Drafter
Clerk 03/21/2013
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AN ORDINANCE making supplemental appropriations of $583,000 to the limited general obligation bond redemption fund and $8,280,000 to the conservation futures fund for the purpose of buying a conservation easement, and paying related debt service costs, over the King County portion of the White River Tree Farm; and amending the 2013 Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 17476, Sections 130 and 136, as amended, and Attachment H, as amended.
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BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. The White River Tree Farm is a privately-owned forestland located within King and Pierce counties. The property totals just over 86,000 acres, with just over 43,000 acres of the property in King County. The property has been managed as a working forest for nearly one hundred years. It is a substantial portion of a larger, contiguous piece of undeveloped forestland, which includes Washington state Department of Natural Resources lands, United States Forest Service lands and Plum Creek Timber lands to the north, the Clearwater Wilderness to the south, and United States Forest Service lands to the east and south, which stretch undeveloped all the way to Mount Rainier National Park. The White River Tree Farm property forms the southern border of the city of Tacoma watershed, which provides drinking water for the residents of Tacoma and south King County.
B. The White River Tree Farm property plays an important part of the local and regional timber resource industry and preserving it as a forest helps retain jobs and timber resources important to the local and regional economy.
C. An easement preventing development at White River Tree Farm would provide significant environmental benefits including carbon sequestration and habitat for rainier elk, marbled murrelet, Chinook salmon, bull trout and northern spotted owls.
D. The White river runs through the middle of the property and preventing development of the property has e...
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