
By 2020, 15 percent of degraded floodplain areas are restored or        Orcas
floodplain projects to achieve that outcome are underway across        By 2020, achieve an end of year census of southern resident killer
Puget Sound and there is no additional loss of floodplain function in      whales of 95 individuals, which would represent a 1 percent annual
any Puget Sound watershed relative to a 2011 baseline.             average growth rate from 2010 to 2020.
Freshwater Water Quality
By 2020, at least 50 percent of all monitoring stations with
suitable data have Freshwater Water Quality Index scores of 80
or higher.
By 2020, achieve a decrease in the number of impaired waters
(303(d) list) in Puget Sound freshwaters.
Updated 7/20/2011

Pacific Herring                      Toxics in Fish
By 2020, achieve increased spawning biomass for each genetic grouping   By 2020, toxics in fish are below threshold levels. Target is achieved if
to a minimum of:                                      each of the following conditions is observed in monitoring results from
2019 or 2020:
"""  5,000 tons for Cherry Point stock.
"""  880 tons for Squaxin Pass stock.                               Bioaccumulative toxics  95 percent of samples meet the following
thresholds:
"""  13,500 tons for all other stocks combined.
"""  Concentrations of PCBs and PBDEs in Puget Sound herring,
Shellfish Beds                          English sole, salmon and steelhead are below adverse effects
A net increase from 2007 to 2020 of 10,800 harvestable shellfish acres,         thresholds (e.g., 2,400 ng PCB/g lipid and 1,400 ng PBDE/g
which includes 7,000 acres where harvest is currently prohibited.              lipid).
"""  Concentrations of PCBs and other biocumulative toxics in Puget
Shoreline Armoring
Sound herring, English sole, salmon, and steelhead are below
From 2011 to 2020, the total amount of armoring removed is greater
human-health screening levels (e.g., Department of Health
than the total amount of new armoring in Puget Sound (total miles
screening levels for recreational or subsistence consumpremoved
> total miles added); feeder bluffs receive strategic attention for
tion rates, currently 33 ng PCB/g and 10 ng PCB/g fish tissue,
removal of existing armoring and avoidance of new armoring; and soft
respectively for a non-cancer endpoint).
shore techniques are used for all new and replacement armoring unless
it is demonstrably infeasible.                                  PAHs and endocrine disrupting compounds  all samples meet the
following thresholds:
Summer Stream Flows                """ English sole in Puget Sound exhibit no PAH-related liver
By 2020, meet the following river-specific targets:                        disease.
"""  Maintain stable or increasing flows in highly regulated rivers:         """  English sole in Puget Sound exhibit no toxics-related reproduc-
Nisqually, Cedar, Skokomish, Skagit, Green.                      tive impairment.
"""  Monitor low flow in the Elwha River after dam removal.              """  PAHs in herring are below an effects threshold.
"""  Maintain stable flows in unregulated rivers that currently are      Insects in Small Streams
stable: Puyallup, Dungeness, Nooksack.                  By 2020, 100 percent of Puget Sound lowland stream drainage areas
"""  Restore low flows to bring the Snohomish River from a weakly    monitored with baseline B-IBI scores of 42-46 or better retain these
decreasing trend to no trend.                          "excellent" scores and mean B-IBI scores of 30 Puget Sound lowland
"""  Restore low flows to bring the Deschutes River, North Fork Still-   drainage areas improve from "fair" to "good."
aguamish River, and Issaquah Creek from a strongly decreasing
Wild Chinook Salmon
trend to a weakly decreasing trend.
By 2020, we stop the overall decline and start seeing improvements
Swimming Beaches               in wild Chinook abundance in two to four populations in each biogeo-
By 2020, all monitored Puget Sound beaches meet enterococcus standard.   graphic region.

About The Partnership
The Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) was created in 2007 by the Governor and Legislature to recover Puget Sound. The Partnership
is mandated to: 1) establish science-based recovery priorities, 2) manage performance toward recovery goals, 3) engage
and enable partners, and 4) advance priority actions (protection, restoration, and pollution prevention). PSP leads the regional
recovery effort for thousands of partners involved in the work  including statutory boards, state and federal agencies, tribes,
local government, citizen groups, businesses, non-governmental organizations, as well as Puget Sound's 4.3 million residents.

Phone: 360.725.5444 | E-Mail: info@psp.wa.gov | www.psp.wa.gov