2023 Request for Applications: Puget Sound Action Agenda — Climate Resilient Riparian Systems Lead

This RFA solicits proposals from eligible applicants to act, in coordination with the Puget Sound Partnership ( Partnership or PSP), EPA, leaders and funders in agricultural and working land conservation, Puget Sound federally-recognized tribes, salmon recovery practitioners, and other relevant parties in the Puget Sound Management Conference, as the Puget Sound Climate Resilient Riparian Systems Lead under the 2022-2026 Puget Sound Action Agenda, and subsequent updates of the Action Agenda.

Riparian areas extend from the edge of the water, up through adjacent wetlands and into the vegetated upland terraces. They are transitional areas between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and support a broad array of physical, chemical, biological, and hydrological processes across watershed scales. As such, riparian corridors support key ecosystem services that provide multiple benefits to our local watersheds and communities. Degradation of these areas results in elevated water temperatures, sedimentation, nonpoint source pollution, invasive species, and impacts to the flows of waterways and salmon habitats across the Puget Sound basin, with significant impacts to our natural resources and tribal treaty rights. These issues will be further exacerbated with the impacts of climate change. Improving climate resiliency for working lands and riparian areas is an important opportunity to achieve benefits for salmon conservation and water quality, as well as producers and rural landowners.

This RFA aims to use nature-based solutions (i.e., riparian conservation) to support salmon survival, as well as reduce flooding and erosion, by providing compensation to landowners for providing climate and water quality related ecosystem services. This RFA announces the availability of funds and solicits applications from eligible applicants that are interested in acting as the Puget Sound Climate Resilient Riparian Systems Lead. This funding opportunity is focused on working with local programs and landowners to voluntarily protect and restore Puget Sound riparian habitat in priority watersheds, supporting salmon recovery and resilience to climate change. The successful applicant will develop a shared approach to achieving permanent protection (and restoration, as appropriate) of riparian areas concentrated within prioritized stream reaches across Puget Sound. The funding from this RFA is intended to go towards direct implementation of riparian conservation and climate resiliency goals, as well as other Vital Sign recovery objectives, as described in the 2022 Puget Sound Action Agenda (particularly Strategy 4 Riparian Areas, and Strategy 20 Climate Adaptation and Resilience as well as relevant Implementation Strategies).