Monitoring Program

Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office owns and manages the PRISM database. Lead Entities are local community groups, established by Washington state law, which establish and implement watershed and salmon recovery plans. These plans identify key acquisition projects through unique approaches that balance what salmon need to recover and what is feasible to implement with available resources.

Data Source

PRISM Online grant management database.

Methods 

The floodplain habitat acquisition Progress Indicator tracks the acres of habitat acquired for conservation or future restoration in floodplain areas across Puget Sound. Habitat acquisition data is tracked through Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO)’s grant management database, PRISM. This indicator relies on PRISM data to track habitat acquisition in floodplain areas over time.

Project sponsors document habitat acquisition projects in PRISM by attaching specific metrics to their projects. This indicator tracks projects tagged with PRISM metric #1726, acres of habitat acquired. The metric is further broken down into habitat types; this indicator tracks projects where “tidelands”, “lakes”, “wetlands”, and/or “riparian” acres were acquired[i].

Habitat acquisition data for active, active completed, and closed completed projects implemented between state fiscal year 2011 through state fiscal year 2024 are extracted from the PRISM database. Any project with a project type that includes “Acquisition” are included – this dataset may therefore include Planning & Acquisition projects, Acquisition & Restoration projects, etc. Projects must also acquire land primarily for habitat conservation or future habitat restoration efforts to be included in the habitat acquisition dataset. Projects may incur additional benefits beyond habitat restoration or habitat conservation (e.g., public access, open space preservation, farmland preservation).

The data are then explored and filtered to include only acquisition projects that acquired acreages in any of the following habitat types: “tidelands”, “lakes”, “wetlands”, or “riparian”1. The “Proposed” acreage value is displayed in the dataset for projects in the active stage. The “Final” acreage value is displayed in the dataset for projects in active completed or closed completed stages.

Baseline period: fiscal year 2011 through fiscal year 2024.

 

Limitations

The number of acres restored may change between the project’s proposal and its completion.

Data for this indicator include active projects, whose final acreages may be different from proposed acreages depending on a range of factors (number of properties acquired, landowner engagement, etc.). However, the Partnership reviewed a dataset of 328 completed projects with proposed and final acreage values and found that 84% of proposed values were within +/- 10 acres of the final value. There is thus a small degree of expected error as projects are completed and the final acres acquired are documented. This indicator will be updated annually to include finalized acre totals as possible.

PRISM is not entirely comprehensive.

This indicator relies on PRISM, which is known to be an incomplete record of acquisition in the Puget Sound. However, PRISM is the most comprehensive database of acquisition projects available currently. The Puget Sound Partnership is invested in exploring additional data streams and including them in the dataset for this and other habitat acquisition Progress Indicators (e.g., estuary/nearshore acquisition, riparian acquisition).

PRISM use may vary across the region.

PRISM relies on project sponsors to personally submit data on acquisition projects. Project sponsors may differ in how they apply metrics to projects. However, Lead Entity Coordinators dedicate resources to training and supporting project sponsors as they submit their project data. The Puget Sound Partnership is also committed to supporting Lead Entities in the consistent use of PRISM.

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[i] PRISM (2024). https://rco.wa.gov/recreation-and-conservation-office-grants/apply-for-a-grant/prism/

Critical Definitions

Floodplains: the floodplain extent represents the historic or geomorphic floodplain boundary. This covers the relatively level surface extending laterally from the river channel edge (Beechie et al. 2017). Within each river, the floodplain includes the upland freshwater as well as brackish estuarine, pocket estuarine, nearshore, and delta areas. 

*NOTE: PSP defines floodplain as inclusive of freshwater floodplain, estuarine, and riparian areas. We apply this definition across all PSP indicator programs, based on past workshops with LEs, Tribes, and local practitioners to develop other floodplain indicators. 

Estuary/nearshore: 

• Estuary: tidally influenced areas where fresh and marine waters mix, including protected embayments (modified from PCSRF Data Dictionary 2013 and Encyclopedia of Puget Sound). 
• Nearshore: marine riparian, beaches, and shallow water environments of Puget Sound estuarine and marine shoreline areas representing the aquatic boundary between freshwater, air, land, and the open marine waters of Puget Sound (Nearshore Science Team 2003). 

Riparian: freshwater areas above the ordinary high-water mark of the stream and within the floodplain of the stream/waterbody (PCSRF Data Dictionary 2013). 

The Puget Sound Partnership believes in the transparency and accessibility of the data used to address puget sound indicators. These data are provided by contributing partners to the Partnership and are made publicly available through the Puget Sound Info site. These data are available on an "as is" basis and the Partnership is not responsible for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. Please acknowledge the monitoring program and data source when using these data and obtain permission from the Progress Indicator Reporter to use these data in a publication.