Spring is here and I can’t help but feel incredibly optimistic.

Working to advance our vision in the watershed over the last 14 months has been challenging – especially during a year of communicating over the internet. However, countless hours staring at a screen and enduring long virtual meetings have not prevented us from emerging stronger together.

I’m excited about our trajectory and want to recognize a couple folks that have continued their outstanding work to protect and restore the environment. On April 23^rd, Executive Constantine announced the winners of the 2021 Green Globe Awards, and two recipients are active partners in Our Green/Duwamish (OGD).

This years’ Leader in Environmental Excellence was awarded to Greg Wingard. Greg has been involved in OGD since the beginning. He consistently provides thoughtful feedback designed to continue our forward momentum, and we’re very grateful for his participation. You can read more about his contributions here.  

This years’ Leader in Industrial Strength Stormwater Solution was awarded to ECOSS and Equinox Studios. ECOSS, also an OGD partner, delivers environmental solutions that meet the needs of business, people, and nature across Washington. In partnership with Equinox, ECOSS designed a system to filter an estimated 1.3 million gallons of stormwater annually! Check out more information here.

The dedication described here is representative of the OGD partners. We are thrilled that Greg, and ECOSS are being recognized for their incredible work! Please feel free to share this blog and help us to continue building momentum for the amazing work happening in the Green/Duwamish watershed.

Be kind,

Todd, Alison, Blair, and Norah

Here we are, roaring into March and looking to build on our existing momentum. There are a number of events to look forward to this spring, and their ‘virtual’ nature may allow for increased participation.

A list of upcoming events includes, but is not limited to:

• Green Infrastructure Summit of the Salish Sea, Stewardship Partners
• Managing Stormwater in Washington, Northwest Environmental Business Council
• Washington State Municipal Stormwater Conference, Washington Stormwater Center

We are looking to form a new subgroup focused on helping to solve issues associated with funding. If you’re interested in joining this new subgroup, email Todd – the time commitment will likely be scalable and a great fit for all interested folks. The new subgroup’s purpose has yet to be defined but will undoubtedly be targeting ways to support watershed projects by working to acquire funding, reimagining existing funding structures, and lowering costs by leveraging an economy of scale in the watershed.

I hope to see you at one (or all) of the events listed above.

Take care,

Todd

Let me introduce our finalized Implementation Plan! 

This 5 year plan was prepared by the Coalition of Our Green Duwamish Partners. It represents our best effort to highlight and measure our collective impact towards achieving the mission of improving and accelerating watershed-scale stormwater runoff management actions in the Green/Duwamish watershed, collaboratively, with community, jurisdictions, agencies, nonprofits and businesses. 

This blog entry is meant to appreciate all of those who contributed their skills, knowledge, time, and images. Thank you for your continued dedication to improving the health of the Green/Duwamish watershed. 

What’s next, you ask? Let’s get to work. 

2021 Workshop Schedule (Third Thursday): 

February 18^th 

April 15^th  

June 17^th 

September 16^th 

November 18^th  

Please email me if you have questions or if you’re interested in participating in these workshops. Our doors are always open, and we value and encourage a diversity of opinions. 

Be safe, stay healthy. 

Todd 

Happy December!

As we near the winter solstice I’m feeling energized by the way we are closing out the year. I am also looking forward to reemerging into a brighter 2021 with an exciting Implementation Plan for the next 5 years.

We have collected your feedback on the Implementation Plan and are working to respond to your comments. The complete set of comments and responses will be made available by the end of December. In a manner that mirrors the last 5 years, we appreciate your constructive tone and the collective desire to realize success.

Our timeline has intentionally been slow and deliberate. With an initiative of this magnitude, one that relies on the voluntary commitment of such a broad representation of organizations, we cannot afford to rush at the expense of building a strong foundation for future progress. I am encouraged by the enthusiasm and level of participation we have maintained, particularly during the last 9 months as we were forced into a remote meeting space.

Our two OGD subgroups are flourishing, providing additional capacity in a way that had not yet existed prior to OGD. The Coordination subgroup has connected with nine relevant and regional partnerships to communicate OGD goals, promote synergy between work plans, and identify opportunities for collaboration and mutual benefits.

The Mapping subgroup has been busy working with a consultant to build out a mapping tool that will assist Phase II Municipal NPDES Permittees with meeting Stormwater Management Action Plan permit requirements. This mapping tool will free up capacity and funds at all the jurisdictions who choose to use it, allowing them to redirect those resources to other areas where there may be more need.

In 2021 we will be rolling out our next two-year work plan for review, focusing on the thoughtful feedback from OGD partners. In addition to meeting the targets outlined in the Implementation Plan, we will be striving to complete flagship projects that reflect OGD’s vision, develop a subgroup driven to examine alternative funding mechanisms, and find new ways to support the efforts of our partners that bring us closer to our desired future.

Thank you all for your hard work this year. Please continue to be safe.

Happy Holidays!

Todd, Alison, Blair, and Norah

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend out September 17^th partner meeting. Each time we gather remotely I learn something new about how to engage with everyone. It appeared to be a very successful use of our online platforms, and I’m excited about further exploring the use of breakout rooms at our November 12^th meeting.

For those of you who were unable to attend, we used a large portion of the meeting to discuss our goal recommendations. The Goal recommendations are a high-level summary of the efforts we will need to consider implementing in the next couple of years. Combined with our existing actions, the recommendations will help us achieve our desired future state for each goal and get us closer to realizing our vision for stormwater management in the watershed.

We are incorporating feedback on the recommendations and adding it to the Implementation Plan now. A final draft of the plan will be available by the end of October, and we will plan on celebrating our collaborative success in November at our next partner meeting.

We are also looking for photos of the watershed that we can use in the Implementation Plan. This is a great opportunity to showcase some of your work in the watershed. We are looking for pictures of wildlife, recreation, restoration, and construction to name a few. If you have a photo you’d like have included, please email me directly.

There are a lot of exciting things happening in the next couple of months. One that I’d like to highlight is the Duwamish Alive festival and Green-Duwamish Journey:

This year you can participate in a self-guided activity, visiting the natural areas of the watershed to learn about the ecosystem, wildlife, history, and culture.

This is a great activity for kids, and you can win prizes!

Look for more information online at www.duwamishalive.org.

Be safe and be kind.

Todd

Greetings!

The three months between meetings has flown by. The OGD team at King County has been working tirelessly to consolidate all of the amazing contributions to the Implementation Plan we’ve received from our stakeholders.

I want to take a minute to say ‘Thank You’ to all of you who were able to carve out some time for individualized and focused conversations centered on refining content and tying up loose ends. The quality of the Implementation Plan will be better because of your commitment and contributions. We anticipate having a completed draft available for your review at the stakeholder meeting on September 17^th.

Progress towards a beta version of the mapping tool continues on track. During this interim period, the mapping subgroup was able to meet and provide valuable feedback to help Christian Nilsen at Geosyntec advance the development of our mapping tool. A link to the base layers we’ve been planning to use can be found here. The technical memo detailing the mapping tool’s features and needs is available for download, and can be found below. Please email Todd Hunsdorfer with any feedback you may have about the direction we’re headed for this mapping tool.

Our agenda for the September 17^th stakeholder meeting will be focused on providing brief updates from our subgroups and refining the list of Implementation Plan recommendations provided by our stakeholders – over the last several months. We plan on using some new interactive ways of engaging during this remote workshop, so get excited!

I sincerely hope everyone is staying healthy and safe and having a wonderful summer.

Be well,
Todd

Greetings, 

The Our Green Duwamish Stakeholder Group continues to make progress on articulating the actions that will bring us closer to realizing a future built on clean water. The Implementation Plan describes current conditions in the watershed, and identifies  existing and future actions required to improve them. We are still on track to provide the Stakeholder Group with a draft version of this Implementation Plan in September 2020. Now we need some feedback from you! 

Do you have ideas for action(s) in the watershed that could lead to real improvements? 

Take this survey. 

This survey is one way we are collecting ideas for future recommended actions that Stakeholders can take in the next 5 years to move closer to achieving our goals and overall watershed vision. The survey will remain open until June 25. 

Stay safe and be kind.  

Sincerely, 

Todd 

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