The Surfrider Foundation of Washington, in partnership with San Juan County, the Puget Sound Partnership, and others, used this funding to complete a thorough analysis of the effectiveness of existing protection efforts for the nearshore environment in San Juan County, Washington, as part of The San Juan Initiative. The Initiative’s purpose was to improve ecosystem protection in a way that supports community values, builds local capacity for ecosystem protection, and acts as a pilot project for Puget Sound. The analysis wove existing and new scientific information, management concerns, and community into a unified vision of what is working and what is not for protection of the nearshore environment. This project: · Created a model approach for assessing the effectiveness of ecosystem protection which can be used by other communities and watersheds. · Documented shoreline change and shoreline structures that are having a potentially high impact on the nearshore. · Assessed the effectiveness of regulatory, voluntary, and education protection programs. · Completed a preliminary report titled "An Assessment of Ecosystem Protection: What's Working and What's Not," which can be found at: http://www.sanjuaninitiative.org/meetings/SJI-wwwn.pdf