Julia , who will be facilitating the day, explained that today is about understanding how the South Sound works and what are the important factors.   She encouraged attendees to be the space for problem solving in the South Sound by going beyond documenting the impacts of our actions on the South Sound and looking how those impacts affect human communities and the local ecosystem.  She called for an interdisciplinary integration of ideas that allow us to come up with new innovative ways to deal with the issues facing the South Sound.

Jeff welcomed the approximately 350 attendees to the event.   He thanked the folks that helped to organize the day.  He also mentioned to people that there is a new organization forming in the South Sound to bring together the elected officials from the four counties that touch the South Sound (Mason, Kitsap, Thurston and Pierce), the three Tribes (Squaxin, Nisqually and Puyallup), and other agencies and organizations.   The purpose of this organization will be to be a coordinating, policy making body for the sustainable management of South Puget Sound.   There will be an official launch of this new organization on December 17th.

Jeff Dickison is giving the introductory remarks right now, and he mentioned that we could start calling this event the South Salish Sea Science Symposium, or S5.

What do you think of that?

More information on the Salish Sea moniker here.

Jeanette Dorner and I will be updating what’s happening at the 2010 South Sound Science Symposium.  Updates will be posted at  https://www.squaxin-nr.org/  

Some background information about the Symposium is on the Puget Sound Partnership website, which also has the agenda.

If anyone else present as your own updates or observations, please feel free to email them to me: kanderson [at] nwifc [dot] org

During the wrap up this afternoon, speakers will have a chance to respond to questions from the audience (here at the Squaxin event center and following on the internet). Use the comment thread below to submit your questions.

The  next South Sound Science Symposium will be held on Wednesday, October 27th at Squaxin’s Little Creek Casino Events Center.   Registration and poster nomination information is available here.