The document provides an update on the South Sound Strategy and seeks input on target setting and next steps. It summarizes the strategy's focus areas and pressures, and proposes setting numeric local targets for several ecosystem attributes using analysis from the Squaxin Island Tribe's tools. Targets are proposed for forest/impervious cover, freshwater and marine riparian habitat, estuaries, drift cells, shoreline armoring, and fish barriers. Existing targets are proposed to be adopted for summer flows and salmon. The strategy will identify priority areas for protection and restoration based on the tribal analysis to guide target achievement.

1. 1
South Sound Strategy
September 14, 2016

2. 2
Purpose
• Update on Status of South Sound Strategy
• Seek input on:
• South Sound approach to target setting & preliminary
targets
• Next steps

3. 3
South Sound Strategy – Quick Refresh
• Strategy describes:
• What we care about (ecosystem focus areas)
• Where we want them to be (goals/objectives)
• How they are doing (status/ trends)
• Pressures(what is harming them or has potential to)
• Priorities (which focus areas and pressures we’re focused
on for the next 3-5 years)
• Strategies (what we are doing about pressures / how we
plan to achieve our goals)
• Actions (specific next steps for our priority focus areas /
pressures)

4. 4
Focus Areas – Selected Last Year
• Protection and restoration of forests for ecosystem benefits
and sustainable harvest
• Protection and restoration of prairie/oak woodlands
• Protection and restoration of freshwater wetlands and
streams
• Protection and restoration of marine nearshore habitat.
• Improved freshwater water quality
• Improved marine water quality
• Expansion of healthy, productive shellfish populations and
harvest
• Increase in abundance and distribution of native salmon
species and harvest
• Human well being

5. 5
Pressures –Identified Last Year
• Remember – pressures are not all bad
• Many of the things we value about the South Sound
also can, if not properly managed, threaten
ecosystem process, structure, or function
• Growth
• Industry
• Recreation
• Etc.
• The goal is not to eliminate pressures – it is to
manage them effectively and in a balanced way

6. 6
• Housing & Urban Areas
• Commercial & Industrial Areas
(including ports)
• Tourism & Recreation Areas
• Annual & Perennial Non-Timber
Crops
• Wood & Pulp Plantations
• Livestock Farming & Ranching
• Roads & Railroads (including
culverts)
• Shipping Lanes and Dredged
Waterways
• Abstraction of surface water
• Abstraction of ground water
• Dams
• Freshwater Levees, Floodgates,
Tidegates
• Marine Levees, Floodgates,
Tidegates
• Freshwater shoreline
infrastructure
• Marine shoreline infrastructure
• Domestic & Municipal Wastewater
to Sewer
• Domestic and Commercial
Wastewater to Onsite Sewage
Systems (OSS)
• Runoff from residential and
commercial lands
• Industrial runoff
• Agricultural & Forestry Effluents
• Air-Borne Pollutants

7. 7
Drilling into Focus Areas with Attributes
• Attributes are: characteristics that can serve as indicators
of the process, structure, and function (i.e., health) of the
ecosystems, habitats, and species
• Can tell us about the status and trends of the ecosystem
focus areas (e.g., “How much is there and where is it?”,
“Is the condition improving or degrading?”)
• Can measure and evaluate recovery objectives and
actions aimed at specific ecosystem focus areas
• We will use attributes to set numeric recovery objectives
– but we won’t set targets for all attributes this year

8. 8
Attributes – Marine & Nearshore
1. Miles of intact marine riparian habitat
2. Number and proportion of intact drift cells/feeder bluffs
3. Acres of suitable forage fish spawning habitat
4. Acres of intact small/pocket estuaries
5. Acres of intact large estuaries
6. Acres of eelgrass
7. Miles of shoreline armoring
8. Acres of harvestable shellfish
9. Marine water quality

9. 9
Attributes – Freshwater & Upland
1. Miles of intact freshwater riparian habitat
2. Miles of stream without fish impassable barriers
3. Summer low flow quantity in large rivers and smaller streams
4. Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (BIBI)
5. Land cover and growth (forest cover / impervious)
6. Freshwater Quality Index: Nisqually River at Nisqually or
Deschutes River at East St. Bridge & smaller stream county-
level monitoring
7. Salmon abundance and distribution by species (e.g., Chinook,
coho, chum, steelhead)
8. Acres of Oak Prairie Habitat

10. 10
Selecting Attributes for Target Setting
• Remember all attributes are intended to speak to
ecosystem forming or sustaining process and functions
• Subset for target setting selected pragmatically based on
availability of data and South Sound historic priorities as
represented by current and proposed future work
• Also considered:
• Mix of ecosystem processes and functions represented
• Can we make progress and/or do we have momentum
• Does it also provide benefits to humans
• Can we line it up with PSP Puget Sound scale goals

11. 11
Propose Setting Numeric Local Targets:
• Forest cover / impervious cover
• Miles of freshwater riparian
• Miles of marine riparian
• Small estuaries & large estuaries
• Intact drift cells
• Shoreline armoring
• Fish passage barriers

12. 12
Propose Adopting Existing Local
Numeric Targets:
• Summer low flows in rivers & small streams -- existing
PSP targets for rivers and tribal targets for small streams
• Salmon –
• Existing Chinook targets
• Squaxin targets for coho (and other species?)
• Nisqually targets for coho and steelhead (and other species?)
• Harvestable shellfish (acres) -- use acres developed as
part of new South Sound NTA

13. 13
Propose Not Setting Targets:
• Oak woodlands & Prairies – will reference existing work
and targets to the extent they exist
• Eelgrass – no target not a great conceptual model yet
• Suitable forage fish habitat – no target, likely covered by
drift cell and shoreline armoring targets
• FW water quality – will reference county targets where
they exist
• Marine water quality – can reference PSP target or not
• Macroinvertebrates – will reference county targets where
they exist
• Human well being – will tackle in the future

14. 14
Approach to Target Setting
• Set at Inlet/Island group scale and aggregate for South Sound scale
• Overall: focus on making the best areas better
• Wherever possible used Squaxin Island Tribe Coastal Catchment
Analysis & Nearshore Project Selection Tool to aid in target setting.
• Overlaid attribute (e.g., marine riparian) with areas identified as number 1
priorities for conservation/protection and restoration/enhancement in Coastal
Catchment and/or as priority nearshore habitat for salmon
• Coastal catchments are about the top 20% of South Sound nearshore habitat
• Priority nearshore for salmon is about additional ___ % of shoreline
• Yields both a numeric target and a starting point for where to focus projects
• Where couldn’t use this approach used a range of other approaches
from adopting existing targets to other GIS-based analysis
• Projects outside these areas are fine but would not be part of the
initial target.

15. 15
Example: Marine Riparian
• For this effort, intact marine riparian is mixed forest,
evergreen forest, deciduous forest, and mixed forest (from 30
meter cell size NOAA 2011 CCAP data), within 200ft of the
ordinary high water mark
• Of the 400 miles of shoreline in South Sound, approximately
65% (260 miles) have marine riparian cover
• Marine riparian habitat is most intact along Totten and Little
Skookum Inlets, both sides of Pickering Passage, and around
Harstine Island
• The shorelines with the poorest riparian habitat cover are the
northern end of Case Inlet, Budd Inlet, and the eastern
shoreline near the cities of Steilacoom, University Place, and
Tacoma

16. 16

17. 17
• Map showing intact marine riparian

18. 18
• Map showing Squaxin protection/conservation and
restoration/enhancement catchments

19. 19
• Overlay map (or maps?)

20. 20

21. 21

22. 22
Marine Riparian – Potential Target
• (1) Protect all intact marine riparian habitat throughout
South Sound, 260 miles, of which 173.8 miles are in the
areas identified as a priority in the Squaxin Island Tribe
Coastal Catchment Assessment and/or the Nearshore
Project Selection Tool for Juvenile Salmon; and
• (2) restore 38.9 miles of degraded marine riparian
habitat in the areas identified as a priority in the Squaxin
Island Tribe Coastal Catchment Assessment and/or the
Nearshore Project Selection Tool for Juvenile Salmon.

23. 23
Example – Fish Passage Barriers
• 360 barriers that are considered total blockages to
fish passage; nearly 280 are road crossings
• Totten & Little Skookum Inlet Group has the highest
concentration of total barriers (55) followed by the
Hammersley Inlet & Oakland Bay Group (51)
• Harstine Island Group has the fewest total blockages
(7)

24. 24

25. 25

26. 26

27. 27
Fish Passage Barriers – Potential Target
• (1) Restore the [four] partial barriers in Carr Inlet,
Henderson Inlet, and Nisqually that have a WDFW
Priority Index greater than 50,
• (2) Prioritize restoring both total and partial barriers
that have a WDFW Priority Index between 25 and 50
[50 barriers].
• (3) Update the priority index rating for barriers.

28. 28
Example - Flows
• Adopt numeric state flow targets for the Deschutes
and Nisqually
• Adopt local flow targets for smaller streams where
flow targets available
• Goldsborough, Johns, and Huge Creek
• [Add Nisqually basin small streams with targets]
• Use a narrative standard for smaller streams where
numeric targets are not available

29. 29
Summer Flows – Potential Target
• Increase summer low flows in all basins that are
limited by flow; and
• Achieve numeric flow targets where flow targets
have been set, which includes: Nisqually River,
Deschutes River, Goldsborough Creek, Johns Creek,
Huge Creek, and [add Nisqually small streams]; and
• In basins limited by flow which do not have numeric
targets, complete groundwater models or other data
gathering so numeric flow targets can be set

30. 30
Next Steps for Strategy
• Complete mapping and analysis for status and trends
Complete target setting and shop targets with
Council and key project sponsor groups
• Complete narrative for each focus area / attribute
including descriptions of key programs and strategies
and existing South Sound actions
• Figure out cross-walk to PSP requirements and new
template

31. 31
Discussion

32. 32
Back Up Info

33. 33
How Were Nearshore Strategy Areas
Identified
• Considered level of “intactness” and degradation of
ecosystem processes at the catchment scale and in
surrounding catchments
• Considered ecosystem attributes (both positive and
negative) present or historically present
• Designed to identify areas where small-scale projects
are likely to be successful and self-sustaining over
time

34. 34
How Were FW Priority Catchments
Identified
• Ecology water flow analysis
• Considered the relative “intactness” of ecological
processes related to water delivery and movement
and the relative degradation of those processes plus
loss
• Creates a relative ranking designed to identify areas
where projects are more likely to be self-sustaining
over time
• Does not consider presence/absence of salmon,
probably need that overlay too

35. 35
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0
Budd Inlet
Carr Inlet
Case Inlet
Eld Inlet
Hammersley Inlet & Oakland Bay
Harstine Island Group
Henderson Inlet
McNeil Island Group
Totten & Little Skookum Inlets
Squaxin Nearshore Strategies for Marine Riparian Habitat by Inlet & Island Group
Restoration/Enhancement Conservation/Preservation
Squaxin Nearshore Tool - Strategies of total riparian habitat
Inlet | Island Group Conservation/Preservation Restoration/Enhancement
Total Riparian
Habitat Total Miles % Riparian % Cons/Pres % Rest/Enhanc
Budd Inlet 2.6 2.6 9.8 18.9 52% 27% 27%
Carr Inlet 5.8 4.4 22.8 36.6 62% 25% 19%
Case Inlet 2.7 3.1 13.3 24.5 54% 20% 23%
Eld Inlet 2.1 5.0 17.7 27.9 63% 12% 29%
Hammersley Inlet & Oakland Bay 3.5 4.9 19.3 32.6 59% 18% 26%
Harstine Island Group 22.5 11.9 81.8 103.8 79% 28% 15%
Henderson Inlet 1.7 3.9 11.3 17.0 67% 15% 35%
McNeil Island Group 12.2 11.7 56.7 101.0 56% 22% 21%
Totten & Little Skookum Inlets 5.0 5.5 27.5 37.3 74% 18% 20%
Totals 58 53 260 400 65% 22% 20%

36. 36
Calculations – Restore Catchments
SQUAXIN STRATEGY: RESTORE
Inlet/Island Group
Total Shoreline
(miles)
# of Estuaries
to Restore
Miles of Estuaries
to Restore
Acres of Estuaries
to Restore
Budd Inlet 21 4 2 129
Eld Inlet 31 4 3 200
Totten / Little Skookum Inlets 41 5 3 270
Oakland Bay & Hammersly Inlet 34 5 2 167
Harstene Island Group 115 22 7 442
Case Inlet 28 7 6 354
Carr Inlet 42 9 4 287
McNeil Island Group 110 13 9 776
Henderson Inlet 20 4 4 246
Totals 442 73 39 2872

37. 37
Calculations – Preserve catchments
SQUAXIN STRATEGY: PRESERVE
Inlet/Island Group
Total Shoreline
(miles)
# of Estuaries
to Preserve
Miles of Estuaries
to Preserve
Acres of Estuaries
to Preserve
Budd Inlet 21 2 2 149
Eld Inlet 31 3 3 218
Totten / Little Skookum Inlets 41 7 4 307
Oakland Bay & Hammersly Inlet 34 7 3 254
Harstene Island Group 115 17 9 607
Case Inlet 28 6 2 150
Carr Inlet 42 10 3 180
McNeil Island Group 110 13 7 527
Henderson Inlet 20 4 2 171
Totals 442 69 34 2563

38. 38
Propose Setting Numeric Local Targets:
• Forest cover / impervious cover (GIS analysis)
• Miles of freshwater riparian (still in development)
• Miles of marine riparian (Squaxin tools)
• Small estuaries & large estuaries (Squaxin tools)
• Intact drift cells (Squaxin tools)
• Shoreline armoring (Squaxin tools)
• Fish passage barriers (Priority Index)

39. 39
• Slide showing Stephen Stanley Catchments

40. 40
• Overlay slide showing barriers in very highest and
highest catchments