Sammamish’s City Hall has taken a back seat to stepping up against the decimation of trees on the East Lake Sammamish Trail.  What was supposed to have been an 18’ wide paved trail with 3’ buffers on either side, is in fact, much wider in places, and it has been at the trees expense.  The staff and council have been widely complacent in using a heavy hand against the county on the first phase of the trail, and they need to stand up to King County.  The city does have some control in this matter, they need to reign in permits to King County on the second phase if they plan to make the trail wider than specified or eliminate spareable trees.

The county doesn’t want to move the trail toward the Parkway to spare trees since it claims the drainage ditches … are actually wetlands.  It’s preposterous that this mentality is justifying cutting down so many trees along the trail.

Personally, the trail is now too wide.  As an avid runner & user of the trail, I’m saddened that it’s being paved at all.  It takes away from the ambiance I experienced running under a canopy of trees.  In its current state of a road nearly the width of my own neighborhood street, I might as well be running in Seattle.  We’re really losing something special by paving over this beautiful trail & ripping out the trees because we are too weak to stand against the county.

Christie Malchow