Recovery of the Salish Sea ecosystem is facing a harsh reality. Limited funds and capacity throughout the Salish Sea’s scientific community severely reduces timely and concerted progress on a majority of identified scientific needs. A critical piece to successful Salish Sea restoration is ensuring that these identified scientific needs are able to be met, before it is too late. One creative solution to this issue is to engage citizens to participate in scientific monitoring. This presentation will use a case study to explore lessons learned around how collaboration among citizens, scientific experts, and agencies can produce a robust scientific monitoring program that not only produces credible and usable data, but also gives citizens the opportunity to take ownership in the restoration of the Salish Sea. Specifically we will examine the lessons learned by four Aquatic Reserve Citizen Stewardship Committees. The Committees have worked in collaboration with state agencies and scientific experts to develop three ongoing citizen science projects that provide strategic and usable data. These lessons intend to forward a larger conversation in the scientific community about the necessary role of citizen science in the effort to restore the Salish Sea to health
