Next Steps

The Transportation Permit Efficiency and Accountability Committee (TPEAC)’s Watershed-Based Mitigation Subcommittee made great strides in creating a watershed approach to environmental mitigation. Together, the tools and structured process developed and tested by the Subcommittee provide agencies with better information and a better way to make individual and collective decisions. The Subcommittee developed a proposed Road Map – a detailed set of directions to take the watershed approach beyond the field-testing stage so that it can be used on a daily basis around the state to improve both the timing and quality of permit decisions. The work of the Watershed Subcommittee and its member agencies has a three-facetted legacy for natural resource mitigation and watershed planning. This work provides:

• 7 recommendations, or action items, for using newly developed technical and procedural tools to support Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) project delivery and enhance environmental decisions and documentation:

1. Automate project screening tool and use to evaluate each transportation project’s need for watershed-based alternative mitigation.
2. Use existing watershed characterization results to identify a conceptual network of advanced mitigation sites.
3. Identify ways to integrate watershed-based mitigation into the WSDOT culture.
4. Work cooperatively with a WSDOT project office, Alternative Mitigation Program, and the Department of Ecology to pilot and evaluate the use of wetland restoration as an alternative stormwater flow control Best Management Practice.
5. Work cooperatively with representatives of Shared Strategy for Puget Sound and equivalent regional entities across the state to facilitate WSDOT’s use of locally developed natural resource restoration site lists for identifying candidate mitigation sites.
6. Pilot a training effort as appropriate to facilitate the integration of watershed characterization and other tools created by the Watershed Mitigation Subcommittee to benefit both WSDOT and local governments.
7. Work with WSDOT Region Office and Alternative Mitigation Program to select a mitigation site using the recently completed SR 167 watershed characterization to demonstrate that the watershed process can effectively produce successful mitigation projects.
    

• 7 action items for using new technical and procedural tools to support local watershed planning, natural resource management, and salmon recovery:

8. Support development of local infrastructure for the creation and maintenance of restoration and recovery databases.
9. Support and actively participate in interagency efforts that seek to match mitigation needs with watershed recovery and other priorities.
10. Use watershed characterization methods and results to support monitoring of landscape-forming processes such as that coordinated though the Governor’s Forum on Monitoring Salmon Recovery and Watershed Health.
11. Include tribal priorities, restoration opportunities and objectives, and other information into local, state, or regional restoration datasets.
12. The Department of Ecology, WDFW, WSDOT, local government, and tribes will work to integrate watershed characterization technical tools and information into existing watershed planning efforts.
13. Include the early identification of environmental mitigation needs in land use and transportation planning.
14. Facilitate and expedite the development and permitting of new innovative mitigation approaches through the use of watershed characterization results.

• 1 action item for using the enhanced technical skills and knowledge developed by subcommittee members: 

15. Use the expertise of Watershed Mitigation Subcommittee members when developing watershed-based strategies and plans and evaluating relevant mitigation options.

• A recommendation, lessons learned, suggested steps for implementation, and challenges to implementation for each action item.

  Read more about the next steps for implementing watershed-based mitigation tools and strategies in the Watershed-Based Mitigation Subcommittee's Road Map to Integrating Watershed-Based Tools and Concepts Into Existing Policies and Procedures.

TPEAC feels that the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Assistance (ORA) and the Governor’s Regulatory Improvement Program can offer a significant point of leadership to facilitate and focus the energy necessary to continue to advance a watershed approach to environmental mitigation. Accordingly, TPEAC and the Watershed-Based Mitigation Subcommittee offer consideration of the above next steps.

History/Background Information

TPEAC created the Watershed-Based Mitigation Subcommittee to facilitate the development of a watershed-based approach to environmental mitigation for transportation projects with potential applicability to other processes. A watershed approach seeks to understand natural resource impacts, assess the condition of environmental processes, and evaluate restoration options in a landscape context.  Using a watershed approach to permitting ensures that decisions on mitigation opportunities are evaluated on their potential to provide measurable environmental benefits at landscape scales.

The watershed approach created by the subcommittee has two types of products. One product is a set of several new tools that provides better and timelier information. The other product is a structured process that allows agencies to make better use of information.  These two products work together to provide agencies with better information and a better way to make individual and collective decisions. Click here to learn more about Watershed Subcommittee products.

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Ongoing/Related Efforts

• Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Optimization Report
• Washington State Department of Ecology's Four-Year Leadership Plan, which includes a major effort to advance Effective Habitat Mitigation.
• Washington State Multi Agency Watershed Task Force:  Technical staff from the Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife, Ecology, Transportation, Community, Trade and Economic Development, and the Puget Sound Action Team, Environmental Protection Agency, and US Fish and Wildlife Service worked together to produce a proposal for implementing a statewide landscape approach.  Please see Developing a Watershed Characterization & Analysis Approach for Meeting Multiple Mandates in Washington State (February 2006) for more information.  For updates and current status, please contact any of the participating agencies.
• Department of Natural Resources Forest Practices Watershed Analysis
• North Carolina -- Ecosystem Enhancement Program:   The N.C. Ecosystem Enhancement Program combines an existing wetlands-restoration initiative by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources with ongoing environmental efforts by the N.C. Department of Transportation.  This effort tries to target what is best/needed most in the watershed rather than straight in-kind replacement.

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