Executive Sims lays out open space conservation

2005 Archived News

King County Executive Ron Sims today announced a visionary open space conservation strategy, called the Greenprint for King County, aimed at identifying and ultimately protecting the county's most important open space and resource lands.

'The Greenprint for King County gives us the strategy we need to target our limited budget resources and protect those open space lands that maximize public benefits,' said Sims. 'In an era of shrinking budgets, rising land prices and competing demands for resources, it is important that we target our land conservation action ahead of development so that we do not lose our most valuable water and land resources. The Greenprint gives us a powerful tool to protect an additional 100,000 acres of open space and resource lands by 2010 and strengthen a green infrastructure capable of ensuring that King County's incredible natural assets are safeguarded for many generations to come.'

Sims unveiled the Greenprint for King County with Roger Hoesterey, Trust for Public Land northwest regional director, as part of King County's Earth Day Expo at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle.

Developed in collaboration with the Trust for Public Land, the Greenprint articulates a conservation vision for the county's ecological lands, regional trails, farms, forests, and flood hazard protection areas to ensure that the Cascade Foothills remain forested, critical salmon habitat is protected, missing links in the regional trail system are completed, and that citizens are protected from floods. The Trust for Public Land is a national conservation non-profit organization.

"This Greenprint is a tool for protecting the very things that make King County a great place to live," said Hoesterey. "Our children and grandchildren will thank us for the work we are doing today to conserve our farms, forests, and parks."

Sims said the Greenprint will build upon King County's proven track record in protecting land and water resources. King County currently owns more than 25,000 acres of lands and more than 106,000 acres of development rights for the purpose of preserving working forests, productive farms, rivers that are managed to support salmon habitat yet also reduce flood threats, and a premier multi-modal, regional trail system.

The expertise provided by Trust for Public Land in developing modeling tools and helping us assess how we are leveraging local, state and federal funding sources has been invaluable,' Sims said.

The conservation vision articulated by the Greenprint for King County is also consistent with and supports a larger scale regional vision that will be generated by the four-county Cascade Dialogues project. The Trust for Public Land and King County will join Cascade Land Conservancy and many other business, governmental and environmental groups in May in a regional call to action for King, Kittitas, Pierce and Snohomish Counties resulting from the Cascade Dialogues. The Cascade Dialogues lead to the Cascade Agenda, a 100-year vision for how the conservation and stewardship of our landscapes and natural areas will define the spaces around which our communities will grow and prosper.

'To ensure the high quality of life we enjoy in the region continues well into the future we must all work together, intelligently, and with a clear vision, to protect the natural resources most important to local communities,' Sims said.

Sims said the Greenprint for King County presents a rationale as to why King County needs to continue its state-mandated, leadership role in protecting regionally significant open space and resource lands. Pressing resource conservation issues, such as species becoming listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, population growth and the state Growth Management Act requirements to reduce sprawl, and global warming induced climate change necessitate a proactive land conservation strategy.

This conservation vision reflects a custom designed, geographic information systems (GIS) computer model, extensive public outreach to over 20 jurisdictions, non-profit organizations, and agencies, as well as completion of a conservation finance survey.

King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks continues to use the Greenprint's powerful GIS computer model to assess where conservation actions and land acquisition will produce the most public benefits. This computer model can be modified as regional priorities, policies, and information emerges. King County will continue to use this dynamic analytic tool to ensure that limited resources are directed to the highest value land and water resources, so the county can continue to fulfill its mission to be the regional steward of the environment while strengthening sustainable communities.