On May 19, 2016, we held the fourth WAG meeting to discuss the King County Land Conservation and Preservation Work Plan (Work Plan) which proposes implementing a land preservation and conservation program to identify, protect and conserve water and land resources.  We worked with the WAG to determine if this County project meets the Our Green/Duwamish interest of developing a watershed-wide open space action strategy. The WAG determined it fulfills the purpose of a watershed-wide open space strategy.

They recommended that the Work Plan could be improved with the following additional analysis and engagement:

1. Update parcel level maps based on comments from WAG (Duwamish Blueprint, KCD urban forests, etc.) and open space “opportunities” from OGD Phase I.
2. Consider equity: overlay “Access to Open Space” map to identify gaps in open space.
3. King County Work Plan team will work with G/D cities to identify candidate conservation lands (suggested by WAG).
4. Look at spatial nexus of stormwater management and open space lands.
5. Work with WAG volunteer team (PSRC, TNC, WRIA 9) over summer to respond if additional candidate conservation lands are added in the Green/Duwamish Watershed.
6. King County Work Plan team provide updates to the WAG when the Land Conservation Task Force begins to meet.

The King County Land Conservation Initiative team will consider how to include these recommendations in the project.