But salmon swim through multiple states, through dozens of counties, towns, Indian reservations, and water districts, and even into the waters of more than one country. The result is that there are over 800 government jurisdictions and agencies involved in salmon recovery.

And, of course, salmon swim past many privately-owned forests, farms, orchards, vacation homes, suburbs, and cities. Everyone who owns land near a river or stream is affected by efforts to save wild salmon. And every citizen is, too, since we all share responsibility for the dams that produce our electricity, the streets that we drive on, the chemicals we put on our lawns, and the water and sewer services we use.

The number of governments, farms, businesses, homeowners and other citizens involved in salmon recovery presents a special challenge: To save wild salmon, we must coordinate the actions of all these agencies and people.

That's why partnership is such an important theme at every level of government and in every watershed in Washington state.

The Governor's Joint Natural Resources Cabinet has tried to set a high standard of collaboration, coordination, and mutual support with our myriad partners. The agency directors, their staff and the Governor's Salmon Recovery Office regularly work with local and tribal governments, farmers, business leaders and citizens across the state.

The state legislature has also pushed for local partnerships and the empowerment of local citizens. Efforts to save salmon must begin one river at a time, and one community at a time. Although the imperative to save threatened and endangered species is a national commitment, embodied in the Endangered Species Act, the work called for in that Act can only be achieved locally.

The legislature has recognized the key role of collaborative action in the three major bills it has enacted:

• The Salmon Recovery Funding Board supports local partnerships by funding habitat protection and restoration projects that are proposed by local groups established under the Salmon Recovery Planning Act. Five citizen members were appointed by the Governor in 1999: Bill Ruckelshaus as Chair; Frank "Larry" Cassidy, Jr.; Brenda McMurray; James Peters; and Hon. John Roskelley. They are assisted by the state directors of the Washington Conservation Commission, Department of Ecology and Department of Fish and Wildlife; Commissioner of Public Lands; and Secretary of the Department of Transportation.
  
  
• Lead Entities for Salmon Recovery were established by the Salmon Recovery Planning Act (known by many as "2496" after its legislative bill number) in 1998. The Act focuses on the need for coordinated local action to restore habitat conditions necessary for salmon recovery. Lead Entities spearhead these local efforts. Some of the Lead Entities are the same as the watershed planning groups created by the Watershed Planning Act, but in other areas water planning and salmon recovery efforts remain separate. To date, 25 lead entities covering 45 watersheds have been created.

With technical and financial help from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Lead Entities examine what factors in local streams limit the recovery of wild salmon, develop and prioritize lists of science-based projects to address those factors, and submit proposals to the state's Salmon Recovery Funding Board. The Board then chooses which projects merit grants for technical and scientific assistance and implementation.

The Conservation Commission is also providing valuable information to Lead Entities. It recently completed its limiting factors analysis in 19 watersheds, offering the first comprehensive picture of the issues facing salmon specific to each watershed.

• Watershed Planning Units are a framework for working partnerships in each of Washington's 62 major watersheds. These partnerships, created by the Watershed Planning Act (commonly called "2514" after the bill number that created it), are a response to the need to focus on the natural boundaries of watersheds rather than the human-made boundaries of counties, cities, and other jurisdictions. Twenty-nine watershed planning units have been created so far, covering 40 of the 62 water resource inventory areas.

In each watershed, the county government, the largest town or city, and the largest water purveyor are asked to convene a process that brings together tribal and local governments and private citizens. These watershed planning groups decide what actions need to be taken in their watershed to provide adequate water for fish and other water users.

Examples of other initiatives that also carry out habitat restoration projects are:

• Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups, created by the legislature in 1990, work under the guidance of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Fourteen of these non-profit groups, including two new ones established in Eastern Washington this year, develop projects in partnership with tribes, sports fishers, private landowners and local, state and federal agencies. These groups restored 148 miles of stream habitat, and improved 72 acres of estuary habitat last year alone.
  
  
• The Washington Conservation Corps, created in 1983, also works to protect environmental resources such as salmon habitat. With funding from the Corporation for National Service (AmeriCorps), a national volunteer program for young people, WCC participants last year planted over 800,000 trees and shrubs, removed 80 barriers to fish passage, and restored or fenced 34.3 miles of salmon streams. In return for their work, the young participants earn scholarships for college. In 1999, Governor Locke successfully petitioned the federal government for $2.3 million for the Washington Conservation Corps.

Valuable partnership efforts have also been initiated to focus on a specific estuary, to bring together jurisdictions that share the specific problems of urban areas, or to share resources within a group of watersheds:

These partnerships-and many other similar efforts-can lead to genuine progress for saving wild salmon and improving the health of our watersheds. But they can also be a source of confusion and frustration. Creating the right partnerships-and synchronizing all of them-will continue to be an enormous challenge. It will always be difficult to make sense out of multiple levels of government, multiple and sometimes overlapping legislative mandates, pre-existing salmon recovery efforts, and innumerable volunteer and citizens' groups.

Everyone acknowledges that we must continue to iron out the wrinkles in this elaborate web of interrelated programs, projects, and organizations. We need to eliminate incentives that encourage agencies or alliances to compete for funding rather than to collaborate. We can always do better-and for the sake of wild salmon, we are committed to keep trying. We must work together. We must learn how to make every meeting and every dollar produce real results in real streams and rivers.