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King County Washington home

About the Water and Land Resources Division

Learn about the Water and Land Resources Division’s (WLRD) mission, values, services, and more.

Our vision

Clean water and healthy land for all of King County.

Our mission

To protect, restore, and manage King County’s water and land using the best available science and innovation, in collaboration with our partners and the community.

How we're organized

The Water and Land Resources Division (WLRD) is a unique agency with diverse lines of business that all serve our goals of clean water, habitat restoration and protection, ensuring the future of agriculture, open space and healthy forests, and protecting public health and safety.

WLRD employs more than 450 people in a variety of roles—including the STEM field; project managers; public administration; finance and administration; maintenance and operations; communications and education—that comprise the following sections:

  • Director’s Office
  • Environmental Lab
  • Finance & Administration
  • Hazardous Waste Management Program
  • River and Floodplain Management
  • Rural and Regional Services
  • Science and Technical Services
  • Stormwater Services

WLRD houses three salmon recovery forums and is the service provider to the program, which provides services on all county rivers for the King County Flood Control District

Strategic drivers

Clean Water Healthy Habitat

The key themes that weave through the diverse programs and projects we do in WLRD are captured in the Clean Water Healthy Habitat initiative that clearly defines how we can achieve difficult goals through new thinking about investments, partnerships and priority work.

Strategic Climate Action Plan

WLRD contributes to nearly half (44%) of the preparedness action in the 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP). In our division we work to increase tree canopy in urban areas; improve forest health to reduce wildfire risk; design projects to consider the future changes in river and stream runoff due to climate impacts; and we do real-time monitoring and management of stormwater facilities to be responsive to changes in weather patterns.