Spadework For Greenery On The Outer Eastside

SEVERAL recent events on the green edge of the Outer Eastside are reminders that people are working just as hard for green space and wild forests as others are for development and roads.

In Preston, in the woods near North Bend on the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River and, finally, completion last week of the Huckleberry Land Exchange close to the Alpine Wilderness - all are examples of trends toward land preservation and restoration on the wilder, outer edges of the Eastside.

The Preston Arboretum and Botanical Garden is not a new story on the Eastside, but its progress from raw dirt to landscaping is worth telling to a wider audience who may think there are no big dreams east of I-405.

The arboretum plan includes 260 acres north of and within sight of I-90, near Preston. The southwest exposure of the sloping lands will offer the right topography for a garden devoted to native plants, including botanical "rooms" where combinations of natural species will be grown. The arboretum should have its first trail in place in 1999, and after that some nice new ideas, such as level pads for telescopes where astronomy clubs and visitors can take advantage of the night sky. The gardens and arboretum will be open to the public for the first time on Dec. 31, 1998.

The revival of Preston, from a crossroads industrial park to something else - a rural Fremont in spirit would be one description - is a long, complicated story that includes saving the old, polluted Preston Mill and the beginning of a new trail system that will link to trail systems on the Eastside. But the arboretum and botanical gardens are their own story, one that began some years ago.

With an initial donation of land from Maryanne Tagney-Jones and her husband, of Preston, the object is to make the gardens and trails a tourist destination in five or six years. First, creation of the forest rooms to show native plant life of the Pacific Northwest, from Alaska to Northern California. Among those contributing their expertise is Richard Robohm, president of the Puget Sound chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society. The only place similar to the Preston gardens is a native plant collection preserved near Eugene, Ore. Preston's site will be ungated and unfenced, with a visitor's center but mostly just trails and information for hikers.

The arboretum is pursuing more land to complete the total acreage, but substantial commitments have been made. King County budgeted $900,000 to buy property in 1998 and lease it to the botanical gardens, with another $800,000 in 1998. The gardens and arboretum are just on the rural side of the Growth Management line, close to the Greenbank cheese factory if you know Preston, full of deer and native trees and shrubs within a few minutes of the exploding population of Issaquah.

Susan Bond, executive director of Preston Botanical Garden, got a Master's degree on the plan for a garden and arboretum and is putting the theory into practice. The project will take 20 years and $6 million and, she says "will give Preston a unique stewardship of the native plants that are in the Northwest."

Fitting into the view from the arboretum's slopes is the Huckleberry Land Exchange. Concluded with ceremonies last week, the exchange is another fill-in of the checkerboard pattern of land ownership inconvenient to the timber companies yet ultimately useful to the preservationists. Last month, the Huckleberry Exchange was completed with the trade of 30,253 acres of Weyerhaeuser land for 4,362 acres of public land that will be used for forestry.

The Huckleberry Exchange includes the western slopes of the Cascades along the I-90 corridor and extending down into Pierce County. In addition, Weyerhaeuser added another 2,000 acres adjacent to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The plan took 10 years, but now it's done. Mountain to Sound Greenway chairman Jim Ellis said at the hand-over ceremony, "Over half the lands going to the Forest Service are along I-90 or in upper Snoqualmie River valleys. West of the Summit along I-90, lands we now see are recently harvested will grow back in trees that will be managed in perpetuity . . ."

Deeper into the forest, about 12 miles up the high reaches of the Middle Fork River near North Bend, U.S. Army helicopters were hauling rusted cars out of the river banks. A ride up the road winding along the Middle Fork is a trip into rowdy, pioneer America. Long known for stray bullets flying through the trees, wild parties along the riverbank and shotgun shells littering the ground, the Middle Fork wilderness is being tamed and made safer by Friends of the Trail and others, such as Mark Boyer of Seattle who spends time and energy saving the wilderness from being too wild.

The Middle Fork wilderness is a 110,000 acre watershed that fits into the Mountain to Sound Greenway vision. An idea for a visitor's center might stop some of the more dangerous shooters from entering, as would a gate far up the Middle Fork to limit access to vehicles. "This area of national forest and county land could eventually be as popular as Yosemite," Boyer said, "because it's going to be wilderness next door to four million people."

On a quiet morning two weeks ago, the forest looked as if it went on forever, the river almost glacier white from spring runoff, pouring down the trough of the valley, running - as all the rivers run - toward Seattle and the sea.

James Vesely's column focusing on Eastside issues appears Mondays on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail adress is: jvesely@settletimes.com