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July 2009

E-Newsletter

Washington Women's Foundation awards Community Stewards program $87,500 grant
Critical lands conserved throughout the region: Fennel Creek and Parker Ranch
The importance of well-planned communities is catching on
Duwamish Riverbend Hill restoration with Showalter Middle School students
Snohomish Awards Lunch 9/24
Annual Report for 2008

Corrections:

7/22 Plant Identification Training & Potluck with Green Tacoma Partnership (not 7/25)

Washington Women's Foundation awards Community Stewards program $87,500 grant

We are honored to be one of five non-profit recipients of recent grants made by the Washington Women's Foundation.

The grant will benefit our new Community Stewards Program, which will train citizen leaders to take a more proactive role in their community, advocating for smart growth policies that will ultimately make our cities more healthy and livable.

Critical lands conserved throughout the region

Fennel Creek

Nearly 10 acres along Fennel Creek in the City of Bonney Lake has been conserved through a partnership between Pierce County, the City of Bonney Lake and Cascade Land Conservancy.
The newly acquired site will become the trail head for the 6-mile Fennel Creek Trail and Naches Trail. When complete, the Fennel Creek Trail will link to the regionally important Foothills Trail from Tacoma to Mount Rainier.
The acquisition has been several years in the making with the Conservancy playing an early role by engaging the landowner and securing grant funding through the local Pierce County Conservation Futures program and the City of Bonney Lake.

Parker Sisters' Ranch

A forested portion of the storied Parker Ranch, an historic ranch located in the Umptanum area west of Ellensburg, has been conserved through the first-ever transfer of development rights in Kittitas County.

About 480 acres of the 1,460-acre ranch were conserved through the sale of development rights on the property by the Parker sisters, Parker Ranch Franki Storlie, Mickey Parker, Lori Macke.

The Parker sisters’ father, Jack Parker, bought the ranch in the Manastash Hills near Ellensburg back in the 1960s and the family grew up learning to work with and love the land.

But as was the case with many property owners in Kittitas County, they were not able to buy all the rights along with the land. An industrial timber company retained the timber rights and visited the property regularly to harvest the old-growth ponderosa pine.

Using transfer of development rights funding from the 2007 Legislature and Governor Gregoire, the sisters were able to buy back their timber rights and manage the timber on their property to their own specifications and realize a goal long held by their family.

In a transfer of development rights transaction, landowners are paid an agreed-upon price for the development potential of their lands, creating development credits that can be sold to builders or developers in other parts of the county. The credits allows for more housing in our cities and towns. A conservation easement is put in place on the seller’s property ensuring that it remains working land by preventing further development of the protected property.

Read about transfer of development rights projects in Pierce and Snohomish counties.

The importance of well-planned communities is catching on

Study on communities and children's health

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a remarkable policy statement that links the design of our communities to the health of our children. The Academy encourages pediatricians to work with parents to promote more walkable, livable communities, and calls on government to plan for and invest in transportation in ways that best advance the health, safety, and financial well-being of American families. This policy statement echoes the goals of the Cascade Agenda Cities Program; this program enlists the region’s cities to improve the livability of our communities - making them complete, compact and connected - and spectacular enough to make people choose to live there, saving the region’s natural and working lands from poorly planned development.

Cascade Agenda Cities program growing

In 2009, four cities joined the Cascade Agenda Cities Program, with Burien becoming a member city just this week. The City of Tukwila joined the Leadership Cities of Tacoma, Kirkland and Issaquah. The Cities of Sammamish and Lynnwood also became members, joining Shoreline, Ellensburg, Edmonds, Snohomish, Mountlake Terrace, Buckley and Mill Creek.

Design for Livability Forum

We invite you to share your knowledge, experience and expertise by contributing to Design for Livability: Sustainable Cities.

Now in its second year, this forum brings our region’s planning, design, development, and civic leaders together to better understand how to build more livable, walkable, and Today, more than ever, we are faced with environmental and economic challenges that will define our generation, shape our future, and test our resilience. Join leaders from across the region as we tackle these challenges head-on and demonstrate solutions.

We are seeking provocative presentations and discussion topics from a wide range of viewpoints. Through presentations related to the conference theme, participants will explore the dimensions that will set the course for the next generation of livable communities. Deadline for submissions: July 17, 2009.

This event is hosted by AIA Seattle, Cascade Land Conservancy and the University of Washington College of Built Environments, supported by Allied Arts of Seattle, the American Planning Association Washington Chapter and the American Society of Landscape Architects Washington Chapter.

Duwamish Riverbend Hill restoration with Showalter Middle School students

On June 15 and 16, Cascade Land Conservancy hosted the entire Showalter Middle School for a fun day of community service.

Students visited the Duwamish Riverbend Hill site in Tukwila for environmental restoration on this future park preserve. Students worked to remove invasive weeds, move mulch and apply plant protectors to newly planted native plants. This was the largest event hosted by the Conservancy's Land Stewardship department -- and probably the most diverse. According to The New York Times, the Tukwila school district is the most diverse in the nation.

To organize your group or school for a day of environmental restoration visit us on the web.

View a slide show of pictures here.

Upcoming Snohomish Awards Lunch

Save the Date: 9/24 Snohomish Conservation Awards Lunch

This biennial event is the largest conservation event in Snohomish County, with more than 500 business, tribal and civic leaders, conservationists and elected officials joining together to advance the conservation goals of Snohomish County. Join us on September 24 at the Everett Events Center as we honor local conservation leaders.