Working together…

to protect and restore the San Juan Islands’ ecosystem.

Recognizing that ecosystem recovery requires local actions to best motivate change, San Juan County and federally-recognized local tribes in cooperation with a state agency called the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) established a Local Integrating Organization (LIO).  San Juan County Resolution 23-2010,”San Juan County recognizes the value of its citizens and the good stewardship of the marine resources that comes from organized and coordinated actions in a priority that reflects the needs of the local people and the demand of local resources, together with the objective of implementing a strategy to restore and protect Puget Sound and Salish Sea (What is the Salish Sea?).

The San Juan Local Integrating Organization (SJ-LIO), also known in San Juan County as the Action Agenda Oversight Group (AAOG), is one of nine LIOs (Action Agenda Area Boundaries), recognized by the PSP with the goal of “overseeing the restoration of environmental health of Puget Sound by 2020” under RCW 90.71.210.

The San Juan LIO (AAOG) brings together numerous existing committees, governmental and non-government organizations, county agencies, tribes, and local watershed groups that coordinate actions to protect and restore the San Juan Islands’ ecosystem. Together, representatives from these organizations set priorities, design local near-term actions, locate and coordinate funds to implement those actions. These actions then become a part of the PSP’s Action Agenda, which is essentially a “road map” to Puget Sound recovery.