Puget Sound watershed protection efforts will get a $4.5-million boost thanks to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) West Coast Estuaries Initiative. Eight cooperative watershed protection projects, encompassing broad coalitions of local and tribal efforts, have been selected as finalists in the first round of focused funding under the initiative.

Elin Miller, EPA regional administrator, recently named the eight finalists at the South Sound Science Symposium in Tacoma, Wash. The initiative grants will assist local and tribal governments in Puget Sound in protecting and restoring watersheds that face significant population growth and development factors, he said.

"The Puget Sound needs our help," Miller said. "And we can start at the watershed level by adopting smarter land use patterns and better management practices to protect water quality. These eight grants will also influence and advance natural resource protection throughout the Puget Sound Partnership's action areas."

Grants of up to $625,000 will fund watershed protection projects led by Skagit, Whatcom, King, Thurston and Clallam counties and the Squaxin Island Tribe. Proposed projects include: connecting watershed information to land use decisions; applying education programs and land stewardship incentives; evaluating the effectiveness of current zoning and regulations; acquiring land for habitat protection; protecting shellfish areas; and studying the sources and impacts of nitrogen pollution in sensitive marine areas.

Source: U.S. EPA