Floodplains for the Future

Floodplains for the Future is a partnership of stakeholders working together to unite the interests of communities, agriculture, and salmon in order to transform floodplain management in the Puyallup Watershed. Through our actions, we strive to protect what people in our watershed value most:

  • Communities resilient to flood events
  • A robust farming economy
  • Habitat needed to recover salmon runs

Since 2013, our partners have collaborated to support, fund, and implement multi-benefit floodplain projects and activities in the Puyallup River Watershed.

Our Vision

Restored connections between rivers and land improve habitat for salmon, protect communities and critical infrastructure from flooding, and provide new opportunities for recreational and cultural uses while preserving agricultural lands in the Puyallup River Watershed.

Our Mission

To encourage shared leadership in a trusting and transparent environment in order to plan, fund, and implement multi-benefit floodplain projects in the Puyallup, White, and Carbon River floodplains.

Our Goals

FFTF Partners have identified a set of watershed-wide goals relevant to improving and maintaining floodplain health:
  • Make communities more resilient to flooding and reduce flood risk and damage to private property
  • Reduce flood risk and damage to public infrastructure
  • Integrate agricultural interests into proposed large levee setback projects
  • Protect/conserve agricultural lands
  • Minimize conversion of agricultural lands to non-ag uses
  • Maintain viable farming economy/critical mass of farmland and farm businesses
  • Improve drainage on existing farms
  • Reconnect floodplain to the river (at various flow levels)
  • Protect existing functional salmon habitat
  • Restore historic function for spawning, foraging, and rearing habitat
  • Increase salmon abundance
  • Provide more space for the river to migrate
  • Improve water quality
  • Increase integration and collaboration across FFTF members and interests (fish, farm, and flood)
  • Increase the resilience of flood management infrastructure, the ecosystem, and agriculture as climate changes

Our Strategies

FFTF strategies guide the development of an integrated set of actions that move the partnership towards the goals and vision.
  • Reconnect floodplain through levee setbacks and side channel reconstruction
  • Remove structures at-risk of flooding through parcel acquisition and demolition
  • Preserve agricultural land through conservation easements
  • Restore habitat and watershed processes to support all salmon and trout species
  • Identify agricultural resiliency opportunities and action plans
  • Develop a strong, commonly understood collaborative structure and partnership

We Are Partners