Regional futures: Cascadia

Cascadia is being used as a term to describe an ecoregion extending from approximately mid-Oregon to Vancouver Island, and including such waters as Puget Sound and the Georgia Strait. A binational Cascadia Corridor Commission has been proposed as an advisory body for regional issues in Cascadia, and an environmental cooperation agreement has been signed between the British Columbia Premier and the Governor of Washington state. The environmental groups People for Puget Sound, Save Georgia Strait Alliance, and other organizations in British Columbia have also been dedicating themselves to transborder cooperation. Water bodies are seen as a reflection of the effectiveness of environmental protection measures since they tend to collect all the residues generated in the basins surrounding them. In Puget Sound, 40% of commercial shellfish harvest areas have been closed because of pollution, compared to only 20% a decade ago, and the pollution typically comes from small non-point sources such as small farms and septic systems. In addition, accumulation of toxic compounds is occurring in sediments