Dams, development, poor water quality, and – increasingly – climate change all pose barriers to recovering iconic Pacific Northwest salmon runs. In Puget Sound’s watersheds, populations of threatened Chinook or “King” salmon have been in decline since European settlement due to past logging and fishing practices and, more recently, loss of habitat from development and poor water quality.

It is Jason Mulvihill-Kuntz’s job to implement the Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan, which aims to restore sustainable and harvestable populations of threatened Chinook salmon in the urban Lake Washington watershed near Seattle, one of 14 designated watershed areas in Puget Sound. Recognizing salmon don’t respect political boundaries as they move through the watershed during their lifecycle, 28 local governments in the area established a coordinated regional partnership to develop the recovery plan and implement priority actions. Mulvihill-Kuntz and his team work on behalf of the regional partnership to prioritize and support acquiring land to protect habitat or enable future restoration, restoring floodplains and shorelines, replanting riparian areas, placing large wood in streams and rivers, and removing fish passage barriers.

“I work on ecosystem and salmon recovery, but my job is actually all about people and relationships,” Mulvihill-Kuntz said. “That’s what’s really interesting about it – coordinating and communicating effectively with people, governments, and organizations who have different priorities to make meaningful progress on salmon recovery.”

Mulvihill-Kuntz and his team just completed a 10-year update to the watershed’s recovery plan. The key to its success, said Mulvihill-Kuntz, will be sustaining the regional partnership, increasing public awareness and political will in this fast growing region, and measuring progress and effectively telling our story.

“To the extent that we can get government, non-profits, and businesses focused on priorities that everyone is working on, that’s important. As resources become more limited, decision-makers are increasingly interested in the kinds of opportunities that provide multiple benefits including flood protection, habitat restoration, improved water quality, recreation, and more. Making strategic investments and being able to demonstrate and communicate the benefits and success of what we are doing is critical.” Mulvihill-Kuntz says this work is “about more than just salmon – it is fundamentally about caring for our place and making our communities sustainable for the long-term.