Puget Sound federal task force: federal coordination and collaboration on Puget Sound science and monitoring

Federal agencies have extensive expertise, capabilities and access to national and regional capacity for fundamental science and monitoring programs to support Puget Sound ecosystem recovery. Credible and salient scientific information and technical support are needed at the regional, sub-regional, and local levels to support recovery planning and implementation processes, address policy barriers, and inform the best next steps for recovery. While in many major coastal ecosystem recovery efforts, there are well-organized federal/state/local science enterprises that support recovery planning and implementation efforts, Puget Sound does not yet have a formal dedicated structure for effectively integrating federal science and monitoring expertise and capabilities for this purpose. In this presentation, the speaker will describe efforts to better integrate federal science and monitoring through the Puget Sound Federal Task Force Science and Monitoring work group and discuss the work group\u27s efforts to 1) determine interim steps that could be taken to help address critical science and monitoring gaps with current resources and capacity; 2) develop a process for prioritizing current and planned federal science and monitoring activities that are consistent with Puget Sound recovery needs; and 3) collaboratively develop options for developing a Federal Puget Sound Science Program that brings to bear federal scientific and technical expertise and capacity to support collaboration, leveraging, and science needs for Puget Sound recovery. The speaker will also preview Federal Task Force Science and Monitoring work group activities and priorities for 2018