State of the Sound report 2021
The 2021 State of the Sound is the Puget Sound Partnership’s seventh biennial report to the Legislature on progress toward the recovery of Puget Sound. The document reports on both the status of the Partnership's recovery efforts and a suite of ecosystem indicators referred to as the Puget Sound Vital Signs.
Puget Sound Vital Signs help gauge ecosystem health
The Puget Sound Vital Signs are measures of ecosystem health that guide the assessment of progress toward six statutory Puget Sound recovery goals. The Legislature established those goals in statute in 2007. We express each of the six recovery goals with one or more Vital Signs that represent important components of the ecosystem, including human wellbeing (e.g. marine water quality, economic vitality). We use one or more indicators to measure specific aspects of each ecosystem component.
In 2011, the Partnership adopted ecosystem recovery targets (targets), which are science-informed statements of desired future conditions for the indicators. Using the most recent data available, we report here on whether targets set for the year 2020 were achieved. With year 2020 behind us, the Partnership is reviewing the 2020 targets and working with our boards and partners to select new targets over the next few years.