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Ecosystem Recovery/ SJ-LIO
Working together to protect and restore the San Juan Islands’ ecosystem.
Recognizing that ecosystem recovery requires local actions to best motivate change, San Juan County and federally recognized local tribes in cooperation with a state agency called the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) established a Local Integrating Organization (LIO). The San Juan County Local Integrating Organization (SJ-LIO), is one of ten LIOs recognized by the PSP with the goal of overseeing the restoration of environmental health of the Salish Sea.
The San Juan LIO brings together numerous existing committees, governmental and non-government organizations, county agencies, tribes, and local watershed groups that coordinate actions to protect and restore the San Juan Islands’ ecosystem. Together, representatives from these organizations set priorities, design local near-term actions implement those actions. These actions then become a part of the PSP’s Action Agenda, which is essentially a “road map” to Puget Sound recovery.
As the local expert bodies for Puget Sound ecosystem recovery, the San Juan LIO meets regularly as a forum to collaboratively develop, coordinate, and implement strategies and actions that contribute to the protection and recovery of local marine ecosystems.
Historically, the San Juan LIO worked on short-term recovery projects called Near Term Actions (NTAs), which support the implementation of the Puget Sound Action Agenda. NTAs were intended to take place within a two-year period and be closely tracked, measured, and reported quarterly.
In 2022, the Puget Sound Partnership changed this format, though all previous NTAs can still be found on the PSP website here. Version OptionsEcosystem Recovery/ SJ-LIOWorking together to protect and restore the San Juan Islands’ ecosystem.Headline Despite the change in tracking and reporting, the concept of how we get things done remains the same: break down the mountain of ecosystem protection and recovery work into manageable mole hills. To view other recovery actions across the greater Puget Sound area, check out the Puget Sound National Estuary Program Atlas.
Learn more about the current and past projects of the SJ-LIO on our SJ-LIO Projects page.
Accountability Oversight Committee
TBD (Chair – voting member) – San Juan County Council
Vacant (voting member) – Lummi Nation
Stan Walsh (voting member) – Swinomish Tribe
Patti Gobin (voting member) – Tulalip Tribes
TBD (ex-officio - non-voting) – Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council
Implementation Committee
Sam Whitridge – San Juan County/WRIA 2 Lead Entity
Kendra Smith – San Juan County Environmental Stewardship Department
Frances Robertson - San Juan County Marine Program
Kyle Dodd – San Juan County Health & Community Services
Stan Walsh – Skagit River System Cooperative, Swinomish Tribe
Paul Andersson – San Juan Islands Conservation District
Megan Dethier – University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories
Kimbal Sundberg – Clean Water Advisory Committee
Adam Parrott – San Juan County Marine Resources Committee
Patti Gobin – Tulalip Tribes
Erin Licata - San Juan Stewardship Network