The technical experts and citizens perform complementary roles. The technical experts are often the most knowledgeable about watersheds, habitat, and fish conditions. Their expertise helps ensure strategies and projects are based on science. They also can be the best judges of the whether the projects and strategies will technically work.
Citizen committees help ensure that strategies and projects have community support. They often are the best judges of community interest in salmon recovery and of how to increase support over time. The complementary roles of the technical and citizen committees are essential to ensuring the best projects are proposed for salmon recovery.
How are Lead Entities Funded?
Lead entity funding is provided by the state Legislature to the SRFB, which contracts with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to manage the program.
How do Lead Entities Function?
Lead entities develop local salmon recovery strategies based on science. They then recruit sponsors to propose projects to implement the strategies.
Lead entities convene technical committees to review proposed projects and citizen committees to place projects on a prioritized list. The project lists are submitted for consideration to the SRFB.
Project sponsors include public or private groups or individuals. Typical sponsors are regional fisheries enhancement groups, cities, counties, tribes, state agencies and conservation districts.
