For example, mitigation for shoreline habitat destruction is currently permitted even though the extent and function of shoreline habitats are not well understood and the effectiveness of mitigation has not been demonstrated. Greater caution needs to be exercised in these areas. Strengthen efforts to coordinate shoreline habitat and shoreline resource management on watershed and ecosystem levels. This will require bringing shorelines into existing watershed-based management processes and may require developing new management strategies and legal frameworks that cross agency, political and geographic boundaries. Increase efforts to educate the public on the importance of protecting and restoring habitat in Puget Sound.
Public support is crucial to the long-term success of any effort to protect and restore habitat.
Increase efforts to obtain basic information on habitat health and function in the Puget Sound Basin. For example, degradation in biological, hydrologic or water quality functions occurring simultaneously in a river's upper watershed and its tidal delta may cause greater harm to fish stocks than would be predicted from studying these problems in isolation. Such a program would help to protect land areas adjacent to tidelands and river beds. Increase efforts to identify and eradicate infestations of the invasive plant Spartina. Determine the ecological effects of other invasive grasses and seaweeds.