Category Overview
Urban Wildlife Habitat projects fund close-to-home places to play and explore nature. As our urban areas are increasingly expanding and densifying, these grants protect important fish and wildlife habitat within five miles of densely populated areas, creating green refuges that help keep our ecosystems healthy and provide places to enjoy nature right in our backyards.
Project Highlights
The Department of Natural Resources will use this grant to buy 167.4 acres of privately owned land for inclusion in the Rattlesnake Mountain Scenic Area in east King County. The land is highly threatened by residential development and provides crucial wildlife habitat in an urban area. The land is a part of the Mountains to Sound Greenway, a 100-mile corridor of forests, wildlife habitat, and open spaces along Interstate 90, which is a National Scenic Byway and National Heritage Area. Distinctive features of this site include mature Douglas fir forests, pockets of old-growth forests, snag-rich wildlife habitats, numerous streamside systems, cliffs, steep slopes, and wildlife corridors. The quality of this site is high due to the habitat diversity, remote character, and wildlife connections it provides in the surrounding region. The area is used by a variety of wildlife including northern spotted owls, pileated woodpecker, peregrine falcon, black bear, Roosevelt elk, bobcat, cougar, fox, coyote, osprey, black-tail deer, and a variety of other mammals, birds, insects, and amphibians.