Drafter
Clerk 02/12/2018
Title
AN ORDINANCE ratifying the 2017 update to the Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watershed (WRIA 8) Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan 10-year Update.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The 2017 update to the Washington Resource Inventory Area ("WRIA") 8 Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan ("the WRIA 8 plan") is an addendum to the 2005 WRIA 8 Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan, and includes a scientific framework, Chinook salmon population goals to achieve sustainable and harvestable populations, habitat restoration goals, recovery strategies, a list of priority projects and programmatic actions, and a monitoring and adaptive management plan.
2. Twenty eight local governments in WRIA 8 partner through an interlocal agreement ("the ILA") to jointly fund implementation of the WRIA 8 plan through 2025 to advance their shared interest in and responsibility for addressing long-term watershed planning and conservation of aquatic ecosystems and floodplains for purposes of implementing the WRIA 8 plan and improving watershed health.
3. The WRIA 8 partners recognize participating in the ILA and implementing priorities in the WRIA 8 plan demonstrates their commitment to proactively working to address the Endangered Species Act ("the ESA") listing of Chinook salmon.
4. WRIA 8 partners took formal action in 2005 and 2006 to ratify the WRIA 8 plan.
5. In March 1999, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries ("NOAA Fisheries") listed the Puget Sound Chinook salmon evolutionary significant unit, including the Cedar and Sammamish populations in WRIA 8, as a threatened species under the ESA.
6. An essential ingredient for the development and implementation of an effective recovery program is coordination and cooperation among federal, state, and local agencies, tribes, businesses, researchers, nongovernmental organizations, landowners, citizens and other stakeholders as required.
7. Local jurisdictions have authority over some habitat-based aspects of Chinook survival through land use and other policies and programs; and the state and tribes, who are the legal comanagers of the fishery resource, are responsible for addressing harvest and hatchery management in WRIA 8.
8. The county values ecosystem health; water quality improvement; flood hazard reduction; open space protection; and maintaining a legacy for future generations, including commercial, tribal and sport fishing, quality of life and cultural heritage.
9. The county supports cooperation at the WRIA level to set common priorities for actions among partners, efficient use of resources and investments and distribution of responsibility for actions and expenditures.
10. The WRIA 8 plan is one of fifteen watershed-based chapters of the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Plan.
11. The Puget Sound Partnership serves as the Puget Sound regional organization and lead for planning and implementing the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Plan, approved by NOAA Fisheries.
12. In WRIA 8, habitat protection and restoration actions to significantly increase Chinook productivity trends are necessary, in conjunction with other recovery efforts, to avoid extinction in the near term and restore WRIA 8 Chinook to viability in the long term.
13. The WRIA 8 plan recognizes that salmon recovery is a long-term effort, and focuses on a ten-year implementation time horizon to allow for evaluation of progress and updating WRIA 8 plan goals and priorities.
14. The county has implemented habitat restoration and protection projects, and uses the WRIA 8 plan and salmon habitat recovery strategies and goals as guidance in its land use and public outreach policies and programs.
15. It is important to provide jurisdictions, the private sector and the public with certainty and predictability regarding the course of salmon recovery actions that the region will be taking in WRIA 8, including the Puget Sound nearshore.
16. If insufficient action is taken at the local and regional level, it is unlikely Chinook salmon populations in WRIA 8 will improve and it is possible the federal government could list Puget Sound Chinook salmon as an endangered species, thereby decreasing local flexibility.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The county hereby ratifies the 2017 update to the Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watershed (WRIA 8) Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan, dated September 2017 ("the 2017 plan"), which is Attachment A to this ordinance. Ratification is intended to convey the county's approval and support for the following:
A. Conserving and recovering Chinook salmon and other anadromous fish, focusing on preserving, protecting and restoring habitat with the intent to recover listed species, including sustainable, genetically diverse, harvestable populations of naturally spawning Chinook salmon;
B. Providing multiple benefits to people and fish through plan implementation, including: flood hazard reduction; water quality improvement; open space protection; and maintaining a legacy for future generations, including commercial, tribal and sport fishing, quality of life and cultural heritage;
C. Continuing to work collaboratively with other jurisdictions and stakeholders in Water Resource Inventory Area 8 ("WRIA 8") to implement the WRIA 8 Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan, including 2017 update;
D. Using the habitat goals and associated recovery strategies in the 2017 plan update as a basis for local actions recommended in the 2017 plan and as one source of best available science for future projects, ordinances, programmatic actions and other appropriate local government activities;
E. Supporting implementation of the 2017 plan's Monitoring and Assessment Plan on a watershed basis, including an adaptive management approach to implementation and funding to address uncertainties and ensure cost-effectiveness by tracking actions, assessing action effectiveness, learning from results of actions, reviewing assumptions and strategies, making corrections, where needed, and communicating progress;
F. Using the 2017 plan project list, recommended land use and education and outreach actions, and other actions consistent with the 2017 plan as the suite of WRIA 8 actions to guide priorities for implementation and funding, including through grants, local capital improvement projects, ordinances and other activities. Jurisdictions, agencies and stakeholders can choose to implement these actions at any time; and
G. Using an adaptive approach to funding the 2017 plan through both local sources and by working together, within WRIA 8 and Puget Sound, to seek federal, state,
grant and other funding opportunities, and recognizing that funding assumptions, strategies and options will be revisited periodically.