Priority Science to Support Puget Sound Recovery: A Science Work Plan for 2025-2029
Summary
This document, Priority Science to Support Recovery of the Puget Sound Ecosystem: A Science Work Plan for 2025-2029 (SWP for 2025-2029), describes the research, monitoring, and coordination needed to recover, protect, and improve the health and resilience of the Puget Sound ecosystem. The Puget Sound Partnership’s Science Panel (Panel) acknowledges that bold science and inclusive information sharing, along with bold implementation of protection and recovery actions are required to accomplish the region’s six recovery goals: a healthy human population, vibrant quality of life, thriving species and food web, protected and restored habitat, abundant water quantity, and healthy water quality. These goals underscore the inextricable links that exist between environmental quality, animal health, and human health and wellbeing.
The 18 Priority Science Work Actions identified in this document highlight areas of particular importance for future science and monitoring. These priority actions address the Panel’s objectives to add value by filling gaps, aid science innovation, support continuity, link socio-ecological resilience, enable transformative and effective large-scale actions, and address inequities to achieve greater environmental justice in recovery efforts. Each science work action was derived from an existing need expressed by recovery partners or the Panel.
The Panel also provides broader recommendations to improve ongoing science. These broader recommendations are cross-cutting principals to continue in the pursuit of all science actions.
The Science Work Actions and the broader recommendations aim to improve the ongoing
science that supports and facilitates Puget Sound recovery. They identify important initiatives that will sustain and enhance the research, modeling, and monitoring programs that deliver needed information to achieve PSP’s recovery goals. The Panel encourages the Puget Sound Partnership (“Partnership”) to continue to strengthen its role as a backbone organization through advancing evidence-based recovery efforts and supporting the expansion of a strong and extensive recovery network. This includes facilitating the tracking of Vital Signs and indicators, utilizing the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program (PSEMP), employing the Action Agenda and Implementation Strategies, and evaluating the effectiveness of recovery and protection actions to improve future management. The Panel appreciates that there are hundreds of organizations work on Puget Sound recovery in one way or another and the public has a high interest in Puget Sound recovery. The Panel encourages the broader recovery community to consider these Science Work Actions and broader recommendations to prioritize investments in recovery science and management.