Salmon-Safe
NBIS Salmon-Safe Urban Initiative
Bringing Salmon Home to Washington
NBIS has partnered with Salmon-Safe to engage Puget Sound area urban landowners in preserving the health of our waterways through innovations in stormwater and landscape management practices. Through NBIS’ Salmon-Safe Urban Initiative, companies and institutions are finding new strategies for addressing urgent regional goals — conserving water, protecting salmon and stream habitat, and reducing pollutants entering the watersheds of Puget Sound.
NBIS invites companies to join this growing network of land owners receiving Salmon-Safe certification and extending their impact along critical watersheds.
Campuses & Businesses Certified to date through NBIS’ Urban Initiative
- Olympic Sculpture Park (SAM)
- Port of Seattle Parks System
- University of Washington/Cascadia Community College Bothell Campus
- Washington State Department of Ecology campus – Lacey
Program expansion goals include landowners in key watershed areas that drain to Puget Sound through the Lake Washington watershed and the Duwamish River.
Join us in making Puget Sound waterways safe for salmon returning to their traditional spawning grounds.
Every river is a highway, and, unfortunately, every highway is a river.
Critical facts that make this program urgent!
FACT: The Puget Sound Partnership has targeted stormwater as the killer that we must curb if we are to save our treasured Puget Sound Salmon runs.
FACT: Despite intensive restoration activities for more than a decade in urban and suburban streams in and around Seattle, salmon entering these waters are dead within hours because of the toxic soup that bombards them.
FACT: A three-year study led by the Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Seattle Public Utilities documented that 75% to 89% of female coho salmon returning to Longfellow Creek in West Seattle died before spawning.
Why???
- Urban runoff generally contains heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons from motor vehicles and commercial land uses;
- Pesticides from residential, commercial, park, and golf course applications flood storm sewers when it rains and leach into the water table;
- Pharmaceuticals and sewage from combined sewer overflows enter the open waterways and storm drains regularly.
- Additionally, loss of habitat due to stormwater and development is one of the causes pushing several salmon species and bull trout close to extinction.
Benefits to Landowners: NBIS’ Salmon-Safe certification program provides the following benefits
- Cost and risk reductions
- Independent validation of environmental performance
- System-wide evaluation and recommendations for landscape and water management practices
- LEED Innovation credit
- Recognition as an environmental leader – brand enhancement
- Salmon-Safe signage and participation in public service advertising and recognition campaigns
David Dicks and Bill Bryant for the Port of Seattle Parks
Certification Process
The Salmon-Safe Certification is a three-step Process:
1. Application and Certification Agreement
Applicant provides brief information about their operation and related project contact information and commits to the program inspection process and fees, regardless of certification decision outcome.
2. Assessment by Certification Team
System-wide Assessment–Applicant presents to the team an overview of management practices, as detailed in the Certification Standards.
Site Visits–Certification team conducts official visits to verify implementation of practices at sites.
3. Certification
Salmon-Safe presents a report on the assessment and lists any preconditions, conditions and recommendations regarding certification. If the organization accepts the terms of certification an endorsement contract is completed including terms of use of the Salmon-Safe logo.
Annual verification – An overview of system-wide performance focusing on any significant changes to management practices, as well as verification of satisfactory progress towards meeting any outstanding conditions for certification.
Recertification – Recertification – Recertification, including system-wide reassessment and site verification visits, occurs every five years based upon a new certification agreement and payment of program fees.
Download the Salmon-Safe Urban Standards
Support for the NBIS/Salmon-Safe Urban Initiative is provided by:
Photos are from the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department’s website
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