Puget Sound National Estuary Program (NEP)

Efforts

Efforts describe the goal-oriented activites of workgroups

• Knowledge Creation
  • Adaptive Management
  • Arts and Crafts
  • Lessons
  • Monitoring
  • Research
• Protection
  • Acquisition
  • Green Infrastructure
  • Regulation
• Restoration
  • Beach Nourishment
  • Engineered Log Jams
  • Fish Passage
  • Revegetation
• Social Change
  • Advocacy
  • Coordination
  • Education
  • Funding
  • Integrated Ecosystem Management
  • Legislation
  • Planning

Effort References

• RCO's PRISM Project Search
• Salmon Recovery Portal
• Ecology's Administration of Grants and Loans
• USACE Regulatory In-lieu Fee and Bank information Tracking System

Wiki Rules

• Wiki text does not reflect the policy or opinion of any agency or organization
• Please adhere to our Social Contract and Style Guide
• Complain here, and be nice.

The Puget Sound National Estuary Program is an EPA effort that provides funding to support Puget Sound Partnership efforts to implement the Puget Sound Action Agenda. It distributes pass-through Funding to Washington agencies to support three "Strategic Initiatives": Habitat, Shellfish, and Stormwater. In addition funds are provided to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission which allocates funds among Tribal efforts. The state agency implementing the NEP has changed over time. In the 1990s it was the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority. With the dissolution of the Water Quality Authority, implementation was with the Puget Sound Action Team. PSAT was dissolved and replaced by PSP. NEP funding is among the most flexible federal funding sources in Puget Sound, supporting a wider variety of Planning and Education in addition to Restoration with the goal of catalyzing change to achieve important ecosystem goals. The NEP system both overlaps and is distinct from the network built around the Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) which also funds PSP. The NEP system and the Salmon Recovery system centered on RCO are significant parts of the complex Puget Sound Ecosystem Funding apparatus.

• https://pugetsoundestuary.wa.gov/
• https://pugetsoundestuary.wa.gov/all-funded-projects/ - provides best information on all funded actions

Language and Components of NEP

• Puget Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan - a document required for NEP participation. The Action Agenda serves as the PSCCMP for Puget Sound.
• Strategic Initiatives (SIs) - during an iteration of NEP three topics were identified as strategic initiatives for NEP funding: Habitat, Water Quality, and Shellfish.
• Strategic Initiative Leads (SILs) - EPA entered into agreements with state agencies to develop NTAs. There are three SILs as described above, each with its own SIAT and NTAs.
  • The Habitat SIL is managed by WDNR and WDFW - https://pugetsoundestuary.wa.gov/2019/10/28/habitat-2019-funding-framework/
• Near Term Actions (NTAs) - A solicited list of actions used both for describing the Puget Sound Action Agenda, and to petition for NEP funding from EPA through a SIL
• Implementation Strategies - Developed as an extension of selected Vital Signs, the ISs are documents that define the current strategy towards achieving Vital Sign objectives by identifying the proximate and supporting conditions necessary to meet targets (for example: estuary acres restored).
• Strategic Initiative Advisory Team (SIAT) - a group of agency and academic scientists who volunteer to participate in teams that evaluate NTAs and Implementation Strategies.
• Local Integrating Organizations (LIOs) - a set of areas, overlapping with but separate from Watershed Lead Entities used to organize local efforts.
• LIO Coordinators - staff funded through contract between PSP and local leads, funded by EPA, that convene and staff local LIO committees.

National Estuary Program

• Authority was established in the 1987 ammendments of the Clean Water Act (Sec. 320)
• Puget Sound is one of 28 estuaries of national significance.
• Each NEP site is supposed to develop a Management Conference, and develop a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. For Puget Sound that MC are the various committees of the Puget Sound Partnership and the CCMP is the Action Agenda
• Previous to PSP the NEP program was represented by the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority and the Puget Sound Action Team.
• NEP funds are relatively flexible and can be applied to a wide range of activities, from planning to outreach, to on the ground implementation of habitat or water quality programs.
• The EPA is appropriated federal funds, which are distributed in Puget Sound. The exact focus and mechanisms used by NEP change over time but have included:
  • Puget Sound Marine and Nearshore Grant Program
  • Pollution Identification and Correction
• In 2015 the NEP Watershed Protection and Restoration grants developed a new Riparian Easement program, intended to fill a need for riparian zone protection and restoration, while responding to Treaty Rights at Risk by implementing File:AFW 2002 federal riparian buffer matrix.pdf. Canty 2015 describes the stakeholder consultation supporting program development.
• Over 2015 and 2016 a new system has been developed by NEP and PSP that includes "Strategic Implementation Advisory Teams" that advise three "Strategic Initiative" leads (Habitat, Shellfish, Stormwater), on how to allocate resources among "Near Term Actions", which together make up the "Action Agenda", and are evaluated using a framework defined in "Implementation Strategies", that propose a strategy for increasing "Puget Sound Vital Signs".