After two years of work, the Puyallup River Watershed Council has successfully elevated the Puyallup – White River Watershed as a vital area of focus for ecosystem recovery, both for the region, and nationally. On Wednesday, December 5, 2018 the Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council unanimously voted to make the Puyallup River Watershed Council a new Local Integrating Organization (LIO), ensuring that recovery of the local ecosystem is community based and supported by local, state, and federal agencies.

Pictured here is the new side channel habitat recently installed at our South Prairie Creek Preserve project just upstream from the recently acquired Soler Farm. As restoration efforts move forward, a similar side channel will be designed to reconnect 13-acres of the Soler Farm to it's natural floodplain, creating vital new salmon habitat and flood storage capacity, while keeping 60-acres in agricultural production.

Thanks to a grant from the Pierce County Flood Control Zone District and in partnership with the Puyallup Tribe Fisheries Department, South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group, Forterra, and Surface Water Management, the Pierce Conservation District recently acquired the 73-acre Soler Farm to continue 20-years of effort to restore South Prairie Creek, one of the most important salmon streams in the area.

“This acquisition reflects the kind of multi-agency interest needed to accomplish large scale restoration projects and the tribe is delighted to partner with so many enthusiastic individuals,” said Puyallup Tribe Fisheries Director, Russ Ladley.

This is one of seven presentations given by local experts on what the expected impacts of climate change will be for our local communities. Others presentations include climate impacts on weather, wildfire, agriculture, emergency preparedness, air quality, and utilities. You can find all of the presentations on our website here.

On June 9-13, 2021, the Pierce County Rural Climate Dialogue brought together 15 rural residents selected to represent a diverse cross-section of the county for a five-day deliberative event. Participants were tasked with creating a shared, community-based response to climate change and extreme weather events in response to their charge: 

“How might our community,

in the face of extreme weather and climate change,

secure a healthy, resilient, and economically vibrant future?“