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Andrea Doyle: Combining Flood Control and Habitat Restoration in Washington’s Chehalis Basin
A major food along I-5 in the Chehalis basin.
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n the Chehalis Basin Strategy, launched in 2010, community leaders and a diverse group of stakeholders have come together to tackle two of the Washington State region’s biggest challenges: the periodic catastrophic flooding of settled areas and the loss of habitat for salmon and other aquatic species, both of which are exacerbated by climate change. In this interview, Andrea Doyle, the director of Washington State's Office of Chehalis Basin, which runs the strategy, tells us about the history of the strategy, the many activities that have been undertaken as part of it, and the results that it has achieved. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
6 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | February 2022
Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the Office of Chehalis Basin. Andrea Doyle: The Office of Chehalis Basin was created by our state legislature in 2016, after about a decade of work initiated by former Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire. After the basin experienced devastating floods in 2007 and 2009, she convened a work group of community leaders and stakeholders to develop a long-term plan to protect basin communities from future catastrophic flood damage while also restoring aquatic species. The legislature later elevated its work into a formal state office and placed it under the direction and oversight of an independent board, the Chehalis Basin Board.We now work out of the Washington State Department of Ecology. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the Chehalis basin’s geographic and environmental characteristics. municipalwaterleader.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF CHEHALIS BASIN.
Andrea Doyle: I have been the director of the Office of Chehalis Basin for 3½ years. I sought out the position after spending most of my career in a variety of different environmental and legal positions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors in Washington. Through those different experiences, I’ve led a range of legal, policy, regulatory, and advocacy efforts and have become convinced that collaborative approaches produce the most positive and durable solutions to complex environmental issues. This opportunity was a great
way for me to bring my passion and experience to bear on one of the biggest challenges facing the Chehalis River basin, namely the complicated intersection of the economic effect flooding has on communities and the floodplain habitat needs of salmon and other important aquatic species.
