Sound Indicators: A Review For the Puget Sound Partnership

The enabling legislation (Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5372) that created the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) directed the PSP to develop an Action Agenda that is a “comprehensive schedule of projects, programs, and other activities designed to achieve a healthy Puget Sound ecosystem.” The Action Agenda was to “include near-term and long-term benchmarks designed to ensure continuous progress needed to reach the goals, objectives, and designated outcomes by 2020.” The Science Panel of the PSP was charged by PSP’s Leadership Council with identifying an appropriate set of environmental indicators that would help efforts to accomplish the goal of restoring and maintaining a vibrant and productive Puget Sound ecosystem.

The enabling legislation that created the Washington State Academy of Sciences (Engrossed Senate Bill 5381) directed the WSAS to conduct ongoing independent reviews and assessments of the Puget Sound Partnership’s progress in developing the scientific basis for achieving a vibrant Puget Sound. By the end of 2010, the PSP Science Panel’s efforts had reached the stage where an independent review by the WSAS was timely and useful to help guide its future indicator development efforts. The PSP Science Panel asked the WSAS to evaluate the processes it used to develop a system of indicators of ecosystem condition, and human health and well-being. The WSAS was also asked to assess how well the individual indicators and the full set of indicators could function as the basis for guiding the PSP’s future management efforts and for monitoring progress in improving the ecological condition of Puget Sound. This report is the response of the Committee convened by the WSAS to meet that request. The Committee’s analysis is based on documents supplied to it by PSP on or before September 30, 2011.