Calling all lovers of the Puget Sound!

Are you interested in regional efforts to keep Puget Sound healthy and resilient? Join us in Auburn, Wed., July 19 at Green River Community College to attend our Puget Sound Nutrient Dialogue. This all-day meeting will bring together those working to understand and protect Puget Sound to discuss what we’re learning from our most recent science.

Fort Lawton West Point Lighthouse, Discovery Park, Seattle, Washington (Courtesy of Kenny Rowe)

After a decade of development, we have the state-of-the-art Salish Sea environmental computer model to help us understand changes in Puget Sound and evaluate the best solutions to reduce human impacts. This model shows us that land-based human sources of nutrients are leading to cases of low dissolved oxygen levels in the Sound. We are using this tool – in combination with ongoing field monitoring data and broad stakeholder input – to develop options to reduce nutrients in the Sound.

Join the conversation and learn how an over-abundance of nutrients affect our beloved Puget Sound. A healthy balance of nutrients is essential for a healthy food web, just as we require a balanced diet for good health. But excess nutrients from human sources can cause problems in Puget Sound just as over-eating can lead to health problems in your body. The over-enrichment of nutrients is diminishing dissolved oxygen levels that fish and other species in the Sound need to thrive.

 

Click here to register!

Join us in person

When	July 19
Time	8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where	Green River Community College, Lindbloom Student Union Center
Address	12401 SE 320th St. Auburn, WA, 98092

Register by July 5 to secure your seat!

Parking and the event are free. Coffee and light refreshments will be provided. Lunch will be available for purchase at the college’s newly remodeled cafeteria.

 

How can nutrients be negative for Puget Sound? 

A healthy Puget Sound is integral to our identity and our future. There is a growing body of science and evidence that shows increasing nutrients are adversely affecting the Sound. 

This dialogue is meant to bring together stakeholders, decision-makers, scientists, and the interested public to:

• Talk about the current state of the knowledge
• Discuss the effects of excess nutrients in Puget Sound
• Make connections between different areas of research
• Identify new studies that will improve our knowledge and understanding
  

Just like your human body, our Puget Sound ecosystem needs balance to be healthy. Too many nutrients in the Sound can also lead to undesirable changes in the food web, over-growths of algae that wash up on our beaches, increases in jellyfish populations, and more harmful algae blooms. Beyond changing what is considered normal for Puget Sound, these problems could reduce the Sound’s ability to be resilient to increasing pressures from climate change and the growing human population in the region.

 

Stay involved! 

Learn more about the project on our website where you can also find updated information on the Puget Sound Nutrient Dialogue as it becomes available.

Subscribe to our project listserv to receive email updates. 

By: Jenny Robertson, water quality environmental specialist