Washington State is known around the country for two things: the Space Needle and the environment.
According to Forbes, Washington is one of the most environmentally friendly states in the United States with lots of nature around every corner for everything from camping to afternoon picnics. And King County is considering lengthening the range of nature that the state has to offer.
King County Executive Dow Constantine recently made a press conference announcing that the county was considering buying 65,000 acres of land.
\According to the Bellevue Reporter, the land that would be bought would be 13,500 acres for farmland, 125 miles for trails, 20,600 acres for wildlife and recreation, 2,400 acres for green spaces in urban areas, and 26,500 acres for forests. Also, according to the Bellevue Reporter, “Purposed property purchases include land near the Tolt River for salmon habitat restoration, dairy farmland near Enumclaw, and the lakeshore trails on the Weyerhaeuser campus in Federal Way.”
In order to pay for the land, the county plans to sell various bonds that should greatly increase the revenue that would come in through the different activities and places that would be built around the new land.
In a press conference, Constantine said, “This is an exciting moment to save the last best places in King County and make sure that every community has access to green space […] Saving these places and creating green space for all is important to our future, and it’s as important as investments in affordable housing or in transportation or in any other aspect of infrastructure.”