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Citizen Stewardship of the Pierce County Biodiversity Network: Lower White River

Photo: John Jacobson

The Council’s western Washington pilot project focused on the lower White River between Buckley and Sumner. This area retains a significant amount of functional riparian habitat that supports a variety of fish and wildlife species despite rapid urbanization.

The lower White River corridor is a Biodiversity Management Area (BMA) in Pierce County. Landowners in Pierce County BMAs are eligible for reduced property taxes.

The Pierce County Biodiversity Alliance (PCBA) is leading this project. They are engaging landowners and citizens in learning and stewardship through rapid biological inventory (BioBlitz), data collection (NatureMapping), and community planning.

A one-page brief about this project is available here (pdf).

Key Accomplishments

• Conducted 24-hour BioBlitz in June, 2006, involving 100 professional and citizen scientist volunteers. The rapid biological inventory ground-truthed species diversity, engaged citizen scientists, and served as a kick-off for community stewardship planning.


• Recorded nearly 600 observations of animals and plants. Observed 123 of 158 predicted species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians (78%).


• Contacted over 90 landowners on both King and Pierce County sides of White River about the BioBlitz and the biodiversity management area tax incentive.


• Guided formation of two community stewardship groups, Crescent Valley Alliance (Washington Department of Wildlife’s 2006 Conservation Organization of the Year) and Friends of the Lower White River.


• Facilitated joint proclamation by County Executives Ron Sims and John Ladenburg that endorses community efforts to protect biodiversity of the lower White River.
  
  The counties will “recognize, and as appropriate, protect the natural diversity in the lower White River through planning actions, technical consultations, voluntary conservation and tax incentives and coordinated lands purchases.”

Lessons Learned

• Unexpected landowner category--difficult to engage. Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) hold significant parcels along the lower White River for investments or future development. These “non-working” lands have no local contacts; they are not addressed in existing incentive programs.


• River corridor lacks social cohesiveness. The lower White River stretches between several jurisdictions; the people living there identify more with their town than with the river itself. As a result, PCBA is working initially with county and city personnel to develop a stewardship plan.


• Tax incentives are highly utilized. More than 70% of eligible landowners are already enrolled in Current Use Taxation program.

Relationship with Biodiversity Conservation Strategy

Several learnings from the project inform the recommendations put forth in the Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy:

• Citizen Science works well to engage people.
  • Over 25 citizen volunteers participated in 2006 BioBlitz, including high school and college students.
  • Twenty residents and eight teachers trained in data collection technique (NatureMapping).

• Citizen Science helps fill gaps in knowledge; biodiversity inventory need not be expensive.
  • BioBlitz ground-truthed predicted species and made preliminary determination of threats and stressors. Data are being used in lower White River biodiversity stewardship plan.
  • Occurrence records are being added to Washington Natural Heritage Program landscape mapping project (RE-GAP).
  • Species lists are informing Cascade Land Conservancy’s option to buy Puget Sound Energy parcels along the river.

• Local government staffs are critically important for providing expertise and technical assistance for community biodiversity conservation efforts.
  • Planning, conservation, wildlife, and data management expertise are all represented in the Pierce County Biodiversity Alliance and all are vital to its success.
  • Staff from several jurisdictions are key to planning along lower White River corridor.
  • Gaps and challenges increase as agency staffs are reduced or detailed away from biodiversity planning.

• Small investments yield successes in community stewardship programs.
  • With assistance from Pierce County Biodiversity Alliance, Crescent Valley Alliance completed a stewardship plan, received grant funding to post informative signs at boundaries of watershed, and began participation in National Wildlife Federation’s Community and Backyard Wildlife Habitat program.

• Landowners on rural-urban interface need innovative incentives.
  • Tax incentives are already well-utilized along lower White River.
  • Certain sectors (warehouses, corporate landowners, “non-working” lands) are not the focus of existing incentive programs.

The Pierce County Biodiversity Alliance represents a broad cross-section of conservation agencies and organizations that share an interest in conserving the biodiversity of Pierce County. Joining the Alliance is the Puyallup River Watershed Council, a forum that promotes and implements programs to restore, maintain, and enhance the watershed in order to protect its environmental, economic, and cultural health.

PCBA formed in 1999 after asking Pierce County to include areas with the greatest amount of biodiversity as “open space” in the county’s comprehensive plan. Pierce County agreed and, with other key partners, embarked on a multi-year process to assess biodiversity within the county using GAP analysis.

The resulting Biodiversity Network identifies 16 biologically rich areas known as “biodiversity management areas” and connecting corridors that cover nearly 268,000 acres of land. The lower White River area at the core of this pilot project is one of these biodiversity management areas.

Project partners include: Pierce County Planning and Land Services Department, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, University of Washington, Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Unit, Metro Parks Tacoma, National Wildlife Federation, Puyallup River Watershed Council, Pierce County Conservation District, Crescent Valley Alliance (CVA), Friends of the Lower White River (FLWR).

Key Participants

Katherine Brooks, Senior Planner
Pierce County Biodiversity Network Assessment Report
Pierce County Planning and Land Services Department

Michelle Tirhi, District Wildlife Biologist, Pierce and Thurston Counties
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Karen Dvornich, Director--NatureMapping Program, and Washington GAP Analysis Project Assistant
PCBA Projects, Bioblitzes, Reports, NatureMapping Program, and
Washington Gap Analysis Project
University of Washington, Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Unit

John Garner, Education Coordinator
Michele Cardinaux, NatureMapping Facilitator
Metro Parks Tacoma

Gretchen Muller, Regional Education Project Manager
National Wildlife Federation Community Habitat Planning
National Wildlife Federation

Linda Burgess, Chair
Puyallup River Watershed Council

Dave Seabrook, Board of Directors
Pierce County Conservation District

John Stern
Tracy Engels
PCBA Coordinators

Lucinda Wingard, Founding member
Crescent Valley Alliance (CVA)

Jeanne Fancher, Founding member
Friends of the Lower White River (FLWR)

Definitions:

Citizen science:  Citizen science engages volunteers in the collection of ecological information, often under the leadership of conservation agencies or organizations. Use of citizen scientists is growing for several reasons:  (1) Conservation agencies and organizations often do not have enough resources to conduct all of the monitoring they need; (2) Many citizens have expert skills in fish, wildlife, and plant observation as a result of a hobby or avocation; (3) Much more data can be collected by enabling or training citizen scientists to work with conservation agencies and organizations, helping to achieve a more robust and comprehensive understanding of biodiversity status and trends. >back    

Rapid biodiversity assessment:  The term "rapid biodiversity assessment" was coined to describe a monitoring approach that relies on a subset of indicators (for example, selected species) to be able to quickly draw conclusions about the health, richness, or diversity of a biological feature. Several methods have been developed for use in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. A "bioblitz" is a rapid biological inventory of plant and animal diversity found in a designated area within a 24-hour period. >back

NatureMapping:  The NatureMapping Program is a volunteer and student wildlife monitoring program founded by the Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (University of Washington) and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to serve conservation planning and education needs. The participants' wildlife observations help the two agencies fill in statewide species distribution maps, although data collected by the public are kept separate from agency-collected data. >back

GAP analysis:  The goal of the GAP Analysis Program is to keep common species common by identifying those species and plant communities that are not adequately represented in existing conservation lands. Common species are those not currently threatened with extinction. By identifying their habitats, GAP Analysis gives land managers and policy makers the information they need to make better-informed decisions when identifying priority areas for conservation. >back

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