Near the end of the long list of items on our King County ballots comes a very important one: Charter Amendment No. 4.

This amendment will further protect valuable conservation and outdoor recreation properties owned or managed by King County, by requiring future leaders to think carefully before selling them.

Voters in this region have repeatedly chosen to protect public lands in a series of measures including Forward Thrust in 1968, the Farmland Preservation Initiative in 1979 and the Open Space Bond Issue in 1989. Local jurisdictions and citizen groups have worked for decades to protect salmon habitat.

Since 1991, the public has invested over $200 million to acquire lands to create the Mountains to Sound Greenway. The Greenway now includes hundreds of trails for outdoor recreation, parks and campgrounds, spectacular alpine scenery, critical high country wildlife habitat, historic towns, lakes, rivers and over 350,000 acres of publicly-owned lands in King County alone. These lands provide clean water, clean air, outdoor recreation and great economic benefit to this region.

As a tribute to its beauty, the stretch of Interstate 90 within the Greenway has been designated a National Scenic Byway.

King County owns thousands of acres of park lands including Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, just minutes from downtown Issaquah, with its hiking trails, rocky talus slopes, mine shafts and concrete foundations from 19th century coal mining.

County natural areas such as Taylor Mountain Forest, Cougar/Squak Corridor and Log Cabin Reach just south of Issaquah preserve high quality of stream habitat for spawning salmon and other wildlife. Three Forks Natural Area is a great place to picnic and enjoy the confluence of the three forks of the Snoqualmie River. The Middle Fork Snoqualmie Natural Area boasts world-class kayaking, and bike trails connect through Grand Ridge Park to the Mitchell Hill Connector Forest.

These treasured places are essential to the quality of life we enjoy in the Northwest.

At the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, we know from experience that having land in public ownership is not always sufficient to ensure it remains so. Balancing population growth and conservation might mean making choices between competing land uses.

Future elected officials could decide to change a park or a natural area into something else, or propose that a site be sold to create short-term revenue.

Our parks and natural areas are essential, and they should not be eliminated without a great deal of thought.

This amendment will afford extra protection to a specified group of ecologically-valuable parks, forests, and natural areas totaling 156,000 acres. When passed, the amendment will require a supermajority vote (7 of 9) of the King County Council Members, a public hearing and a 28-day waiting period to sell or transfer any of these lands.

Additionally there will need to be certain “findings” about the property under consideration such as a degraded conservation value, maintaining the property in public ownership has become impractical, or open-space values would be better served by substituting another property.

Because King County already owns or holds a conservation easement on the lands affected, this amendment does not entail any land purchases. There are no direct costs associated with its passage.

This amendment will safeguard open-space lands that are essential for outdoor recreation and a sustainable ecosystem. We thank the King County Council for bringing this issue to voters. The continued conservation of public open space is core to the mission of the Greenway Trust.

To that end the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust endorses the King County Open Space Amendment.

Cynthia Welti is the Executive Director of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, which leads action to conserve and enhance the landscape from Seattle across the Cascade Mountains to Central Washington. For more information visit mtsgreenway.org.