Hood Canal Coordinating Council 
Our Integrated Approach
HCCC’s Integrated Watershed Plan (IWP) provides a comprehensive strategic framework to advance our shared regional vision for a healthy Hood Canal.
The IWP is based on the vision that a healthy ecosystem is is essential for thriving Hood Canal communities. It integrates a full range of current and future natural resource management programs and actions across all relevant jurisdictions. The strategic priorities laid out in the IWP have a shorter, five-year time horizon that enables HCCC and its partners to take concrete steps toward achieving the long-term vision for our work in the areas below:
View the Hood Canal Integrated Watershed Plan
By articulating a strategic vision and the many diverse strategies and actions critical to achieving it, HCCC hopes to provide a framework within which all our partners can work collaboratively and intentionally to more effectively protect the health of Hood Canal.
Track our progress at OurHoodCanal.org »
Photo by Kris
How to Read and Use the IWP
The IWP is organized around key ecosystem elements, called “focal components” and the highest priority stresses on those components to prioritize our efforts.
Ecosystem Focal Components
Focal components are the species, ecological systems, or social systems that communities in Hood Canal and the broader Puget Sound region value and desire to protect, restore, and steward. These components were selected because of their importance to local communities, they are the emphasis of numerous management and conservation plans, and their many connections to other ecosystem elements. HCCC currently focuses on four high priority focal components:
- Salmon
- Forests
- Shellfish
- Human Wellbeing
Ecosystem Pressures
Pressures are human activities or natural processes that have caused or are causing the degradation or impairment of focal components. The primary pressures selected for strategic focus were either the most important across all selected focal components or were strongly associated with ongoing HCCC programs:
- Climate change and severe weather
- Transportation and service corridors
- Residential and commercial development
- Marine shoreline infrastructure
Indicators of success
Each ecosystem focal component includes monitoring indicators. These are evaluated annually to gauge the Hood Canal ecosystem’s health and the IWP’s success at addressing related threats. Learn more about IWP status indicators at Our Hood Canal.
Where We Work
HCCC works across various boundaries under its many authorities.