The Environmental Policy Department provides technical and policy advice to tribal leaders, and works with staff from the legal, fisheries, planning, environmental protection, and lands management departments, to provide input on a variety of fisheries, habitat restoration, permit application, rulemaking and policy proposals, and water quantity matters.
The department coordinates with the Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) on habitat protection and restoration efforts to ensure consistency between on- and off-reservation environmental policy as developed by the Swinomish Senate.
The Environmental Policy Department participates in a number of state, federal, and tribal policy forums, and routinely engages with industry and university representatives, as well as state and federal elected officials and governmental staff, to advance the protection and restoration of habitat that is necessary to sustain and recover tribal fisheries resources.