Land use planning regulations influence where and how future development occurs. Washington’s Growth Management Act encourages growth in existing urban areas, or in their proximity, where it can be supported by urban services (WA CTED, n.d.). Urban growth areas work in tandem with the act’s requirement that many counties identify commercially important agricultural land, forests, or mineral areas as “designated resource lands.” Residential development is generally not allowed in the designated forest resource lands. In the housing projections for 2030, the boundaries of areas projected to have considerable residential development frequently abut the boundaries of currently designated forest resource land. This convergence indicates the likelihood of future development pressure on currently designated forest lands in northwest Washington.

Watershed function and land use are closely linked in this region of Washington. Puget Sound chinook salmon, summer chum, and steelhead are protected under the Endangered Species Act, and the Puget Sound salmon recovery plan aims to restore salmon runs that have suffered declines, in part due to past land uses (Shared Strategy for Puget Sound 2007). Because these watersheds are projected to become more urbanized during the next decades, efforts currently underway to protect and restore salmon will contribute to the creation of a framework that could enable residential development and habitat restoration to be synchronized.