Plan offered to save state's green spaces

After months of dialogue with stakeholders in a four-county region, the Cascade Land Conservancy yesterday unveiled an aggressive, 100-year conservation plan for the Puget Sound region that would require more than $7 billion for completion.

Conservancy officials say about 1 million acres in King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kittitas counties need to be conserved while another 250,000 acres are permanently preserved so that the region's natural resources are protected for future generations.

Preservation keeps land in its natural state, while conserved acreage remains open to timber or agricultural use but not development.

According to the conservancy, the region's population of 3.5 million is expected to double during the next century, increasing the strain that development already is having.

In the near term, the conservancy will look to invest $2 billion in buying land and development rights, raising money by selling bonds, collecting management revenues from working forests already in production, and receiving government funding at local, state and federal levels.

Devote $7 billion to land conservation over the next century?

Information

Cascade Land Conservancy: To view the latest plan, visit www.cascadeagenda.com

Already, the four-county region annually spends nearly $50 million from different sources on conservation and green space, he said. Lifting that figure to a centurylong average of $70 million a year would mean collecting about another $20 million annually from various investments and land revenues, he said.

"So instead of letting governments work on isolated projects, we need to get them to make a concerted effort toward the plan's goals," Duvernoy said.

To ensure that happens, Duvernoy and others spent the past year engaging representatives from more than 40 organizations and government agencies, including environment and development interests. Public meetings in the four counties drew more than 3,500 people to comment on the conservation plan.

"I think the common ground for all these different groups is that everyone across all spectrums here seems to see the connection between parks, open space and wildlife habitat and livable communities," said Craig Lee, president of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition and a member of the project's steering committee. "These are the things that drive many businesses and companies to locate in an area."

Highlights of the plan include:

• Conserving 93 percent — or 777,000 acres — of private working forests in the Cascade Mountain range, while permanently protecting another 5 percent, or 48,000 acres, of forest in the four counties. More than 2 million acres of forest already are in public hands.

• Preserving 21,000 acres of foothill forests to protect the headwaters of the region's rivers, as well as protecting another 14,000 acres along Puget Sound shorelines and estuaries.

• Conserving 85 percent of the agricultural land remaining in the four counties, including 106,000 acres in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, and 200,000 acres in Kittitas.

• Adding 82,500 acres to destination parks and another 30,000 acres to urban parks to keep up with residential growth.

Adequate resources for timber production would still be available under the conservancy's plan, said Bonnie Bunning, executive director of policy and administration for the state Department of Natural Resources. Bunning also sat on the conservancy's steering committee.

"Things were a little uncertain at the beginning," Bunning said of the outlook for even finishing a plan. "But I'm bowled over by doing what we all did in one year and by getting so many people's opinions weighed in [during the process]."

Bunning said the plan "resonates well with stewardship and management of public lands."

Even developers were positive about the project, mostly because they, too, had a part in developing it and had their interests taken into consideration.

"We got involved because Gene Duvernoy asked us to be involved," said Allison Butcher, spokeswoman for the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.

"I think the Land Conservancy has done a good job of recognizing the growth that's going to come here, and our industry will play a big part in providing quality housing for those future residents," Butcher said. "Protecting the environment or having a strong economy is not a choice that has to be made."

Creative initiatives will be needed to see the plan work, however, Duvernoy said. But already the moves to "green" building, transfer-development rights and cluster development in rural areas are showing success. The rest will come with focus and hard work, he said.

"This is not a plan for the faint of heart," he said. "But when you look at the diversity of organizations supporting this effort, you'll start to see it's more and more feasible."

Christopher Schwarzen: 425-783-0577 or cschwarzen@seattletimes.com