We knew that it was an unattainable goal when Governor Gregoire said it. Now it’s just another marketing campaign slogan, like so many before it, tossed aside for….what? Just what is the goal and how are we going to achieve it?
The Puget Sound Partnership has now officially thrown in the towel on the goal of restoring Puget Sound to health by the year 2020. From press accounts of this latest report, one might have concluded that the 2020 goal was set only 10 years ago, when the current version of the Partnership was established. Actually, the goal was set more than 30 years ago by Washington State, in 1985 legislation that created the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority.*
http://salishseacommunications.blogspot.com/2017/11/throwing-in-towel-on-puget-sounds-2020.html
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound, Puget Sound Partnership |
Need true leadership and willingness to fund. Cannot continue to allow habitat loss, even to aquaculture, if we are going to restore salmon runs, and save resident orcas from extinction. The lack of funding for even basic education on this issue from the PSP shows that there is no real commitment to change the situation rapidly. As we know, very few people are even aware of the problems, let along wanting to solve them.
There seems to have been a major disconnect between the desire to restore Puget Sound and the level of population growth that we’ve had in the last 30 years. I think we still have a net loss of habitat over the past 5 – 10 years, despite efforts to restore areas critical to healthy fish, shellfish, and marine mammal populations. Despite thoughts by many in government that might suggest that population growth can be accommodated by environmental legislation and restoration, I don’t think it can. There is “No free lunch”!