Way back in the 80s when I was married to then president of the REI board,
Bill Britt. We had numerous discussions about the Kent Valley because REI
was granting money for environmental projects and yet they chose to build
their distribution center right in the middle of prime farm land/habitat.
To me this was a travesty and a hypocrisy. Even tho' he was a wetland and
terrestial biologist and wrote two of the four chapters of the initial
Puget Sound Water Quality Plan, a business decision trumped conservation.
Georgia
On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 4:25 PM Vicki Biltz <
vickibiltz at gmail.com> wrote:
>
We moved here in the 80's, birded Frager a lot as we lived in Kent then. I
>
really have to work to get around and it's really sad. In fact I've not
>
tried in many years. I can't imagine what it would feel like to Bud, as
>
difficult and sad this area makes me, add twenty years or more to that!
>
I saw more Goshawks in Spain than I've ever seen here!
>
>
On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 1:26 PM Rob McNair-Huff <rob.mcnairhuff at gmail.com>
>
wrote:
>
>>
Thank you for this email, Bud. That longer perspective is too often
>>
missing from the conversations about the impact of development decisions on
>>
nature. It sure makes me miss what I never actually had the possibility of
>>
experiencing myself...
>>
>>
Rob
>>
>>
>>
>>
--
>>
Rob Huff ---------- Tacoma, WA
>>
Author of Washington Disasters (Globe Pequot, 2006), Birding Washington
>>
(Falcon Publishing, 2004) and Insider's Guide to the Olympic Peninsula
>>
(Globe Pequot, 2001)
>>
www.whiterabbits.com
>>
On Mar 11, 2019, 12:56 PM -0700, Bud Anderson <falconresearch at gmail.com>,
>>
wrote:
>>
>>
I began my hawkwatching career in the Kent Valley in the mid-sixties and
>>
lived on Frager Road for several years.
>>
>>
Back then, it was all farmland that often flooded, that is until they
>>
turned the Green River into a drainage canal.
>>
>>
In those days it was hawk heaven, you could find goshawks just south of
>>
Renton and gyrs around Kent with fair regularity, along with everything
>>
else. I still vividly remember seeing my first Black Merlin not far from
>>
the Smith Brothers dairy.
>>
>>
Starting with the building of the Southcenter "supermall" and followed by
>>
the invention of rapidly constructed, tilt up concrete warehouses, an
>>
abundance of cheap farmland and eventually the huge Boeing facility, the
>>
valley was essentially destroyed for both wildlife and agriculture over the
>>
next two decades and I was happy to eventually move north to the Skagit.
>>
>>
Ironically, I learned of a study written back in the 1930s, although I
>>
have never seen it, that recommended that the Kent Valley be preserved as
>>
farmland to provide Seattle with fresh produce and dairy to feed the
>>
burgeoning population of King County.
>>
>>
Prophetic.
>>
>>
But industry won that battle.
>>
>>
The last time I returned there a year or so ago, I actually got lost and
>>
disoriented among the multitude of bland, rectilinear industrial concrete
>>
warehouses.
>>
>>
I seldom hear about this massive loss of precious, irreplaceable habitat
>>
any more.
>>
>>
But some of us still remember it as it was, a local treasure to be
>>
mourned.
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
>>
_______________________________________________
>>
Tweeters mailing list
>>
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>>
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>>
>
--
>
>
>
>
vickibiltz at gmail.com
>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/saw-whets_new/
>
>
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>
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>
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>
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