We should all take pride in efforts to date, none of which have been done, to this magnitude, anywhere else in the word. In doing so we next concentrated our efforts on the 4H's! We have addressed:

• Habitat H: through the draft Puget Sound Chinook Salmon recovery plan covering fourteen watersheds and the Puget Sound nearshore environment.
• Hatchery H: by the Hatchery Scientific Review and resultant reform recommendations on all Puget Sound hatchery programs.
• Harvest H: from the completed Puget Sound Chinook Comprehensive Harvest Management plan and its strong adaptive management provisions.

It is exciting to see these three very strong but separate efforts addressing the primary H's of salmon recovery now come together so that they work together to ensure the recovery of Puget Sound salmon to healthy and harvestable levels. And I believe each incorporates the standards set of substance, certainly and monitoring!

I was asked to speak on the importance of H-Integration and adaptive management.

Quite simply, the next challenge in the recovery of Puget Sound salmon depends on our success in doing at least four things:

1. Integration: Making sure all the H's are working together in a complementary way to meet shared goals for the watershed.
2. Prioritization: Implementing prioritized and sequenced actions that put salmon populations on the path to reaching recovery goals.
3. Transparency: Creating a transparent system to track progress on implementation and on actual improvement in numbers and health of fish and their habitats.
4. Adaptability: Committing ourselves to evaluate, and when necessary improve, our hatchery, harvest and habitat strategies - knowing if they are producing the results predicted and where they aren't making the changes necessary to get the results needed. In short, recognize that we don't know al the best paths right now and that better information leads to better decisions!

I'd like to focus for a moment on transparency and accountability.

Transparency and accountability are vital in our ability to demonstrate:

• To funders and the public: that this region is doing the right and necessary things to recovery salmon.
• To local and state leaders: who have tough decisions to make on ensuring economic vitality and the recovery of salmon - they are not mutually exclusive.
• To federal funders: who continue to ask us, what are the results from the money going to Puget Sound?
• And to our citizens: whose support of our efforts is needed, but also because of their individual agreement to make adjustments in their daily lives to benefit salmon.

Transparency and accountability call on decision-makers and staff from each H to find ways to be open about the assumptions and rationale that goes into decisions, including both science and policy, and to communicate goals and results in clear and understandable ways for people outside our inner circles. This builds an essential element for recovery - trust. Building trust among and between sectors is the next big step.

We will need a commitment from all managers in a watershed to remain engaged and to understand how our budgets, policies, programs and decisions affect salmon recovery. We must make sure that our actions work together, produce the results we have set out for ourselves, believe that it is fair - that each H-manager is holding up their part of responsibility for recovery. We must be transparent so everyone can understand and track performance and progress, and be accountable yet maintain the ability to adapt and improve.

Finally, I'd like to let you know how this effort will play an important part in the re-negotiation of the Pacific Salmon Treaty between Canada and the United States in 2008. For some of the Puget Sound watersheds, the number of spawning salmon is limited by Canadian fisheries dealt with in the Pacific Salmon Treaty. It is Washington's goal to prevent the strongest possible conservation argument for decreasing Canadian harvest on Puget Sound Chinook to increase the number of returning and spawning fish.

Washington's argument will rely heavily on our ability to present to Alaska and Canada strong evidence that Puget Sound has our habitat recovery, hatchery reform and sustainable harvest plans developed, that actions are being implemented and are working together on a timely path to recovery, that progress is being tracked and reported; and that we have a decision making process using adaptive management tools.

When I looked over the agenda for today it was clear that this workshop is designed to set us on that course.

As we move forward it is important to remember the shared vision of the Puget Sound Recovery plan:

To recovery self-sustaining, harvestable salmon runs
in a manner that contributes to the overall health of Puget Sound and its watersheds
and allows us to enjoy and use this precious resource
in concert with our region's economic vitality and prosperity.

Will this be easy? No! Are there storms on the horizon? Absolutely.

But the work you have already done provides the foundation that we need to continue to move forward and ensure our 7+ years of planning efforts are implemented and that those efforts lead us to sustainable populations of salmon.

Bottom line, we have to move from the "silos" of three separate approaches created and operating independently from each other to "integrating" those different approaches into one unified approach informed by separate disciplines.

That is your charge today - and I thank you for what you are about to do!