KING COUNTY, WA

LOWER GREEN RIVER CORRIDOR FLOOD HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN

2019 - 2024

Historically, the Green-Duwamish River was the third largest salmon producing river in Puget Sound - vital to local Tribes, communities and critical to the diet of endangered southern resident killer whales (orcas). After decades of industrial development, the Green-Duwamish is now the most urbanized watershed in Washington State producing over 8-billion in property tax revenue annually accounting for 8% of the state's total GDP. It is essential to develop integrated floodplain management solutions to save what habitat remains, restore as much as possible, and protect communities from increasing flood risk due to climate change. 

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In 2019, American Rivers listed the Green-Duwamish as one of America's Most Endangered Rivers. As a call to action, I worked with American Rivers communications department and the Duwamish Tribe to create a video with Google Earth illustrating the opportunity to develop more integrated, environmentally friendly solutions.

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Since then I coordinated a local coalition of partners to pass policy reforms making integrated floodplain management the norm in King County and served as the environmental representative to develop a new Lower Green River Flood Hazard Management Plan PEIS. This new PEIS paves the way for the most environmentally friendly flood plan ever for the river.

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This project was completed while under employment at American Rivers.