Follow Us to Puget Sound Day on the Hill

Each spring, gray whales, shorebirds and salmon make their way through and along Puget Sound waters. And each spring for the past five years, a migration of a different sort has been happening - one of the human sort, in the interest of all of us. Puget Sound advocates make their way each May to Washington, DC for the annual Puget Sound Day on the Hill, organized by the Puget Sound Partnership.

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Puget Sound is essential to our identity as Washingtonians, and its health is inextricably tied to that of our communities and our economy. Dabob Bay photo by Keith Lazelle.

It’s a meeting with a message: Federal support for Puget Sound recovery is critical to our region’s ecosystem, economy and culture.

We’re in DC this week with friends and partners from around the Sound and beyond. We’re academics, entrepreneurs, conservationists, engineers, anglers and agriculturalists. Though we come from different organizations and backgrounds, each with its own priorities and perspective, we’re all advocating with a unified voice for the health and future of our favorite estuary. Because we all depend on Puget Sound.

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Paul Fantello is helping improve water quality in the Newaukum Creek watershed, where he operates his hundred-year-old family farm, thanks to the Regional Conservation Partnership Program. Photo by Courtney Baxter/TNC.

Here are just a few of the stories we’ll be highlighting in our meetings with lawmakers:

• How collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has allowed us to accelerate Puget Sound restoration and work at a scale more appropriate to the size and urgency of the challenge;

• How support for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Puget Sound Geographic Program is essential for the success of restoration efforts and collaborative action;

• How our region’s farmers are better able to steward their land and improve Puget Sound’s water quality through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), an important part of the Farm Bill;

• … and many more inspiring stories of innovative solutions to chronic challenges facing our region - many of which can be replicated in estuaries around our country and the world.

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Puget Sound is the background of many of our childhood memories - and this week, it’s in the spotlight in Washington, DC, as advocates bring our region’s stories to Congress. Photo by Jeff Marsh.

We’re excited to join more than 70 other Puget Sound leaders in speaking up for nature and people in Washington, DC this week. Follow along with us on Twitter to read stories from the Hill, and learn more about our work to recover Puget Sound for the good of salmon, orca - and all of us.

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