As reported in the last newsletter, Washington State Parks has been seeking ways to make some of their parks self-sustaining, and others, especially those like Lake Sammamish State Park that are in urban areas, revenue-generating to help fund those that are more remote.  Due to the large number of emails, letters, and public testimony (much of it negative) to some of its proposed changes, State Parks backed off on its scheduled timetable, recognized the need to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS), and appointed an advisory committee.

During the December 2nd meeting of the advisory committee, some of the various suggested amenities were chosen for further consideration, while other proposals were dropped.  Included in the recommendation to the Washington State Parks Commission was the indoor soccer arena (heavily lobbied for by local soccer club families); a rowing/kayak boat house; a lodge/retreat center at the Hans Jensen youth camping area; a new Sunset Beach bathhouse and boardwalk; a café/concession area connected to one of the structures; an RV park; and a fishing pier.  The State Parks staff later added to the recommendations an outdoor amphitheater and a high-end restaurant despite the fact that the committee had voted these down because other local outdoor amphitheaters are underutilized and the restaurant would not likely be economically feasible.  Also at the December meeting, the architectural firm of Patano + Hafermann was narrowly chosen as the winner of the design contest, giving them the $15,000 prize and a chance to participate in the master plan design process.

On January 20th, a group overseeing the restoration plans for the park’s natural areas selected The Watershed Company in a competitive bid process to prepare a master plan providing the framework for future restoration projects involving the streams, wetlands, and lakeshore.  A draft plan is scheduled to go out for public review in June.

State Parks continues to welcome comments on any of the proposed plans for Sammamish State Park.  You can review the details at www.parks.wa.gov/plans/lksamm and direct any comments or questions to:  Peter.Herzog@Parks.Wa.Gov .

When  Trees  Chase  Dogs

Drought  And  Lake  Sammamish

By Joanna Buehler

Winter weather sets the stage for summer conditions in Lake Sammamish. Lovely sunny days in January, February and March mean warm water temperatures and lots of algae in summer.

Drought faces the entire state. However, impacts will vary regionally. In 1989 Metro released an excellent Technical Study of Lake Sammamish, its history and predictions of what the future would hold given land development plans and practices. The Study spawned the Lake Sammamish Water Quality Management Plan, which has had some successes. Over the years, SLS has frequently cited the Study as a scientifically-based warning in an attempt to raise awareness of threats to the Lake and avoid them. Current conditions in the Lake – low water level, high nutrient content and unseasonably warm temperature – are not simply the work of Mother Nature. This scenario was predicted, the drought is merely accelerating it.

The health of Lake Sammamish is precarious. Houses and roads have replaced forests. Many recharge areas have been paved over and the lack of rainfall this winter means that groundwater, which normally feeds cold, clean water into tributary streams and the lake during the dry summer months, has not been replenished. Without that inflow of groundwater, two things are certain: water temperatures in streams and lake will rise and pollutants and nutrients will be more concentrated. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of algal blooms in the lake. In the past some algal blooms have covered the lake with toxic slime:not conducive to swimming, fishing, water-skiing, or any of the other activities we so enjoy! Excess fertilizers in your yard wash off into the Lake and feed the milfoil and algae compounding the water quality problems.

In addition to praying for rain, we have many ways in which to lessen the impacts of the changing climate on our lake:

1)         Quit fertilizing and watering lawns – and that includes city streets and parks. Cut grass higher with a mulching mower.

2)         Wash cars (if you must!) in commercial carwashes which recycle water and/or are hooked up to the sanitary sewer system – no charity carwashes in parking lots which drain soap, oil and heavy metals directly to ditch, to stream, to lake.

3)         Repair leaks of oil and antifreeze from boats and cars.

4)         Clean your boat out of the water and scrub it down thoroughly after using it in other water bodies.

5)         Refuel with great care and have oil absorbent pads available in case of spills.

6)         Scoop your pets’ waste and flush it to Metro or put it in garbage (if you don’t want to swim in it!)

7)         Allow trees and shrubs to grow along shorelines to provide bank stability and shade.

8)         Brush patios, driveways and decks instead of hosing them clean.

9)         Walk more and drive less.

10)       Swim, sail or paddle more and motor less.

11)       Take a moment to really look at Lake Sammamish, its bald eagles, humming birds, otters, beaver,
            great blue herons, osprey, green herons, swallows, goldfinches, belted kingfishers,
            western grebe, kokanee, chinook, coho, sockeye, trout and many more.

12)       Cherish it and give future generations the option to do the same.

 For more information:   www.savingwater.org

Seattle Tilth Natural lawn and garden hotline at: 206-633-0224 or E-mail   lawn&gardenHotline@seattletilth.org

Logging  of  Sunken  Forests  Being  Considered

Comments on SB 5017
Honorable Senators, 

I am currently the Sr. Limnologist for King County and supervisor of the Major Lakes Program that oversees the protection and restoration of the water resources in lakes Sammamish, Washington, and Union. In my capacity as a limnologist, and active and as a constituent, I would like to make a suggestion on the intent of SB 5017: An Act regulating the sale of logs and wood from state-owned aquatic lands.

I support your intention of establishing funding for the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus.  But I strongly oppose the portions of this bill that would change any regulations that would permit the cutting or removal of any logs that comprise what is know as the sunken forests. King County has several sunken forests in lakes Washington and Sammamish.  Many of these trees were deposited in the lake centuries ago, and constitute one of the most significant geological and limnological natural features in Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish.  These forests should be designated as protected State Geological/Natural History features, not viewed as a short term funding opportunity.

Salvage logging of sunken logs that were cut on land, stored in the lake, and subsequently sunk does not constitute the destruction of a geological/natural feature that cutting the sunken forest would.  Any removal of previously cut logs should be regulated so that cutting and removal of trees in the sunken forest is prohibited.

It would seem logically inconsistent that we would destroy one of the most significant, though perhaps least know of our natural heritage to support a museum that is dedicated to preserving that heritage.

Thank you,

Jonathan D. Frodge, Ph.D.

ISSAQUAH BYPASS ALIGNMENT REVISION

By Barbara Shelton

At the January 3, 2005 Issaquah City Council meeting, staff presented a New Alignment #5 to be studied in the final Environmental Impact Statement.  In December, Council had chosen Alternative #3 over staff’s preference for Alternative #6.  This new change was requested because Alternative #3 impacts to the Sportsmen’s Club would require an additional  4 to 12 months’ study.  Alternative #5 avoids the Sportsmen’s Club but removes one of the two Issaquah High softball fields. This and other school impacts now need to be negotiated with Issaquah School District, apparently a less arduous process than for the Sportsmen’s Club.

Lake  Sammamish - The  Lost  Shores
By Joanna Buehler

Shoreline is where water and land meet - so how can it be “lost?” Waves still travel across the surface of the lake and exhaust their energy on shore. Recognizing the importance of the shore, shoreline management regulations have established that there should be minimum setbacks from the shore to new developments. Generally these setbacks are 20 feet of the ordinary high water mark (OHWM) in areas zoned urban and within 50 feet of the OHWM in the conservancy zone. SLS has vigorously fought construction that deviates from these standards.

Imagine, if you will, Lake Sammamish a hundred and fifty years ago. Transition between water and land was in equilibrium achieved by eons of interaction. Giant, ancient western red cedars and Douglas firs blanketed the glacially created hillsides above the lake. Numerous small streams flowed clear, clean and cool from forested hillsides. Erosion occurred rarely, as even in heavy rain as water infiltrated into the soils or was evaporated from the forest canopy. Shaded streams were rich with fresh water mussels and salmon, primarily the “red fish” - kokanee. Jumbles of fallen trees lay in and across the creeks creating pools for fish to hide or rest. The shoreline itself was almost invisible. In the company of great blue herons, belted kingfishers, bald eagles and purple martens, black cottonwood trees grew at the water’s edge. In Fall, shoreline-spawning sockeye and kokanee dug redds and laid their eggs in clean gravels and fresh cold ground-water upwellings. Juvenile salmon foraged and hid from predators amongst rushes and sedges growing along clean gravel beaches. Rocks deep on the lake bottom were clearly visible through sparkling water.

Today, water meets land but on a very different shoreline! Houses and roads have replaced forested hillsides. Roofs, roads and parking lots prevent groundwater replenishment. In turn, creeks, overwhelmed by stormwater-runoff from impervious surfaces, erode and send tons of sediments and soils into the lake. Mud buries the gravels that were the spawning grounds for the ancient fish. Nutrients in the stormwater fertilize milfoil and algae causing explosive growth of these plants. Because rainwater can no longer filter through forest soils into the ground, most of the ground-water upwellings have disappeared. Loss of shade from trees has contributed to higher water temperatures. Roads and a rail line encircling the lake have severed stream channels from their mouths, denying salmon access to their natal streams.

Because Washington citizens recognized both the value of our lakes, rivers and Puget Sound and the damage being done to them, the State Shoreline Management Act (SMA) was enacted by initiative in 1972 in an attempt to protect the waters and fish for the benefit of future generations. In essence the Act controlled activities detrimental to our waters and required a permitting process and mitigation for development on “shorelines of the State,” defined as 200 feet back from the Ordinary High Water Mark (OHWM). In the case of Lake Sammamish, increasing runoff has lead to flooding of shoreline properties within the 100-year flood plain. Further, the combination of topography and transportation corridors has created some narrow strips of land sandwiched along the lake’s edge. People desiring more “useable” land cannot move roads so they have placed fill into the lake and built bulkheads to protect their structures - sometimes with permits or variances from the SMA and sometimes illegally.

A single bulkhead on the shore may be of little individual consequence - and so each one could be justified on that basis. However, a thousand bulkheads, one on each waterfront lot, are a different story, creating a concrete bathtub where the shore used to be. This “cumulative impact” is the same as “death by a thousand cuts” and presents unique environmental and regulatory quandaries. A person has the right to protect his own property, but does he have the right to damage his neighbors’ property or the community’s property by so doing?

What are the practical effects of a bulkhead? Trees and other vegetation are removed which offered refuge for fish and other creatures. As vegetation is lost so is shade, raising water temperature. The energy of waves rolling onto a natural shoreline is dissipated by rushes growing in the shallow water and by trees growing on the shore, minimizing erosion. However, the force of waves hitting a bulkhead scours the base of the bulkhead and kicks up sediment from the lake bottom. Some of the energy will spill over to neighboring, unarmored beaches and cause scour there.

Even new developments without bulkheads create problems as each owner presses to be closer to the lake and remove the natural vegetation. Regulations sometimes address these issues, but monitoring and enforcement is minimal and violations frequently occur.

The shore is precious and must be protected. Local governments around Lake Sammamish must reassert the protections required by the Shorelines Management Act. We cannot create new shoreline and must protect what we have. Local regulations must be strengthened, permitting standards rigorously followed and enforcement efforts tightened. We all need to let our local governments know that these are serious priorities supported by a majority of Washington citizens.