Puget Sound Partnership
Puget Sound's natural beauty and biological richness make it a national treasure. However, Puget Sound is in trouble – water pollution, lost and damaged habitat, and more have degraded the Sound's health, decimated native species, and threatened human health and regional quality of life. A healthy Puget Sound is fundamental to our way of life and a legacy that we all want to pass on to our children.
The Puget Sound Partnership is a community-led effort of citizens, governments, tribes, scientists and businesses working together to restore and protect Puget Sound. Created in 2007 by Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature the Partnership is mandated to:
- establish science-based recovery priorities,
- manage performance toward recovery goals
- engage and enable partners
- advance priority actions (protection, restoration, and pollution prevention).
The Partnership's Action Agenda carefully outlines how to solve the problems that threaten Puget Sound – which include pollutants in stormwater that wash off our city streets, suburban, and rural areas into the Sound, to the more than 21 species that have been listed as threatened or endangered, to massive fish kills in Hood Canal, to continued discharges of toxic substances into the Sound, to loss of habitat for living things throughout the region – whether on land or in fresh and marine waters.
The Partnership's goal is to make Puget Sound healthy again, and the Action Agenda creates a roadmap for how to get it done. By working together, we can have both a thriving Puget Sound economy and a clean and healthy Puget Sound ecosystem.
The Partnership's satellite office at the Center for Urban Waters is meant to operate in close proximity to Tacoma's Environmental Services division labs and UW Tacoma research labs. Locating alongside local, academic and private Puget Sound restoration efforts will encourage collaboration and lead to intellectual and technological marine research developments.
Learn more about the Partnership's Action Agenda.
Learn more about the Puget Sound Dashboard of Ecosystem Indicators. These are the key measures of success, or indicators, that our region will be using to determine how well we are performing in our efforts to restore, protect and prevent pollution in Puget Sound.
It's not a partnership without you. Sign up to receive periodic updates from the Partnership about our progress and how you can help.
PSP Program Descriptions
PSP Organization Chart
Marc Daily was appointed the Puget Sound Partnership’s Deputy Director in March 2011, after serving for several months as the interim Deputy Director. Marc came to the Partnership from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife where he served as the Habitat Conservation Planning Division Manager. Marc led staff that worked on a diverse suite of issues including renewable energy, water science, oil spills, local planning, and priority habitats and species management. Prior to that, Marc managed the fish passage, aquatic habitat restoration, and hydraulic project approval sections at WDFW.
Marc also worked with the Washington Department of Natural Resources where he led the Aquatics Planning Unit and helped to establish the state’s first Aquatic Reserve at Maury Island in 2004. Marc spent six years in environmental consulting prior to joining the state, primarily working on aquatic habitat and land use issues. Marc was raised in Yakima and moved to the west side of the state to earn his bachelor’s degree at Western Washington University and his master’s at University of Washington.
Gerry O'Keefe was appointed the Executive Director of the Puget Sound Partnership by Governor Gregoire on February 11, 2011 after serving as the Partnership's Deputy Director since April of 2010. Prior to coming to the Partnership, he was the Natural Resources Director for the Grant County Public Utility District with responsibility for a $1 billion environmental mitigation program required under the FERC license issued to the electric utility. In 2007, Mr. O'Keefe led the Governor's effort to establish a water supply program in Eastern Washington, breaking the gridlock between historically antagonistic interests. The legislature enacted the program and appropriated $200 million to launch it. In 2008, he negotiated agreements with the federal government, the Colville Tribes and the Spokane Tribe to provide the first new water supplies from the Columbia River in over 30 years. Gerry was raised in Minnesota, relocating to Seattle to attend the University of Washington where he earned his MBA in 1987.
