DISASTER MITIGATION

By Sarah Titcomb

(Fighting a wildfire near Chelan, WA. Wildfires and droughts are expected to become more common due to rising temperatures from climate change. Photo Source: Ben Brooks from Fife, WA)

By Matt Chadsey 

Anyone who lives in the Central Puget Sound Region can recognize that the open space around us has value.  The mountains -- even just the views of them -- rivers, parks, and working lands provide benefits. However, quantifying those benefits is hard.  What is the value of a rushing river, or the shade provided by a street tree on a sunny day, or a salt marsh, or wetland during a storm?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Matt Chadsey, Project Leader, Earth Economics

In February, I spoke at the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) Symposium at the University of British Columbia (UBC) on Planning for Resilience in the Pacific Northwest. I organized my remarks around five core principles for planning and managing land and water that I believe can help move us toward more resilient urban regions. Those actively participating in the Regional Open Space Strategy (ROSS) may find these principles familiar, they guide our process. We believe that planning with these principles will lead to a truly resilient urban region.

Are you or the other members of your organization looking to connect with others passionate about the Green-Duwamish watershed? Consider volunteering at the Duwamish Alive! restoration event on April 18th to join the hundreds of volunteers cleaning up over a dozen sites throughout the area.

This winter was short, mild, and left many mountains bare that are normally snow-capped. In response to these conditions and the potential impact on water resources, Governor Jay Inslee declared drought in three regions across Washington State last month: the north Olympic Peninsula, a large region east of the Cascades, and the area around Walla Walla.

Continue reading for the ROSS take on the current drought and a discussion on conditions in our region's watersheds.

We highly recommend you read this thoughtful – and visually stunning – article about the impact of climate change on our beloved Mt. Rainier. From glacier melt to habitat shifts, the challenges of data prediction to the tension between human intervention, policy and practice, this article reveals the complexity of a changing climate on an iconic landscape.

We are delighted to share the great efforts of the Mountains to Sound Greenway, Stewardship Partners and their Snoqualmie Valley partners for their visionary planning in the watershed. This beautiful "report card" reflects the thoughtful work they are doing to create a robust watershed plan to protect and enhance their forests, farms and rural lands that make up 96% of their land and provide essential ecosystem services for the entire Puget Sound region.

It has been a busy summer for us here at the ROSS. Not only have we been hard at work on our open space services work and entering into an agreement with King County and the City of Seattle for the Green-Duwamish WOSS you may have read about earlier this month, we’ve also been developing a new website.

Monday, September 9, marked a seminal moment in open space planning, as King County and the City of Seattle, in the presence of community groups, natural resource agencies and local news media, announced plans to develop a Green/Duwamish Watershed Strategy.