Restoring habitats to benefit salmon, shorebirds, flood control, and farmers

Numerous government agencies, nongovernment organizations, and businesses in Washington state are collaborating to find new ways of balancing the needs of wildlife, farms, and flood risk reduction. They have developed novel approaches to habitat restoration and conducted extensive scientific monitoring and research. Ensuring that the successes and findings are communicated effectively to a wide range of people and organizations is essential to cultivate local support and achieve progress. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy of Washington engaged us to produce communications products for three distinct but related initiatives.

We immersed ourselves in the scientific papers, technical reports, and other materials from each initiative to gain an in-depth understanding. For each of the three initiatives, we worked closely with program managers and scientists to identify key messages for their target audiences and to determine the best vehicles to share the key messages. Then we wrote, edited, and designed the communications products.

We produced three 16- to 28-page booklets and a 4-page brochure that the project partners use their outreach and public engagement efforts. The publications are written and designed to be engaging and accessible for people who are interested in these issues but are not specialists.