WRIA 7 Snohomish Basin Salmon Recovery Plan

Project Overview

Washington's salmon recovery process is organized around Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIAs), geographic units that correspond roughly to major watershed basins. WRIA 7 covers the Snohomish River system, including the Snoqualmie and Skykomish rivers — a large and ecologically important basin that includes significant remaining agricultural land, rapidly developing suburban areas, and some of the most intact salmon-bearing tributary habitat in the Central Puget Sound region.

The WRIA 7 Steering Committee was established under Washington's Salmon Recovery Act (RCW 77.85) and is convened by Snohomish County. The committee includes county and city governments, the Tulalip Tribes and Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians (both of which hold treaty rights in the watershed), conservation districts, and WDFW. The committee reviews and prioritizes habitat project proposals from the watershed using a scientifically defensible project ranking process, then submits funded project lists to the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council for state and federal funding allocation.

Key priorities in the current recovery plan include levee setbacks to restore floodplain connectivity on the lower Snohomish and Snoqualmie rivers, riparian buffer restoration on agricultural reaches, culvert correction on county roads, and stormwater management improvements in developing areas. Annual reports track project implementation and connect habitat investments to long-term population monitoring data collected by the Tribes and WDFW.