Big day for Green Seattle Partnership

Join Cascade Land Conservancy this weekend for the first annual Green Seattle Partnership day! On Saturday, November 4 the Partnership will host as many as 10 volunteer events throughout the city.

Volunteers will be out removing invasive plants and planting trees in parks and along greenways in the city. Why hold Green Seattle Partnership Day in November? It’s actually a good time to be planting trees, says Joanna Nelson, Green Seattle Project Manager. Other big days – like Earth Day in April – are really not good times to be planting trees.

Join us in restoring Seattle’s forested parklands.  More details on work party locations and times at:  www.greenseattle.org

More than 600 attend Pierce County lunch

More than 600 friends and supporters of Cascade Land Conservancy joined together Monday, October 23rd at the Tacoma Convention and Trade Center for the Pierce County Conservation Awards Luncheon.

George Russell received the Helen Engle Lifetime Achievement Award and U.S. Senator Patty Murray delivered the keynote address [see the text of her remarks]. 

Thanks to the support of our Sponsors, Table Captains and guests, $112,161 was raised to support CLC's land conservation and stewardship work. 

After the luncheon, the Green Tacoma Partnership was launched at nearby McKinley Park. The partnership will work to restore nearly 2,700 acres of forested parklands and natural areas in Tacoma.

Both events were featured prominently in The News Tribune and the Tacoma Weekly. 

Estuary Program Grows

Pacific County is home to Willapa Bay, the largest and highest quality estuarine bay on the Northwest coast. The Cascade Land Conservancy has acquired several high quality habitat properties on Willapa Bay within the past two years as a part of its Coastal Waterway and Estuaries program.

CLC has partnered with the Wildlife Forever Foundation and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) in obtaining federal Coastal Wetlands grants, including a grant to preserve habitat in the Seal Slough/Lynn Point/Nemah River landscape.

In the past few months, the CLC and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) have completed the process to acquire properties on Lynn Point and Nemah Point, which will connect with and complement CLC’s existing preserves.

With the help of the Wildlife Foundation, the Cascade Land Conservancy has become one of the largest owners of estuarine property in the state. Estuaries, where fresh water and salt water meet, are some of the most important lands anywhere.

Estuary habitats are the places where plants and wildlife live and create the web of life which makes estuaries extraordinary. In estuaries, soil, nutrients, and water combine in a special way to nurture marsh grasses, sea grasses, and other types of vegetation. Estuaries might appear to be very simple and insignificant, but they provide creatures with shelter and food. By nurturing this bounty of life, habitats make estuaries the ecological, cultural, and economic powerhouses that we treasure.

On the road with the CLC

September found the Cascade Land Conservancy all over the map of CLC lands in King, Kittitas, Mason, Pierce and Snohomish Counties.

First off was a September 17 float trip down the Yakima River followed by a barbeque at the Canyon River Ranch.

Then the CLC sponsored a September 23 dinner and tour of Mason County lands where the conservancy is working. A great weekend getaway – dinner and overnight at the Alderbrook Inn and Resort, followed by a tour of the Union River estuary recently preserved by CLC efforts.

On to the September 30 Smoke Farm project in Snohomish County, a program to restore the floodplain along a stretch of the North Fork of the Stilliguamish River. Nearly 200 trees were planted in the area, enough for everyone to work up a real appetite for a barbeque of salmon, chicken and fresh corn.

Meanwhile the Green Seattle Partnership was sponsoring weekend work parties at parks and greenways. On weekends there were as many as half a dozen different work parties to choose from throughout the city. 

CLC members are the lifeblood of the organization!  There are opportunities to participate almost every week.  Check out our Events Page to find an activity in your neck of the woods.

Corrections

A version of this newsletter was delivered within the last two days.  This version reflects two corrections:  the e-mail subject line and the time for the Holiday Open House.  Thank you to the members who contacted us about these issues.  If you have further feedback, please e-mail derekb@cascadeland.org.