The Cross-Valley Greenway: Making Way for People and Wildlife Across the Duwamish Valley

Abstract

Land development patterns have fragmented our landscapes, and this has resulted in the loss of connectivity between habitats for both wildlife and humans. Nowhere is this seen more than in the Duwamish Valley where large industrial parcels and major transportation infrastructure create enormous challenges to crossing the valley. Transmission corridors present a unique opportunity to reclaim connectivity between both wildlife habitat patches and between human population centers. This thesis focuses on one such corridor in south King County where remnant patches of open space are being reclaimed by land stewards and the transmission corridor shows promise to re-connect these spaces. Further, the corridor presents opportunities for a multi-use trail, facilitating better mobility options in underserved communities, as well as other community amenities. The Cross-Duwamish Greenway: Making Way for People and Wildlife in the Duwamish Valley proposes a new perspective of these utility corridors that function to deliver energy to the citizenry. In an age when the population is rapidly increasing and land value is at a premium, we must embrace the opportunity to create multi-functional open space that reclaims the ecological value that the management of these corridors has drastically degraded, afford safe paths for active transportation and create amenities such as community gardens that allow citizens to claim this open space, engage it and steward it