Washington State Department Of Fish And Wildlife
Biennium 2005 - 2007 General Information and Financial Projections

HABITAT PROGRAM

Program Purpose and Description

The Habitat Program's significant areas of responsibilities are to protect, restore, and enhance the state's fish and wildlife habitats. The Program is organized into six divisions: Administration, Environmental Services, Environmental Technical Assistance, Major Projects, Science Team, and Regional Operations. Specifically, the Habitat Program:

• Provides baseline resource information and engages in planning and implementation activities with private landowners, local governments, tribes, and state and federal agencies.
  
• Provides regulatory services, technical and policy assistance, economic analysis, and environmental review to government agencies and the public on habitat protection and restoration and environmental contamination.
• Ensures that fish and wildlife habitat impacts caused by major development projects and oil spills are avoided, minimized, or replaced.
• Develops scientific information and knowledge basis for management decisions relating to the state's fish and wildlife habitats.

Strategic Objectives

The Habitat Program's role in accomplishing the Department's mission is to provide broad, sound, and professional scientific and technical expertise for the most effective protection and restoration of fish and wildlife habitats. The Habitat Program focuses on meeting the following objectives of the WDFW Strategic Plan:

• Develop, integrate and disseminate sound fish, wildlife and habitat science.
• Protect, restore, and enhance fish and wildlife populations and their habitats.
• Ensure WDFW activities, programs, facilities and lands are consistent with local, state and federal regulations that protect and recover fish, wildlife and their habitats.
• Influence decisions of others that affect fish, wildlife, and their habitats.
• Provide excellent professional services.
• Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of WDFW through sustainable operational and support activities.

Over the 2005-2007 Biennium, the Habitat Program will utilize these objectives and work to accomplish its role by embarking on the following activities:

• Providing fish passage at barriers to productive habitats and screening at water diversions for salmonids.
• Providing regulatory services, technical assistance, and environmental review for government agencies and the public on habitat protection and restoration and environmental contamination.
• In conjunction of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, develop and update the Salmon and Steelhead Habitat Inventory and Assessment Project (SSHIAP) for use by those people engaged in salmon recovery.
• Developing technical information, such as stream corridor guidelines, and priority habitats and species management recommendations, and SSHIAP, for fish and wildlife resources; these will be used as tools in watershed and landscape planning processes, such as Growth Management Act (GMA), 2514 watershed plans, and ecosystem diagnostic treatments.
• Working directly with landowners, local watershed groups, local governments, and state and federal agencies to develop plans that address long-term conservation strategies for fish and wildlife resources.
• Providing technical assistance in hydropower project re-licensing to ensure fish and wildlife are adequately protected and/or mitigated.
• Securing adequate instream flows for fish.
• Maximizing the potential to reduce impacts of oil spills to fish and wildlife and their habitats through agency expertise and citizen volunteers.

The Habitat Program tracks its progress using 20 quantitative performance measures related to 12 activities in the WDFW Strategic Plan. Quarterly reports are developed to track our progress and report on our results.

Appraisal of External Environment

Clean water, abundant hunting and fishing opportunities, and a rich diversity of life have always been symbols of the Pacific Northwest. Washington's citizens appreciate the quality these features bring to our lives. However, the condition of fish and wildlife resources in our state is approaching a significant crossroad.

In the next 25 years, the number of people that call Washington their home is projected to increase by 2.6 million, requiring five additional cities the size of Seattle, or 14 cities the size of Spokane, to accommodate that growth. By 2045, the state's population is expected to double. Although it is the smallest western state, Washington is now the second most populated, generating unprecedented pressures on our natural resources. The recent federal listings of several Washington salmon stocks under the Endangered Species Act is a wake-up call and an example of the need for a greater commitment to statewide conservation. The Habitat Program is responding to this wake-up call to protect and restore fish and wildlife habitats with an approach balanced by implementing the Department's regulatory authorities and by providing technical assistance to local governments, landowners, watershed groups, private citizens and others involved with natural resource protection and restoration. The Habitat Program has increased its emphasis over the past four biennia for on-the-ground planning and pre-planning for permit applicants and providing technical assistance to federal, state, and local governments and private landowners engaged in land use planning, and salmon recovery.