Kubota Garden ( 9817 55th Ave S) in South Seattle has paths traversing its 20 undulating acres of Japanese landscapes, and it sits at the end of the nearly nine-mile paved Chief Sealth Trail, a green strip that curves northwest into the city’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. In 230-acre Washington Park Arboretum ( 2300 Arboretum Dr E), Azalea Way moves through the signature flowers, among other meticulously maintained plants. Many city walking routes travel through gardens that remain lush year-round thanks to the city’s temperate climate. The waterfront makes an appearance on dozens of Seattle trails, including the Union Bay Natural Area ( 3501 NE 41st St) near the University of Washington, where-don’t let the name fool you-the Yesler Swamp route is absolutely gorgeous. North in Ballard, Pipers Creek Trail in Carkeek Park ( 950 NW Carkeek Park Rd) follows a waterway that tumbles through the forest and past a restored orchard, down to Puget Sound.
Discovery Park ( 3801 Discovery Park Blvd) in the Magnolia neighborhood is webbed with 12 miles of trails, including the North Beach trail that swings by a picture-perfect lighthouse. With that timber bringing an economic return to families in the region, TNC was able to show that it could achieve its conservation goals through what’s called a “working forest.Hiking is basically the unofficial sport of Seattle, and fortunately we don’t have to go far to hit the trail. The organization learned that it could make forests healthier, more diverse and more resilient to climate change by carefully selecting some trees to cut as part of a conservation plan. The next ring on the tree, poetically enough, was TNC’s 2002 entrance into sustainable timber harvesting. “We had to come up with different approaches to conservation that recognized the need to keep land working and build a sustainable approach to that.” “If we were going to be successful, we had to really put roots down and have people really living here and building relationships on a local level,” says Kreps, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Clinch Valley Program in Virginia. It then started listening to local people and understanding their relationship to the land. TNC first identified the area’s conservation importance because of the valley’s globally rare freshwater mussels.
If the Cumberland Forest Project grew like a tree, then it first sprouted in Virginia’s Clinch Valley. “If you think 200 or 300 years down the road about things that will matter,” says Baxley, “this deal will matter.” To her, the power of this historic project is in the legacy it establishes. This benefits species like the ruffed grouse, a ground-dwelling bird that benefits from the cold microclimates of the Appalachians.įor Danna Baxley, TNC’s Kentucky Conservation Director, these properties make up a critical puzzle piece for wildlife and water protection as the climate changes.
And because of its proximity to highly developed areas of the East Coast, it makes a perfect “climate escape route” for both plants and animals that are moving over time northward to avoid intolerable conditions. By keeping this migration route in place, a large conservation project like this one is giving biodiversity the best possible chance.Īnderson says that the area around the Cumberland project has more of these microclimates than pretty much anywhere else in the United States. Without protection of strongholds and the routes between them, the world could end up with more weedy generalist species that could survive anywhere. Safeguarding this vast stretch of forest tackles climate change on two fronts: by storing millions of tons of carbon dioxide and by connecting a migratory corridor that scientists believe could be one of North America’s most important “escape routes” as plant and animal species shift their ranges to cooler climates. Yet when it comes to describing The Nature Conservancy’s newest project in the region, he’s inclined to start with one word.Īt 253,000 acres, the Cumberland Forest Project, one of TNC’s largest-ever conservation efforts in the eastern United States, protects sweeping forest landscapes across two parcels, one in Southwest Virginia and one along the Kentucky and Tennessee border. A man who’s conserved Central Appalachia for two decades, Kreps can explain at length why rare freshwater mussels like the rough rabbitsfoot or the Tennessee heelsplitter matter. Brad Kreps knows the winding streams and hilly forests of Virginia’s Clinch Valley like the back of his hand.
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