Grants & Incentives

Puget Sound Marine and Nearshore Protection
and Restoration Grant Program

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Washington State Department of Natural Resources are seeking to invest the National Estuary Program (NEP) funding in ambitious and innovative actions that are consistent with the Puget Sound Action Agenda and produce measurable outcomes tied to 2020 Puget Sound marine and nearshore ecosystem recovery targets in the following investment areas:

• Effective Regulation and Stewardship
  Reduce human development pressure in the Puget Sound marine and nearshore environments by advancing regulation, protection, and stewardship mechanisms. Implement actions that improve the protection provided by Shoreline Master Program (SMP) updates and implementation, advance model compliance and enforcement techniques, and add new marine aquatic reserves or protected areas in Puget Sound.
• Strategic Capital Investment
  Further reduce human development pressures in the nearshore by implementing capital restoration and protection projects consistent with the PSNERP process-based analysis and other supporting information such as salmon recovery plans, DNR’s Aquatic Landscape Prioritization Decision Tool, and Watershed Characterization.
• Programs to Address Additional High Priority Threats: Invasive Species
  Fund projects that prevent or eliminate pathways of invasive species movement and spread. Preventing invasive species from establishing and spreading is the most cost effective and least environmentally damaging method of protecting the Puget Sound and local economies from their impacts.
• Programs to Address Additional High Priority Threats: Oil Spills
  Fund projects that prevent spills through compliance with, and enforcement of existing standards and regulation. Oil spills have the potential to overwhelm gains we make in the recovery of Puget Sound. Prevention is the most cost effective and least environmentally damaging method of protecting the Puget Sound and local communities and economies from the impacts of oil spills.
• Cross-Cutting Issues
  There are threats and barriers to Puget Sound recovery that cross jurisdictional boundaries, disciplines, and parts of the ecosystem. As a result, Lead Organizations (LO) will pool resources to fund innovative strategies and actions in the Puget Sound and connected watersheds that resolve barriers to implementation, propose solutions, and achieve synergistic results across the LO ecosystem areas of emphasis.