The Stewardship Foundation is working with the City of LFP to create a Nature Preserve in the Hillside neighborhood. This Nature Preserve will
be named in honor of the late Grace Cole, who was formerly our State Representative and served for many years on the Shoreline School Board.
Ms. Cole was a very well-loved figure in our community, and she firmly believed in the principles of conservation. In fact she participated in
the donation of one piece of land to the City which will be part of the Nature Preserve. The long-term goal includes the acquisition of
approximately 15 acres of beautiful undeveloped land near the headwaters of Brookside Creek.
The first step in the acquisition of this property occurred this past May, when the Stewardship Foundation worked with the City to prepare and
submit a grant application for the King County Conservation Futures Tax
Fund (CFT). On August 16, King County Executive Ron Sims approved the LFP grant request; the County will be supplying $225,000 for this
project. The City of LFP is committed to providing $273,000 in matching funds.
While the Foundation has had its differences with the City in the past, including conflicts over land use issues in this very neighborhood, this
project is exactly the kind of partnership we envisioned when we formed the Foundation in 1998. In addition to researching and writing the grant
application itself, the Foundation has committed to providing 200 hours of park maintenance per year, as well as $2500 for interpretive signage.
We've lined up similar support from Streamkeepers, Seattle Tilth, the Boy Scouts, Trout Unlimited, the Audubon Society, and local Elementary
schools. We've also gotten support for the project from Sen. Darlene Fairley, Maggi Fimia, and Sen. Patty Murray.
We applaud the City for supporting this project. City Council voted unanimously to support the grant application and to commit the City's
matching funds. We look forward to working with the City and to seeing this project through to its completion.
The CFT grant is just the first step in acquiring the funds necessary to create the Grace Cole Memorial Nature Preserve. The Stewardship
Foundation will be focusing a large part of our efforts in the coming year to seeing this project through to its completion. We hope you can help.
This is a great opportunity to set aside some incredibly beautiful land for the enjoyment of the entire community.
Map 1: Northern portion of Grace Cole Preserve
Map 2: Location of the Grace Cole Preserve in relation to the streams
Map 3: Long-term plan, showing all the properties targeted for inclusion
View the grant application in your browser.
Download a MS Word document containing the full text of the grant application.
