Watershed planning
Streamflow restoration planning helps improve rivers and streams for salmon and provides water for rural homes in Washington.
We collaborated with planning groups in 15 watersheds to develop watershed plans that help enhance streams for fish and offset impacts from new domestic permit-exempt wells. We adopted 14 watershed plans and one rule.
The Five Remaining Watershed Plans Adopted December 2024
In December 2024, and after technical review and coordination with the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Ecology adopted watershed plans for Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIA) 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15. The planning groups in these WRIAs were not able to locally approve the plans by the deadline set by statute. These five WRIAs now join WRIAs 1, 9, 10, 11, 12, 22, 23, 49, 55, and 59 as having adopted watershed plans or rules ready for implementation. We will initiate the required rulemaking for these 5 WRIAs within six months of plan adoption.
Read the Adoption Order for:
You can review the five recently adopted plans:
- WRIA 7 (Snohomish)
- WRIA 8 (Cedar-Sammamish)
- WRIA 13 (Deschutes)
- WRIA 14 (Kennedy-Goldsborough)
- WRIA 15 (Kitsap)
Watershed plan implementation for completed plans
Read our assessments for the ten watersheds where planning was complete prior to the latest publication in March 2024. Initial assessments for the newly adopted plans in WRIAs 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15 will be prepared during the next cycle:
Review adopted plans, rules, and related materials for 15 watersheds by opening any of the sections below:
Related links
Contact information
Andrew Drapeau
Secretary Senior
WRProjects@ecy.wa.gov
360-688-8928