Ecosystem-based management

The Puget Sound Water Quality Management Plan was Washington State’s long-term strategy for protecting and restoring Puget Sound. This report was released in 2000 and also served as the federally approved Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Puget Sound under Section 320 of the federal Clean Water Act.

Priority Science to Support Puget Sound Recovery: A Science Work Plan for 2025-2029 describes the information, learning, and interaction needed to support the coordinated efforts to recover, protect, and improve the resilience of the Puget Sound ecosystem.

The 2023 State of the Sound is the Puget Sound Partnership’s eighth 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.

Researchers are compiling a strategic list of scientific uncertainties related to Puget Sound recovery. The list will be used to prioritize future funding and research to address critical knowledge gaps about the ecosystem.

On August 4, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the 2022-2026 Action Agenda adopted by the Leadership Council as the Puget Sound National Estuary Program's (NEP) Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. 

A 2022 article in the journal Environmental Science & Policy looks at how knowledge exchange across organizations influences science-based ecosystem recovery in Puget Sound. The University of Washington Puget Sound Institute describes its work to identify and communicate key scientific findings that support funding and policy decisions on an ecosystem scale.