Washington's Watershed Coordinating Council

Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2741 and the accompanying executive order, EO 94-04, were passed in law on April 1, 1994. The purpose of this act is to establish a process for coordinating watershed planning and restoring and protecting fish and wildlife and their habitats, including water quality, on all lands in the state.

The act established a ten-member watershed coordinating council composed of state agencies, and a 14-member public advisory group, composed of tribes, affected landowners, timber industry and environmentalists. The Council produced a report to the legislature in 1994 that identified:

• Common protocols governing data collection and analysis for a central depository of information
• Data available from all existing sources regarding watershed conditions;
• Barriers to state agency cooperation and recommendations for minimizing duplication and overlap to improve efficiency;
• Sources of existing state funds for watershed planning and implementation;
• A prioritized list of watersheds needing restoration for fish and wildlife;
• A recommended protection strategy for protecting watersheds;
• A statewide student and citizen watershed protection network and a river keeper system for watersheds.

Subsequent to this report, the Council has been focusing its work in four watershed reesource inventory areas (WRIAs): Nooksack (WRIA 1), Chehalis (WRIAs 22 and 23), Snohomish (WRIA 7), and the Yakima (WRIAs 37, 38, and 39). The intent is to demonstrate better coordination between state agencies in order to provide better service to the locally-based watershed efforts.