Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 14:47:32 :
In Reply to: Re: trucks posted by Keith in Washington on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 11:48:50 :
I've been hearing about that too, and so long as both sides are happy with the deal, it seems like a good thing. The "Mountains to Sound Greenway" is a fancy name for an outfit that's been buying development rights to the hills along I-90 between Seattle and Snoqualamie Pass so as to keep them from getting covered with suburban sprawl. Another outfit recently bought the development rights to most of Weyerhauser's Snoqualamie tree farm, which is pretty much the whole North Fork of the Snoqualamie river. The fact is there are a lots of very rich people in the Seattle area now (68,000 millionaires just in King County), they like seeing greenery, and they're willing to pay to keep it. Even most of the environmentalists seem to have realized that tree farms are better than strip malls and housing developments. Of course that means that the land that's still open for development is even more valuable, which is why the average house price in the county is over $400,000.
As for where to go 4-wheeling, it looks to me like that's a thing of the past anywhere near any big city whether on forest service or logging company land. The logging companies used to hand out maps and maintain campgrounds just for good public relations, but now they've all gated their roads. Even in Idaho, Potlatch is now charging money to do anything, even walk, on their land.
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