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NEW FUNDING AND INNOVATIVE FINANCE Increasing the amount of funding and financing available for salmon recovery and watershed resilience projects is of critical importance. In WRIA 7, targets of $15 million per year have been set by the Forum; however, this level has only been reached in two out of the last 15 years, with just under $10 million per year on average (Snohomish Basin 2019). Even the $15 million per year target was agreed because it was seen as an ambitious yet possibly achievable target; funding the full needs outlined in the Snohomish Basin Salmon Recovery Plan to achieve desired salmon population levels would require significantly higher funding levels. Fully meeting these needs for salmon recovery and resilience in this watershed alone are estimated to require $1 billion or more.
Advisory Group for Innovative and Landscape-Scale Conservation Financing For these reasons, DNR’s plan includes numerous actions that would tackle the root causes of these problems in WRIA 7. We want to ensure that our efforts are not simply additional work to be funded with new slices of an already too small funding pie. Instead we seek to transform recovery funding by creating new types of funding mechanisms, expanding the amount of funding available and increasing the effectiveness of that funding to achieve greater results on the ground.
Engaging with other regional efforts to craft multiple benefit and innovative financing solutions To achieve system-level transformation of conservation financing, Commissioner Franz will convene top financial, philanthropy, health and budget experts to collaboratively develop new public and private tools for multiple benefit investments that contribute to achieving outcomes identified in this plan. DNR will seek to participate in Puget Sound Partnership’s Mobilizing Funding Initiative so that these opportunities can be identified and outreach conducted in coordination with other key actors. This should include working collaboratively around the development of Legacy Project lists and seeking to direct funding to critical landscape-scale projects.
The Watershed Resilience Action Plan funding advisory group will provide new strategies, approaches and tools to the agency to help accelerate salmon recovery projects and needs identified in this plan.
Ensuring Existing Funding Streams are Used Most Effectively It is important to ensure that existing funding streams are used as effectively as possible. DNR will focus on increasing the impact of and leveraging existing funding sources, including through the following strategies: ◗ Lending capacity to the Snohomish Basin Salmon Recovery Forum to support their plans to update the watershed Project Sequencing Analysis, identifying project types and locations that should be prioritized first; ◗ Using WatershedConnect to communicate highest priority projects based on WRIA 7 analysis and DNR multiple benefits analysis, to mobilize more funding and new funding for these priority projects; ◗ Collaborating with other partners to target projects most effectively, such as coordinating fish barrier removal plans across state and local governments in coordination with strategies to incentivize private landowners; ◗ Targeting existing funding sources to help address root causes, such as exploring ways to direct resources for small forest landowner programs targeted to those at highest risk of conversion out of forestry; ◗ Working with Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council’s Funding Subcommittee, and evaluating opportunities to better use existing tools such as the Conservation Futures Tax in Snohomish County, Forest Resilience Bonds and Legacy Project approaches.
Assess and Communicate Return on Investment and Multiple Benefits In order to draw in new partners and funders, salmon recovery must communicate the multiple benefits of salmon recovery so that actors who have traditionally not been
