Applying a Common Adaptive Management Framework to Chinook and Ecosystem Recovery in Puget Sound

The Puget Sound Partnership is working closely with the 14 Puget Sound Chinook salmon recovery Lead Entities to develop 16 watershed-scale monitoring and adaptive management frameworks for Chinook salmon recovery, translating local watershed approaches to recovery into a common regional framework. With final products due in May 2014, this presentation will discuss the process being applied to Chinook recovery and potential application for overall Puget Sound ecosystem recovery. Using the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (Open Standards) to guide the process and the technical manual “Puget Sound Chinook Salmon Recovery: A Framework for the Development of Monitoring and Adaptive Management Plans” (draft released by the Recovery Implementation Technical Team in 2013) as the technical basis for characterizing and monitoring ecosystem health, PSP is working with a team of consultants as well as scientists and policy-makers in each of 16 watersheds around Puget Sound to translate existing watershed plans into a common language. Watershed teams are identifying strengths and gaps in existing plans, assessing status and trends of Chinook populations and key habitat components, identifying status and effectiveness monitoring priorities, and documenting adaptive management processes to support use of new information to guide decisions on management and capital expenditures. This project forms the basis of an adaptive management system for Chinook salmon recovery in Puget Sound: it will establish a comprehensive, methodical, effective, and transparent monitoring and adaptive management program for salmon recovery that is incorporated into, and leveraged by, the broader efforts around Puget Sound recovery. Based on the outcomes of applying this approach to Chinook recovery, PSP will evaluate potential application of a similar approach for steelhead recovery planning and comprehensive ecosystem recovery planning with the local integrating organizations (LIOs). This Open Standards-based approach may support prioritizing strategies and actions at the Action Area and LIO level, regional monitoring of status and effectiveness of Near Term Actions (NTAs) included in the Action Agenda, and may also support assessment of which NTAs are likely to be most effective toward meeting our recovery goals