The Puget Sound Stream Benthos database (PSSB) and website was developed by local, regional and state partners to standardize and share freshwater benthic macroinvertebrate data and biological metrics at a meaningful scale. King County has been managing this powerful tool since 2007, and it currently holds data from over 11,000 samples collected by over 40 partners from 1994 through 2025. This tool, and the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBI) scores it calculates, are used widely by waterway managers, researchers and private sector consultants. Although it initially was limited to the Puget Sound region, it now houses data from across Washington. PSSB users can quickly get index scores and make reliable and robust spatial and temporal comparisons among various groups’ data, thanks to the requirement that data must be entered by certified professional taxonomists. The database also provides raw metrics and taxonomic data for all samples. .
The City of Bellingham Public Works department has been monitoring the creeks that run through the city since about 2000, starting with the Olympic Pipeline explosion that occurred in 1999. That event had far-reaching effects on how the city and nation managed public safety and the environment and set in motion development of a robust restoration and stewardship program focused on natural resources. There are four primary catchments in the City of Bellingham, Squalicum, Whatcom, Padden and Chuckanut, along with a handful of associated tributaries. Macroinvertebrate data was pulled from the PSSB and evaluated using the Index of Biotic Integrity as well as representative raw metrics to better understand temporal and spatial patterns among these primarily urban catchments. Results suggest that there is relatively high temporal variability among different dates, but that the streams are not indicating degradation over time, despite increasing development pressure, and that the benthic communities are responding to urban stressors consistent with relative levels of development among the catchments. Resource managers in Bellingham are using the PSSB effectively to both manage their data in a safe and effective manner but are also using it to make better decisions about how to manage local waterways.