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MEDIA CONTACT
Linda Farmer, APR
360-725-5445
linda.farmer@psp.wa.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07-18-2007

Help draw boundaries of the Puget Sound ‘Action Areas’

The Leadership Council of the Puget Sound Partnership is soliciting input on dividing the Puget Sound basin into Action Areas as required by state law. Comments are due by close of business on Aug. 3.

To develop its long-term plan, the 2020 Action Agenda, the Partnership will work with local watershed groups, tribes, cities, counties, special purpose districts and the private sector in seven geographic sub-regions or Action Areas of Puget Sound. These areas will cover the entire Puget Sound basin and will include the uplands that drain to the marine waters.

The legislation creating the new Partnership does not define the specific geographic boundaries of the Action Areas, but does name them as follows:

  • Strait of Juan de Fuca
  • The San Juan Islands
  • Whidbey Island
  • North central Puget Sound
  • South central Puget Sound
  • South Puget Sound
  • Hood Canal

Residents, businesses, environmental groups, tribes, governments and other interested parties are invited to submit ideas about where the boundary lines should go and why. According to the law that created the Partnership, the Action Areas should be regions that share common interests, issues and physical characteristics such as water flows.

The Partnership strongly encourages interested parties to organize themselves, to work together through shared issues and to submit joint comments where appropriate.

Following the Aug. 3 comment deadline, Partnership staff will present a draft proposal to the Leadership Council at its August meeting (yet to be scheduled). The public can comment on that proposal before the August meeting. Details will be available at www.psp.wa.gov shortly after Aug. 3.

Once defined, each Action Area will have a representative on the Partnership’s soon-to-be-formed Ecosystem Coordination Board.

There are already a number of ways that communities, governments and other organizations have divided Puget Sound into different working areas. Partnership staff assembled these methods and provided descriptions and maps. Partnership staff also drafted a short series of questions to help entities shape their comments. Find this information at www.psp.wa.gov/actionareacomments.

For general information on the Action Areas, visit www.psp.wa.gov/actionareas.

Comments should be emailed to areacomments@psp.wa.gov by the close of business on Aug. 3. For more information, contact Ron Shultz, Acting Director of the Puget Sound Partnership, ron.shultz@psp.wa.gov, 360.725.5470.

The Puget Sound Partnership is a state agency established in 2007 to lead efforts to protect and restore Puget Sound and its spectacular diversity of life, now and for future generations. Learn more at www.psp.wa.gov.

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