Coalition seeks parks around Puget Sound

A coalition of conservation groups hopes to establish 10 new parks along Puget Sound as part of a new 10-year effort to revitalize shorelines.

The Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Public Lands and People for Puget Sound yesterday kicked off what they say will be a decadelong, multibillion-dollar campaign to clean up and restore the 2,100-mile web of tidelands, mud flats, rocky shores and beaches that serve as a nursery for the Sound's aquatic life.

Starting with an initial $3 million grant from the Russell Family Foundation, the groups, working under the name Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines, hope to raise up to $80 million in the next three years alone, from government and private sources. More than a third of it would be dedicated to securing more public access to the Sound's rapidly developing shorelines.

Roger Hoesterey, regional director for the Trust for Public Lands, said his group in the past has helped acquire 22 parcels around Puget Sound, and is working with several communities to try to use voter-approved initiatives to get more open space.

The groups also plan to take on a host of restoration projects, such as a recent Nature Conservancy program in the South Sound's Woodard Bay near Olympia to restore native Olympia oysters. And they plan to purchase more tidelands that are important to species such as herring, hake and migratory birds — for example, properties recently bought with state and federal grants around Port Susan Bay in the Skagit River delta.

"We have been working around the Skagit, the San Juans, the Duwamish and South Sound and have some ideas about projects, but the details will be forthcoming," said Kathy Fletcher, executive director of People for Puget Sound.

The goal, ultimately, is to build momentum for restoration of Puget Sound on a massive scale.

The Sound's near-shore areas have been declining for years as development has eliminated areas where fresh water meets salt water and sunlight feeds plants that form the backbone of the food web. Most native salt marshes are gone. More than 90 percent of the Sound's shorelines aren't open to the public.

Competition for preservation funding has been fierce recently. Last year, for example, the Cascade Land Conservancy announced plans to persuade private donors and community leaders to spend $7 billion over the next century to protect more than 1 million acres of the Cascade foothills.

And similar efforts, while accomplishing much, have fallen short of their initial goals.

The Cascades Conservation Partnership, formed before the Internet bubble burst in 2000, set out to raise $125 million to set aside 75,000 acres of land linking Mount Rainier to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area north of Snoqualmie Pass. Three years later, the group ended its campaign after raising $15 million from private sources and $42 million in public money to protect about 30,000 acres.

Still, the new Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines hopes to capitalize on its environmental credentials, its fundraising prowess and Gov. Christine Gregoire's stated position that cleaning up Puget Sound is a top priority.

"We feel pretty confident that there is funding to be found — and that there is the public and private will to support this," said David Weekes of The Nature Conservancy.

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com