Transfer of Development Rights
King County has recently implemented a Transfer of Development Rights Program (TDR). In March we accomplished a $3.75 million private to private transfer of development rights from rural forest land into the City of Issaquah, preserving a 313 acre forest in the rural area. This was the first ever transfer of development rights between two cities in the Pacific Northwest.

In April, the King County Council unanimously approved the Denny Triangle Transfer of Development Credits Interlocal Agreement. As part of the agreement, qualified rural landowners from the Cedar, Green and Snoqualmie River Basins may now sell their development rights to property owners in the Denny Triangle neighborhood of Seattle.

Biosolids
One of our more unique methods of encouraging forestry is the Biosolids Forestry Program, a partnership among in the County, the Weyerhaeuser Company, Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, and the University of Washington. Treated biosolids from the county’s wastewater facilities are being recycled as fertilizer.

Although we are only at the 5-year mark in this 50-year program, we have demonstrated that these creative solutions can work:

• We are fertilizing 1,300 acres of Weyerhaeuser and state land every year;
• In partnership with the federal Forest Legacy program, we have purchased 2,200 acres of key forested parcels in eastern King County;
• We have transferred another 2,400 acres to the state for long-term forestry;
• Countless youth volunteers have helped to restore and reforest old logging roads with biosolids compost through the Greenway's summer Re-Greening program.

This program is reaching teachers, middle school and high school students with the message that our forests are vital to us: they provide scenic beauty, wildlife habitat, recreation, clean water and wood products.

Forest Legacy Funds
In cooperation with State DNR we have been able to apply $8 million in federal Forest Legacy funds to the acquisition of 2,424 acres of forestland critical to water quality, wildlife and wastewater management.

In 2001, Legacy funds will be applied to another 432 acres on Taylor Mountain. Part of the strategy in these acquisitions will be long term, adaptable forest management. We want King County to become a model of economically viable forest management for the future.