FGT has been working hard to help our local government partners’ trail grants be more competitive. Specifically, we contributed to the applications and presentations for Pierce County’s Wilkeson to Carbonado extension of the Foothills Trail and the City of Fife’s section of the spuyalÉ™pabš Trail, both of which are important for the realization of the “Tahoma to Tacoma” trail route. We will find out how these projects ranked later in the year and it will help inform our legislative priorities for the next session — the next State budget is how grant awards will be fulfilled.
Trails & Tales: Parkland Community Trail
One of the first trail projects I was involved in when I first came to ForeverGreen Trails was the Parkland Community Trail — the trailhead and path through Sprinker Recreation Center. The County has been busy developing the next section to connect to the Parkland Prairie open space and it is almost complete and it’s almost time to celebrate! FGT is hosting a walk-and-talk event on Saturday, September 19 th at 9:30 AM from Sprinker to Parkland Prairie. A few guest speakers along the way will address various issues facing the community of Parkland, from health and safety, tree coverage, stream health, to park development and future expansion of the trail. The 1.5-mile walk will end at the County’s ribbon cutting celebration at Parkland Prairie and following it, a site tour covering ongoing restoration efforts will be offered. All of these are free and open to the public. Our Trails & Tales event requires registration, however: https://www.forevergreentrails.org/tnt.
Pierce County Trails Conference
Speaking of storytelling, this year’s trails conference focuses on doing so in support of trails. Kicking off the event will be Yvonne Kraus, Executive Director of the WA Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, the nonprofit champion of one of the most important State funding sources for parks, trails, conservation, and more. With a legislative budget session coming, we couldn’t have a better speaker to help frame the conversation for the evening. We are fortunate to also be joined by David Wasserman from Alta, a consultancy that has been doing cutting edge work on quantifying the benefits of active mobility projects including trails. We know from public surveys that trails are highly valued, however it is also important to know their monetary benefits from savings related to health and safety and economic growth to help support trail funding. Having both quantitative and qualitative messages will help us be effective trail advocates. We
hope you will join us for an evening of networking, best practices, project updates, and
more! Dinner is included. More information and registration:
