Topics Featured In The Plan:

• Engage middle and high schools in the Stillaguamish Watershed in climate change education.
• Measure communication outcomes.
• Continue monitoring and research of marine water conditions in Port Susan that may be affected by climate change.
• Participate in an ocean acidification monitoring network to measure trends in local ocean acidification conditions.
• Characterize the biological responses of local species to ocean acidification and associated stressors.
• Research and develop coordinated and cohesive messages and tools on communicating local climate change impacts and adaptation strategies in the Stillaguamish Watershed.
• Where possible, limit the use of, redesign, or remove shoreline armoring.
• Enhance resilience of native and cultivated shellfish populations and the ecosystems on which they depend.
• Prevent, and where necessary, control the spread of invasive species.
• Reduce local land based contributions to ocean acidification.
• Conduct research to inform coastal adaptation and mitigation actions.
• Develop sea level rise, wave, and storm surge projections; incorporate these projections into project and planning design.
• Evaluate the impacts of armored shorelines on nearshore habitats.
• Investigate and monitor underlying mechanisms driving sediment dynamics affecting coastal habitats.
• Implement wetland monitoring where appropriate.
• Conduct research to inform effective adaptation for wetlands.
• Restore coastal habitat for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• Protect coastal habitat through regulatory and voluntary approaches.
• Maintain and protect sediment sources and associated transport mechanisms.
• Increase understanding of changes in mountain goat populations by monitoring mountain goat populations.
• Support snowpack retention to benefit mountain goat.
• Maintain and enhance wetland function and conditions, particularly in priority wetlands.
• Maintain the hydroperiod and water supply for wetlands.
• Preserve biodiversity while maintaining populations of culturally significant species.
• Reduce impacts on wetlands from human activities, including timber production, construction, recreation, and agricultural activities.
• Plan and prepare for greater wetland area burned.
• Implement insect and pathogen prevention and control methods where appropriate to preserve wetlands.
• Increase understanding of how climate change could affect the distribution, composition, and phenology of open meadow habitat and species.
• Increase resilience by preserving biodiversity in montane wetlands and meadows.
• Reduce the risks associated with insect outbreaks, pathogen outbreaks, and invasive species in montane wetlands and meadows.
• Gather information that can be used to prioritize and adapt high elevation montane wetland and meadow sites to the effects of climate change.
• Identify, protect, and enhance mountain goat habitat that may be affected by climate change.
• Minimize recreational disturbance on mountain goat habitat.
• Support reduction of the amount and persistence of roads in and near mountain goat habitat.
• Increase understanding of how turbidity levels and other water quality parameters may be affected by climate change.
• Improve monitoring for fish disease and parasites that may benefit from climate change.
• Increase understanding of changes in, and implications of, phenological changes, species distributions, and species interactions that may be affected by climate change.
• Monitor, protect, and actively maintain or expand open meadow habitat to reduce potential for habitat loss.
• Increase invasive species control efforts, including preventative management efforts.
• Increase aquatic habitat resilience to changing hydrologic conditions.
• Implement water conservation approaches that increase summer streamflows and buffer against rising stream temperatures.
• Actively assist fish in times of drought.
• Stop the arrival, establishment, and spread of invasive species.
• Reduce turbidity levels by reducing sediment loading and facilitating sediment deposition.
• Increase understanding of how seasonal streamflow regimes, thermal heterogeneity, and cold water refugia could be affected by climate change.
• Increase understanding of thermal tolerances in fish species, and how those tolerances may affect how fish are impacted by warmer summer streamflows.
• Prepare for greater area burned in forests.
• Monitor for long-term changes in forest health, species distributions, phenology, and disturbance processes to better understand how climate change is affecting forest ecosystems.
• Manage upland vegetation and improve soil health to retain water and snow for longer periods.
• Increase flood storage capacity to reduce the flashiness of peak flows.
• Promote diversity of forest age, species, and size classes.
• Promote the use of native genotypes and adapted genotypes of native species in restoration activities.
• Identify and promote early-successional natives that may be able to compete with nonnatives. Use selective planting and management techniques to increase forest drought resilience.
• Manage forest structure to enhance snowpack retention.
• Reduce fire risk at the urban/forest interface.
• Increase late-successional forest habitat area and quality.
• Increase habitat connectivity to allow for climate-driven shifts in species ranges.