Our Green/Duwamish

Greetings!

I wanted to use this forum to provide a quick update for those that couldn’t make it to our stakeholder meeting on February 13^th.

Together we:

1. Discussed how our co-designed content is being used in the Implementation Plan
2. Gathered feedback about the Implementation Plan outline
3. Built a table describing the strengths of our organizations
4. Heard an update from the Mapping Tool and Coordination Subgroups
5. Discussed the 2020 Work plan

We have some heavy lifting to do in the next 3 meetings. We are hoping to build out the content of the Implementation Plan by goal area before the end of June, and have a completed draft by September of 2020. In addition, we are planning to have a ‘proof of concept’ mapping tool to assist our partners with decision making and permit compliance by the end of the year.

2020 is going to be very busy for all of us, and I continue to be optimistic. We are doing more together.

Please email if you have any questions. It was great to see so many familiar faces at the Green Duwamish Symposium yesterday. What a fantastic event!

Cheers,
Todd

Happy New Year!

Last year was incredibly productive and critically foundational to the work we have teed up in 2020. I would like to thank everyone who participated and provided feedback on all the products we co-designed.

In 2019 we:

1. Created a 2-year work plan (and we’re still on target!)
2. Adopted Co-Design strategy
3. Compiled and discussed early mapping tool ideas
4. Initiated Coordination and Mapping subgroups
5. Designed a Public Input tool for gathering more feedback
6. Created an Implementation Plan outline
7. Committed to an adaptive management approach
8. Reestablished recurring blog posts
9. Drafted an informational website
10. Agreed on our Desired Future States for each goal area
11. Brainstormed metrics to track progress in each goal area

We are also very excited to be recently invited to participate in the Green – Duwamish Watershed 2020 Symposium. I hope you see you at this symposium on February 24^th, 2020!

At our next stakeholder meeting (Thursday, February 13) we will continue working on our Implementation Plan for those actions needed to improve the watershed. If you would like to learn more, please email me directly.

If you would like to follow our progress, subscribe to this blog post, and engage as we transform the watershed together.

Cheers to 2020!

Todd

Happy Fall!

Another very productive stakeholder meeting is in the books. Thank you to all who were able to attend.

At the Oct. 10^th meeting we were able to generate ideas for the future state of goals 5, 6, and 7, and comment on the draft of our future states for goals 1, 2, 3, and 4.

In general, feedback was very positive and aspirational – exactly the kind of energy we need to continue our progress developing the implementation plan. If you’d like to see or comment on the draft versions of the future state goals, you can do so using our public input tool.

The meeting also included presentations about King County’s Land Conservation Initiative and a Stormwater Pollutant Heatmap being developed by The Nature Conservancy and Geosyntec. It was interesting to consider how these projects overlap and support the goals of Our Green Duwamish. We also heard some quick updates from the Regional Coordination and Mapping Subgroups.

If you’re interested in learning more about those subgroups and are considering new opportunities to engage with the larger group, please feel free to reach out to Todd Hunsdorfer.

We are close to concluding Phase II of Our Green/Duwamish which kicked off in January 2016, where the Watershed Advisory Group identified four focus areas that could use additional effort to help improve watershed conditions.

The greatest level of effort during Phase II was focused on defining values and priorities for a watershed-wide approach to stormwater management which culminated in a Watershed- wide Stormwater Strategy. View the report and appendices at the links below:

• DRAFT – OGD Watershed-Wide Stormwater Strategy March 23.2017
• Appendix A – List of Workshop Participants
• Appendix B – Workshop Agendas
• Appendix C – Potential Measures of Success
• Appendix D – Preliminary Equity & Social Justice Evaluation.

In addition to this, the project team finalized white papers documenting current efforts underway in the remaining three priority areas. View  the white papers at the links below:

• Developing a watershed-wide open space plan:Final Our Green Duwamish Open Space Plan White Paper
• Integration of watershed climate resilience activities:Final Our Green Duwamish Cllimate Resilience White Paper
• Improving air quality to advance public health: Final Our Green Duwamish Air Quality White Paper.