King County Council Urges National Heritage Area Designation for Greenway

The Metropolitan King County Council unanimously adopted a motion at its March 19 meeting urging Congress to designate the Mountains to Sound Greenway as a National Heritage Area.

The Mountains to Sound Greenway is a National Scenic Byway that stretches 100 miles from downtown Seattle over the Cascades into central Washington. It includes forests, farms, historic sites, lakes, campgrounds, rivers, trails, wildlife habitat and local communities, including Sammamish and Issaquah. The Greenway is the result of a public-private coalition that has preserved over 750,000 acres of land for education, recreation, and environmental stewardship. 

Individual government representatives from Issaquah have already spoken in support of the designation, including Mayor Ava Frisinger and councilmembers Fred Butler, Tola Marts, and John Traeger. Nonprofits and local businesses, such as the Issaquah Alps Trails Club, Issaquah Salmon Days, and the Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery also are supporters of the designation.

On its website, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust says the benefits of such a designation would include broadening public awareness, recognition and involvement; increasing funding opportunites; formalizing principles of sustainable conservation on public lands; and providing directions for future caretakers of public lands.

It says a National Heritage Area designation would not affect private property rights, legislate public land acquisitions, or change water rights or hunting or fishing regulations.

There are currently 49 National Heritage Areas in the United States, but designating the Mountains to Sound Greenway would make it the first in Washington State. 

“The Mountains to Sound Greenway provides some of the most beautiful landscapes in our nation, so it is fitting for designation as a National Heritage Area,” said King County Councilmember Larry Phillips, Chair of the Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee and a member of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Advisory Council said in a King County news release. “I have worked throughout my career to help secure and conserve lands that make up the Mountains to Sound Greenway because they are so critical to the heritage and sustainability of our region and nation.” 

In 1991, the nonprofit Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust was formed, and is currently governed by a 60-member board of directors representing a diversity of conservation, development, business, and local, state, and federal interests. The adopted motion urges the U.S. Congress to recognize the Mountains to Sound Greenway as a National Heritage Area. 

You can read more about this legislation on the King County Council’s LEGISEARCH system at http://mkcclegisearch.kingcounty.gov and type in “2012-0105”