Category Overview
State Parks grants help preserve and develop our state’s best outdoor recreation areas by funding new campgrounds and amenities to increase the capacity of our parks, creating new parks, improving park resources, and protecting historical areas. These grants help our state continue to develop our world-class parks system to share our cultural heritage and natural treasures with all of its visitors.
Project Highlights
The Arrowhead Property acquisition, proposed by State Parks with support from Forterra, will acquire and protect a 6.46-acre forested parcel in the City of Kenmore for inclusion in Saint Edward State Park. Through a unique partnership, these two organizations will work cooperatively to conserve one of the last undeveloped yet unprotected parcels of Lake Washington’s shoreline. Washington State Parks will acquire the land, and Forterra will acquire a conservation easement. This property is adjacent and contiguous to the park’s existing northwest boundary, and it lies within the Commission-approved long-term boundary for Saint Edward State Park. The property includes 250 feet of undeveloped lake shoreline and 870 feet of frontage on two unnamed streams and their confluence. Once acquired, this property will permanently protect a largely Mesic-Wet conifer forest ecotype consisting of Douglas fir, western hemlock, western red cedar and madrone. The property provides critical habitat connectivity and functions as a wildlife corridor serving a range of species, including coyote, bobcat, long-tailed weasel, river otter, mountain beaver and pileated woodpeckers, along with other smaller mammals, amphibians, and birds. Acquisition of the Arrowhead property will prevent habitat loss along the lakeshore in a region that continues to face development pressures and will provide trail connections with the existing trails in the park.