Green Seattle Partnership plays role in Seattle Jobs Forward Program

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ Seattle Jobs Forward program to create more direct jobs and boost Seattle’s economy includes efforts under way the past three years to ramp up restoration of Seattle’s forested parklands.

The Green Seattle Partnership between the City and the Cascade Land Conservancy has been working the past three years on restoring Seattle’s forested parklands through a combination of volunteer efforts and contracted work with local companies.

Last year, 122 acres of parklands were brought into the partnership’s four-phase restoration cycle, including about 75 acres where contractors did the work.  Contractors are usually used in difficult areas or on steep slopes where volunteer efforts cannot be used. The partnership used five contractors last years, accounting for xx jobs.

Since the program began on the ground work in 2005, more than 350 acres have been brought into the Partnership’s restoration cycle.  More than 150,000 hours of volunteer effort by residents of the city have contributed to that work, the equivalent of 75 full-time people working every day of the week.

“With additional funds from sources such as the Parks levy we could do more,” said John Floberg, Vice President for Stewardship at the Conservancy.  “Volunteers are an important part of our work, but we can also have a positive impact on the economy by providing jobs and job training.”

The Conservancy also hopes to discuss job training opportunities with the state Employment Security Department.  In addition to work in the Green Seattle Partnership, the Conservancy also has Green City Programs in Tacoma, Kirkland and Redmond.  The Conservancy also has about 12,000 acres that it owns or has under conservation easements where work could be done.

“At this point we are looking in to either teaming up with a Washington Service Corps, a Washington Conservation Corps program or setting up a training program ourselves,” said Floberg. “This could be on our lands or through the Green City Program.”

Late last year, as the economy continued to worsen, the Conservancy began a concerted effort to make its work a positive for the economy.

“We’ve worked to make our market-based initiatives work in the business world,” said Gene Duvernoy, Conservancy President. “But now we have to make our work a positive for the economy.  There will be a lot of people of out of work and we want to help do something about that.”

The Green City Program is part of The Cascade Agenda. The Agenda is a visionary 100-year action plan to conserve 1.3 million acres of working forests, farmlands and natural areas in the Region.  The Agenda links that conservation with the need to create attractive, livable cities and towns in order to continue to grow in a smart, sustainable way.  The Agenda calls on all stakeholders to work together cooperatively to achieve its goals.  The Agenda works in the marketplace.  The Agenda sees the need to act now to conserve the land because of the rapid growth in population.