Snohomish Basin: Reducing Risk, Restoring Rivers
Throughout the winter and spring of 2020, the SLS ITs were busy compiling projects into two comprehensive packages (one for the Snohomish and one for the Stillaguamish) to submit to Floodplains by Design (FbD) for the 2021-2023 biennium. After months of brainstorming, engaging the community, and collaborative project development aimed to generate wins for farm, fish, and flood interests, the ITs finally submitted the final FbD packages in July 2020.
The Snohomish FbD ranked 8th overall on the funding list and will be fully funded if the program receives almost $51 million. Governor Inslee has proposed funding FbD at $70 million.
What will the Snohomish FbD package fund?
The FbD package for 2021-2023 will fund phase 2 of the Community Floodplain Solutions (CFS) program. CFS is a cooperative effort between many watershed partners aimed at working collaboratively to achieve the following goals:
increase ecological function
reduce impact to local infrastructure from flooding and sediment transport
protect and enhance farmland productivity, and
improve water quality and recreational opportunities in the community.
Phase 2 furthers those actions funded through FbD in 2019 and expands an integrated floodplain management approach to multiple reaches of the Skykomish and Snohomish Rivers. The project is organized into three primary themes:
1. Enhancing enabling conditions for Integrated Floodplain Management – Actions will firmly establish the foundation of an integrated floodplain management approach in the Snohomish and Skykomish floodplains, including:
Support for the SLS IT
Communications and outreach to solicit community input and to build understanding and support for integrated floodplain management
2. Implementation of Capital Actions from Phase 1 – Partners will advance Phase 1 funded work by implementing multi-benefit projects in the Sultan Reach of the Lower Skykomish River, including:
Continued acquisition or easements on properties prone to flooding and erosion.
Final designs, permits, and implementation for at least one site-specific integrated effort in the Sultan Reach and final designs. This work would provide up to 155 acres of restored or reconnected habitat and up to 200 acres of flood risk reduction.
Final designs and implementation of up to two agriculture resilience projects being identified in Phase I.
3. Developing an integrated project pipeline in the Snohomish and Skyomish Rivers - The IT will work to develop actions for implementation further downstream of the Phase I area, including:
Property acquisition and easements, of up to 300 acres, for future agriculture viability and salmon recovery restoration and/or flood hazard reduction actions
Agricultural resilience projects, fish passage, and drainage improvements
Feasibility analysis of large-scale integrated floodplain projects
What you can do to advocate your support for the Snohomish FbD package?
Print or download the project fact sheet from the Snohomish (see below). This is a great starting point to talk to legislators with.
Meet with your senator and representatives. To request a meeting, simply send them an email (and cc their Legislative Assistant [LA], who can often help with scheduling). Contact information for all members and their LAs is here.
In your meeting, the key thing to ask your legislators is for them to please communicate to their chamber’s capital budget leadership (that’s Senator Frockt for the Senate or Representative Tharinger for the House) that Floodplains by Design is important for your district, and to ask them to include $76 million for it in their capital budget that would fully fund all projects in Snohomish County (including the Stillaguamish package).
Gather any questions or feedback your reps might have about FbD, the budget, and/or your project – and if you don’t have the answer to those questions, reach out to TNC’s state Governmental Relations Director- Justin Allegro justin.allegro@TNC.ORG
Help get the word out on Social Media. Here are some handy Social Media tools from the new Social Media Toolkit
