Black Diamond NOW

Whitney Bridge Park

The Whitney Bridge crosses the Green River just west of Flaming Geyser State Park along Green Valley road.  As you can see from the picture above, snow melt is keeping water levels in the Green quite high well into the summer months.  The bridge area is also home to a relatively new King County park aptly called Whitney Bridge Park.  If you drove from Black Diamond to Enumclaw when SR 169 was closed, you detoured across this bridge.  This past weekend, Judy and I decided to explore the park.  As it turns out, there has been quite a bit of restoration effort here to replant trees native to this area.  Park land appears to be an old Christmas tree farm, since abandoned and purchased as open park space by King County.  Beautiful piece of property along the Green River.  Following are a few pictures taken Saturday of the park area.

Wonderful views of the hills bordering the valley.  Though there was a rough trail through the park, we decided to make our own way to the river through brush and very wet grass.  As the trail blazer, my jeans were wet, wet, wet.  But we made it through and found the river forked here with a smaller sidestream paralleling the the park area and an island in between. Following is a picture taken from the bridge that shows the island and side stream to the right.

All of this vegetation is very important to keeping water temperatures low and suitable for salmon habitat.

As so often happens when you are exploring new territory, you run into some very unexpected pleasures.  In this case, there was an agility dog show being held at the Argus Ranch located just across the river.  Argus Ranch calls itself "Argus Ranch Facility" for dogs or A.R.F.  Lots of people at the event and some very skilled dogs.  Having not seen such an event before, we were both just amazed at how talented these dogs were in navigating what was quite an obstacle course.  Pretty amazing and a real treat for us both.  Following are some pictures of Argus Ranch and of dogs doing their thing.

Quite an event.

Argus Ranch.

Exploring Ravensdale Creek

If you have been following our water quality posts, you will know that Ravensdale Creek is by any measure a very pristine stream and critical to the long term health of Lake Sawyer.  Fortunately, as a result of the Open Space Area Agreement completed in 2005 between King County, the City of Black Diamond, Plum Creek Timber, Palmer Coking Coal and the Cascade Land Conservancy, Ravensdale Creek is now fully surrounded by permanently set aside open space from Ravensdale Lake, located in Ravensdale and the creek's headwaters, all the way to Lake Sawyer.  For more about this history, follow this link.

So far, I have explored most of the creek from Lake Sawyer to SR169 and have also visited Ravensdale Lake.  Last week I took the opportunity on a nice sunny day to bridge the remaining gap - making it most of the way west from Ravensdale Lake all the way west to SR169.  Following is a picture of Ravensdale Lake, where I started, taken looking northeast.

Railroad tracks parallel the south side of the lake.  Just across the tracks to the south is a silica mine processing and distribution facility - their sand is primarily used for golf course sand traps.  While walking down the tracks I ran into one of the operators who confirmed that earlier this winter (Jan./Feb.) salmon were spawning in the creek just downstream of the lake.  That is very good news.  This salmon run starts in Puget Sound, up the Green River, up Soos Creek, then Covington Creek into Lake Sawyer and then on to Ravensdale Creek.  Temperature and Dissolved Oxygen data sampled in these streams support the premise that salmon can spawn here.  It's nice to know that reality confirms that we do have a viable long term fishery - so long as we take care to continue to protect their habitat.

To get close to where Ravensdale Creek and SR169 intersect, I first followed the railroad tracks.  Just as the railroad bends north, a culvert goes underneath the tracks.  Following is a picture taken here.  Notice the beaver dam upstream and how clean the water is here.  All of the plant growth along the creek's path that you see upstream is what helps keep water temperatures down to "salmon friendly" levels even in peak summer periods.

At this point with SR169 traffic audible, I turned around and began working my way back to the lake.  Along the way I found several trails through the second growth forest growing along the creek - more bike trails.  As it turns out, these trails are great for hiking too.

Here is another place where bike trail and creek intersect.  Once again, notice the forest cover over the creek.  Perfect.

One last photo I'll share from this hike is of the creek just before I made it back to Ravensdale Lake.  Notice the green aquatic plants blooming white where they are exposed above creek water levels.  Water quality here is just incredible.

A friend along the way.

Good News - Fire Rating Bureau Is Upgrading Our Rating In Black Diamond

To quote parts of an email correspondence from Chief Smith with Fire District 44 which serves our community: "In October of 2010, the Fire Department met with the Washington State Survey and rating Bureau.  The Rating Bureau, provides information to insurance companies related to the Fire Service in the area that they are writing a policy for (in this case fire and casualty).  We have good news.  The rating bureau is reclassifying the City from a protection classification of "6" to "4". 

This is a significant improvement for our community.  Ratings go from 10, the worst or no fire protection, to 1, the best.  Black Diamond has historically been rated at 6.  With an improved rating of 4, in time, we should see reduced insurance premiums for the fire and casualty insurance that we all pay for our homes and rentals.  There is even prospect for better ratings in the future (based on better response times) should a new station be added near Black Diamond's core old town at some point in the future.

Thanks Chief Smith and Fire District 44 for your diligent efforts in serving our community.

King County's Farmland Preservation Program - A Big Asset To Our Community

Thanks to Judy Herring, Manager of King County's Farmland Preservation Program (FPP), the above map outlines the properties that are now included in the Upper Green River and Enumclaw Plateau Agricultural Production Districts (APDs).  To enlarge the map and see more detail, just click on it. The Upper Green APD totals about 3,400 acres while the Enumclaw APD includes over 20,600 acres. That's a lot of farmland production area so near our community.  To appreciate the natural beauty of these farms, just take a drive down Green Valley Road or south across the Green River Gorge.  Combine this with the many acres of Area Open Space we have here and its clear that we live in a very special place.  The challenge, of course, is how can these lands be preserved for agricultural production and not be converted into your next subdivision?  The Growth Management Act and designation of defined Urban Growth Areas no doubt has helped.  But farmers also have to be able to make a living and depriving them of "fair value" for their lands is not appropriate.

The Farmland Preservation Program (FPP) is one tool available to encourage agriculture and preservation. It began in 1979 when the voters of King County approved an initiative authorizing the county to preserve it's rapidly diminishing farmland resource by purchasing the rights to develop it.  The issuance of $50 million in bonds were approved for this purpose. In this way, farmers receive compensation for their development rights while the land is permanently set aside as conservation area. This was actually the first such bond issue passed in the entire country focused on this important preservation issue.  If you follow Google Insights, you'll see that, at least based on the number of Google searches, interest in farmland preservation in our state remains among the highest in the country.

Today, there are approximately 13,200 acres in FPP in King County that are permanently protected, including 900 acres in the Upper Green and 5,000 acres on the Enumclaw Plateau.

For perspective, following is a graph showing the steady decline of farmland in King County through the years, though recent year trends appear to be more positive.

The following map shows the location of Agricultural Production Districts throughout the county:

The following graphic summarizes the type of agriculture being practiced wthin each county APD.

It's encouraging to see more farmland going to market crops, like Mosby Farm and Canter-Berry Farms, both along Green Valley road. 

Does being in an FPP mean that the land will be farmed forever?  No it doesn't.  The economics of farming are still a critical factor.  One of the long time family dairy farms in the Snoqualmie valley had to call it quits a few years ago, no longer able to compete.  And there have been a few mega estate homes developed on very large lots, but even in these cases, the open space areas have been preserved

Quoting from an article in HistoryLink.org:  "Although not all who approved the farmland bond in 1979 may have anticipated the ultimate results, campaign head Jim Ellis, looking back on the program 20 years after the vote, expressed satisfaction:

"I never anticipated that anyone was signing in blood that they would be farming forever, but I did want to hold the open space forever" (Dudley, "Preservation Program Reaps").

The FPP appears to be a clear benefit to our community and its good to know that active agriculture remains alive and well here.  Let's continue to find ways to help agriculture thrive well into our grandchildren's future.

Black Diamond Miners Day, July 9, 2011 - A Must Do

Be sure to put July 9th on your schedule for this year's Miner's Day events in Black Diamond.  Each year it keeps getting bigger and better.  and this year we even have a 5K family fun run, more live music, a beer garden and wine tasting - the run to burn some calories and the latter two to help you digest the BBQ lunch and chili cook-off.  A great time for our community.  For more information, follow this facebook page link to Miners Day.

Environmental Education At It's Best

I had an opportunity this past Wednesday to attend the preschool environmental education program being conducted at the SHADOW Bog by S.H.A.D.O.W. (Save Habitat And Diversity Of Wetlands) and the Middle Green River Coalition.  The dozen or so children participating both learned a lot and had great fun.  The picture above shows one of their learning exercises led by Courtney Feeney called the "Water Cycle".  The pink slide you see to the upper left represents rainwater falling.  Then the children navigated the rocks placed in a pathway representing earth and the small streams where water accumulates and flows into our larger streams and rivers.  The blue tarps represent our larger streams and then on to groundwater, represented by a tunnel that the kids had to crawl through.  Not only did they love the exercise, but it proved to be a particularly creative learning tool.  After several loops through the cycle, the kids then were concentrated onto the blue tarp and learned about salmon and their gills and how water needed to be flowing through their gills to provide oxygen.  Sit still and you cannot survive.  As the children tired out from keeping up their constant movement (it takes a while), they soon learned that they would not survive as salmon spawning and were removed from the stream until the last "salmon spawning" won the prize.  Very fun to see.  Preschool programs were being conducted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week from 9 to noon.  Thanks much to all the organizers and participants.

SHADOW is a new discovery for me and I will post more on this organization and the wonderful natural environment and education program the organization has created near Shadow Lake in Maple Valley in the near future.  In the meantime, enjoy a couple more pictures from Wednesday's preschool program.


Julian and Jackson Feeney - tired fish spawning.

Lake Sawyer Watershed - Water Quality Update

It's been something over a year now since Aaron Nix, City Natural Resources & Parks Director, has been conducting routine weekly water quality sampling at key locations throughout the watershed draining to Lake Sawyer.  We are learning a lot.  In this post, I'll focus on current results for temperature and dissolved oxygen.

The following chart shows monitoring results for each of the seven main tributaries in the watershed.  At the end of this post I'll show a map that identifies each sampling location.

The Department of Ecology (DOE) establishes maximum water temperatures that are suitable for sustaining salmon habitat (more on this later and the news from last year's salmon run was very good).  The following chart shows results for the two inlets to Lake Sawyer, Frog Lake (FL) and Ravensdale Creek (RVC2) compared to DOE standards.

As can be seen, Ravensdale Creek consistently has lower temperatures (that's good) than DOE wants to see as a maximum.  Some challenges remain for the streams draining to Frog Lake where we might want to consider potential future stream side restoration efforts - to add forested buffer or other streamside vegetation.

Following are Dissolved Oxygen (DO) readings for the seven streams in the watershed being monitored.

As you can see, this is a mixed bag and food for thought regarding potential stream by stream improvement strategies.  With DO, higher is better.

Again, Ravensdale Creek appears to consistently meet minimum DOE standards while Frog Lake is challenged.  More to learn.

Kid's Safety Day - Friday June 24

Looking for something fun to do with your kids or grandkids now that they are out of school.  This event should be fun and if you haven't been to the Museum of Flight yet, then go if at all possible - its a great place and regular stop when our grandkids are in town.  Thanks to Fire District 44 that serves are community for keeping us informed.

More On Ag Subsidies

The above info graphic taken from Utne Reader (definately worth visiting occasionally for alternative news coverage) makes the clear point about where agricultural subsidies go in this country today.  Any surprise here?  No - it all goes to the big guys growing corn (cattle feed) and soybeans and cotton etc.  Why - because they have power.  In contrast, look at the first garden shown above - little goes to what we really need for a nutricious diet.  Less than 1%.  Why are we subsidizing these big guys anyway?  Any wonder that you can buy a calorie busting Big Mac for less than a healthy garden salad?  Where are our priorities?

Where is the tea party demanding elimination of all of these subsidies?  Stop trying to be logical Craig.

King County Solid Waste Rate Proposal - Update

After an earlier blog post Get Ready For A Hike In Solid Waste Rates In 2012 in which I was less than complimentary about the way the proposed rate increase was being explained, King County Solid Waste Director Kevin Kiernan and Diane Yates were kind enough to meet with me and help better explain the rationale behind their proposed rate increase.  To begin with, I explained that I wasn't really aware of what the Solid Waste Division responsibilities were.  We have a private company, Allied Waste, serving our community and beyond their pick up of trash, yard waste and recycling, I didn't really know where King County fits in.  As I now understand it, King County Solid Waste Division has responsibility for each of the 10 transfer stations located in the County (our closest is in Enumclaw) and also operates the Cedar Hills Landfill disposal site where all garbage collected by Allied Waste and other county garbage collectors dispose of our garbage.  If you drive SR 169 to Renton, you can't help but see all the trucks on their way to Cedar Hills. King County provides these services through interlocal agreements with 37 cities, including Black Diamond.  Only the cities of Seattle and Milton, provide their own solid waste services.

Somewhat to my surprise, I find that the county isn't really involved in recycling operations - this is all done by the private trash and recycle collectors.  One other county service particularly important to us in our area is the hot line they maintain for reporting of illegal dumping.  The solid waste division doesn't itself take care of these issues, but depending on what and where the problem is, they know who to contact and will make sure that it gets taken care of.  For more information, visit the King County Solid Waste Division website.

So back to why a rate increase in 2012 is being proposed.  First, we should look to comparable rates in the region.  King County transfer station fees are among the lowest:

• City of Seattle - $145/ton
• Pierce County - $123/ton
• Tacoma - $130/ton city residents
• Tacoma - $150/ton non-city residents
• Snohomish - $105/ton
• Thurston County - $110/ton
• King County 2012 proposed - $108/ton

Pretty darn good numbers.  Why then is King County proposing this rate increase?  As best I can break it down, these are the top two reasons:

1. Decreased Revenue - In one of those perverse impacts of increased recycling rates and less waste due to the recession, total tonnage now being dumped has declined steadily from over 1 million tons in 2007 to 832,000 tons in 2010.  That's a lot of decline over a short term period of time.  Because many of the costs are fixed and don't vary based upon the volume of waste handled, this causes per unit costs to increase.  To the County's credit, total expenditures have been reduced from over $102 million in 2008 to just short of $91 million in 2011 - a 12% reduction.
2. Transfer Station Capital Program - Several of the existing transfer stations have been in place since the 1960s and are well beyond their useful life.  Upgrade is no longer an option but a necessity as costs will continue to escalate unless they are replaced/modernized.  My gut reaction to this is here we go again with more debt driving higher and higher rates.  For perspective, an earlier post focused on King County Sewer Rates - Driven By Debt where we learn that 68% of all the money we pay in 2011 for sewer service with King County goes to capital projects and debt service.  Fortunately, that is not the case with Solid Waste where less than 15% of current rates are expected to pay for debt service.  Refreshing.

From what I see, Mr. Kiernan and the Solid Waste Division have a compelling case to make for their rate increase request and for responsible management.  I still don't like the inflation chart, but the substance behind their proposal appears to stand the test of critical scrutiny.

Why Do Birds Chirp So Early In The Morning?

We can just about set our clock these days by the loud chirping of a bird who takes up residence just outside our bedroom window every morning and regales us with song at about 4:30 am plus or minus 5 minutes.  Why so early and so loud?  The easy answer is that they chirp/sing to communicate, and its the males we can blame for our early morning alarm.  Apparently they are seeking to attract a mate and announce their territory, making sure that everyone out there knows they are there and willing to defend their territory.  Kind of reminds me of going to a Seahawks game and all the testosterone we see there, except that it's at sunrise.  If only our bird alarm could hold off until a more decent hour - even 5:30 am would work.

Did The Klu Klux Klan Really Burn Down The Lake Sawyer Sawmill In 1934?

As it turns out, this "rumor" is more than plausable.  Thanks to the sluething of Ken Jensen who is editor of the Black Diamond Historical Society quarterly newsletter, the KKK were in fact very active in Issaquah, which is where the Neukerchen family who owned the mill lived.  At the time, prejudice against immigrants, particularly catholic immigrants, was very strong.  The Neukerchen family immigrated from Germany and were catholic - two marks against them from these radicals.  History Link.org is a great resource for history in our area.  In this article, they chronicle the KKK's activities in Issaquah.  Pretty hard to imagine.  Thanks again to Ken Jensen and Peggy Hawkins for sharing this great historical information.  For more information on the mill, follow this link, this link and this link.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The above info graphic from Mother Nature Network provides an interesting perspective on the growth of home gardening in the U.S., with 43 million households or 37% of the total now growing a home garden.  The most popular vegetable being grown - tomatoes.  No surprise here except that I expect that many of us in the Puget Sound Region have long lost patience with our short growing season. There are only so many green tomato relish recipes that one can try.  Peas and cucumbers are among my favorites and both rank fairly high.  For the second year in a row, I am hearing lots of complaints about cucumbers rotting after being planted.  From our experience, pickling cucumbers appear to be the most vulnerable - our mortality rate for these so far is about 50%, while another variety has survided just fine.  But, just write a check and replant again.  It's worth it.  I wonder what impact the recession has had on incenting people to grow more of their own.  According to this info graphic, the return on investment is quite high.  It also always pays to have a back-up plan - subscribe to a local CSA.  Our two favorites are Whistling Train Farm in the Kent Valley and Mosby Farm located along Green Valley Road.  Following are some pictures updating our garden progress so far.

Peas are blooming now so we look forward to harvesting some English shell peas soon.

Judy's beans in the foreground doing great.  Cukes making progress.  Potatoes in the far row going gangbusters.  Planted corn last week and now sprouting too.  Beets, lettuce and carrots also making progress.

Added soil to the potato boxes earlier this week.  They seem to be doing well.  Will see if we can get them to grow at least two more slat levels.

 

Create Your Own Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary

Photo courtesy of the City of Seattle.

We remain blessed in our community with abundant wildlife.  I'm not sure that I would welcome a bear in our yard or deer munching in our vegetable garden, as is common in many parts of the city including where we live, but as we face increasing urbanization there is much that we can do to create our own backyard wildlife sanctuary.  Following are some tips for making each of our properties better for wildlife, courtesy of the State Department of Wildlife and the King Conservation District.

• Plant more trees and shrubs.  Vegetation is the key to attracting a diversity of wildllife.  Dead trees (snags) are particularly valuable to wildlife.
• Add a birdbath or other source of water.  A safe place to bathe and drink will act as a magnet for many animals.
• Add bird feeders.  A feeder for millet, one for sunflower seeds and one for suet will appeal to a wide variety of birds.  We've historically had just one feeder, usually with sunflower seeds.  This year we changed to millet and a new bird feeder that is finally proving squirrel proof.  It's time to try all three feeds and chronical the differences in birds that frequent each.  Should be fun.
• Add a bird house.  Cavity-nesting birds apparently have been expecially hurt by urban development.
• Cover any openings under the eaves or other places around your house where house sparrows and starlings may be nesting.  These non-native birds are undersireable competitors for food and nesting cavities and many native birds have suffered because of their presence.
• Are your neighbors interested in backyard wildlife?  Several adjacent yards with good wildlife resources will do much better than a single yard.

You may also be interested in obtaining a Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary Packet.  It's free.  Just send a postcard to:

Department of Wildlife, 16018 Mill Creek Blvd, Mill Creek, WA 98012

Please share with us your experiences.  What works and doesn't work?  Has anyone tried bat houses to keep down insects?

Why The State Keeps Giving Out Foolish Tax Breaks

If you are not yet a follower of crosscut.com, I encourage you to check it out.  Its an online news source focused on our local region and appears to be providing excellent "journalism" in era of "agenda driven" reporting.  One of their recent articles focused on why the state keeps giving out foolish taxbreaks.  The article's author, Dick Nelson, raised some important questions: "given the state’s current employment malaise and dire fiscal situation, this seems a good time to rethink state tax policy in the context of economic development policy. It’s a good time to ask important questions: What is the role of tax policy in stimulating economic development and job creation? How effective have business tax incentives been over the years? And are there better alternatives to stimulate economic growth, such as direct program expenditures?"  Based on the best information available to Mr. Nelson, special tax breaks today, mostly to companies, amount to over $650 million per year and perhaps a lot more - there is no current reliable source of this data.  Yet these tax breaks are seldom challenged or reviewed even if they are verifiably ineffective in spurring job creation and econmic development.  Once in the code, always in the code seems to be the case.  Worth reading.

King Conservation District - A Best Kept Secret

The King Conservation District (KCD) is perhaps the best kept secret in King County.  It's a natural resources assistance agency authorized by Washington State and guided by the Washington State Conservation Commission.  The agency's mission is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources through responsible stewardship across the county - in both rural and urban areas. Since 1949, the KCD has been helping the people of the county manage their natural resources. 

• KCD works to educate landowners, schools, consultants and other agencies in how to recognize problems and how to avoid them.
• KCD provides technical assistance to solving these problems - this is their expertise. 
• Program participants are totally voluntary.  All landowners within KCD boundaries are entitled to free information and technical assistance for water quality protection, wildlife habitat enhancement, farm management plans, soil and slope stability information, native plant products, stream restoration/enhancement assistance and much more.

Funding is provided through a special assessment that all property owners in King County pay as part of their property taxes.  It's in your property tax bill and annually raises approximately $6.5 million for KCD initiatives.  What I find unique and very positive about this government agency that we all pay to support is the amount of funding that actually goes to real projects with real tangible benefit.  We look for non-profits to spend 15% or less on administration, and staff.  In the final adopted budget for 2011, $700,641 is earmarketed for Direct Administration and Outreach - less than 12% of KCD's total budget.  The rest all goes to "real work".  KCD also has an independently elected board to guide and oversee their activities.  Two examples of KCD at work in our community (King County Council District 9) include:

• Lake Lucerne Outlet Restoration - with the aid of nearly $100,00 from the KCD grant program, the City of Maple Valley is replacing an existing box culvert to help prevent flooding issues.  The culvert drains Lake Lucerne into the upper Jenkins Creek system - all part of the Green River watershed.  The outfall will be restored to a more natural condition and engineered for fish passage and greater water conveyance.
• Landowner Partnerships - Each year, KCD selects about 10 aquatic area enhancement projects and installs them at no cost to the landowner.  Don Jacobs in Enumclaw recently partnered with King County - with the result that KCD crews and volunteers removed over an acre of non-native invasive plants and installed more than 3,000 native trees and shrubs along a 630-foot stretch of Newaukum Creek, another critical tributary in the Green River watershed.

My Favorite Historical Photos Of The Lake Sawyer Sawmill

The above photo taken by the famous photographer Clark Kinsey and provided courtesy of Peggy Hawkins, provides an excellent view of what the Lake Sawyer Sawmill looked like circa 1932.  To make log handling easy at the time, notice the mill infeed on the left that allows logs to be pulled into the head rig from the lake using a conveyor of sorts.  No cranes required.  I would guess that the conveyor on the right side exiting the mill is for sawdust residue that was used to fuel mill boilers for power and dry kiln heating.  The railroad track that we see in the foreground is likely the line leading to the north log dump, similar to the log dump located at the south end of the lake near where the Lake Sawyer resort sits today and pictured in this earlier post Lake Sawyer Log Dump - In Action. 

Some more facts about the mill thanks again to Peggy.  Why do you think that the mill shut down in 1934.  Poor market conditions?  Nope.  It burned down and was never rebuilt.  Rumor has it that the mill was burned by the KKK because the Neukerchen family, mill owners, were German Catholic.  Did we really have KKK active in our area at the time?  Any one with knowledge of this please let us know.  It's hard for me to fathom that KKK could have been a factor during this period in our community but I have been surprised before - see Black Mary - Bootlegging Queen of Black Diamond.

One more photo from this period of a Lake Sawyer Sawmill high lead logging spar courtesy of Ted Strand and the Lake Sawyer Grocery.  Just looking at the guy standing up top gives me vertigo.

More Survey Data - Alcohol & Drug Use By Area Youth

Earlier this week, I posted some survey results that shed light on alcohol use among youth in our community.  The survey is for students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 and for WRSD in blue (White River School District), ESD in red/purple(Enumclaw School District) and Statewide averages in yellow.  In this post, I'll focus on tobacco and drugs. 

All pretty disturbing.  We greatly appreciate the efforts by our school districts to help arrest these trends and 2010 results were indeed better than 2008.   A long way to go.

The Discover Pass - Hoping To Save Our State Parks

To say that the future of our Washington State Parks system is in jeopardy would be an understatement of the highest proportion.  In an era where teacher's salaries are being cut, funding for higher education is scarce and student tuition rates are being raised significantly, the Washington State Parks system is being put on temporary life support.  Either we as residents of the state choose to support our parks or they won't be here - period!  In an effort to fund parks, the legislature passed what is call the Discover Pass.  As parks users, we can elect to purchase an annual access pass for each vehicle for a fee of $30.  No Discover Pass on our car, no park access.  Should Discover Pass revenue fail to cover park operating expenses, then further cuts in parks budgets must be made, including park closures, until the parks become self supporting.  One heck of a predicament - yes, but this is reality in the year 2011.  We can debate how we got here and who and what is to blame, but what is is.  Fortunately, based on early  anecdotal feedback from people in our area of the state, understanding about the need for special parks funding has been very positive - and thus support for Discover Passes. 

In our area, we have three state parks that are major assets to our community - Kanaskat Palmer, Nolte and Flaming Geyser.  For our family, we plan to purchase Discovery Passes for both of our vehicles.  What a bargain this is for the value we receive.  For more information on where and how to purchase a Discover Pass, follow this Washington State Discover Pass link. 

For what it's worth, our state is not the only state to find itself in this predicament.  Judy forwarded an interesting link to an article in the New York Times called In State Parks, the Sharpest Ax is the Budget's.  Worth reading.  If it's any consolation, we are not in nearly so desparate straits as states like Ohio where they are considering opening up oil drilling and gas "fracking" licenses as a revenue source to support their state parks system.  How anti-ethical.  Tough times.  Please help us make sure that we don't get so desperate that we too have to walk down this "slippery" and very greasy slope.

WWRP Grant Program - Some Good News From This Past Legislative Session

Photo taken this past December while hiking along the rim of the Green River Gorge west of Icy Creek.  The Green River, which can't be seen from this view, is directly below down a very steep slope.

Among the dismal news coming out of this past legislative session, there were a few bright spots.  The Washington Wildlife And Recreation Coalition (WWRP) successfully secured $42 million in capital funding for important projects across the state.  Follow the above link for a listing of all the projects funded.  Important to us locally has been the goal of obtaining an easement for a 2.2 mile trail in the Green River Gorge Conservation Area.  State Parks has been trying to buy land within the gorge between Flaming Geyser and Kanaskat-Palmer State Parks since the conservation area's creation in 1969.  There are only a few gaps in ownership on the south side of the river and this purchase, assuming it can be consummated, will close the most significant of those gaps.  The trail easement would run along the top of the gorge in the Icy Creek area, just east of SR 169.  It would provide a route for a trail that connects State Park's land in the Kummer Mines Heritage area, near Flaming Geyser State Park, east all the way to Hanging Gardens.  This grant, totalling $540,828, is from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program.

I've had the opportunity to hike much of this area and its beautiful as can be seen from the expansive view above.  With funding now available, let's hope that these easements can be secured.  Such a trail system would be a huge asset to our community.