Katie Spires

Envir 100
Service Learning Paper Final
Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust
I am working with the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust as an environmental
restoration volunteer. Every weekend I participate in volunteer events to remove invasive
species, plant trees and shrubs, or maintain trail networks.
The Greenway works to preserve over 1.5 million acres along interstate 90, from Seattle
to Central Washington (map below). Over 900,000 of those acres are public land.

(Mountains to Sound, 2015)

The Greenway is a coalition of many different organizations and companies that share a similar
vision: preserving and enhancing natural spaces along I-90. All too often, as cities grow, they
start to sprawl outward and wildlands are hurt and diminished. Mountains to Sound works to
avoid the sprawl as Seattle grows and to protect the natural beauty of the area. By working with
all sorts of organizations and companies, from timber companies to governments, they can
approach this problem from many viewpoints and work to solve it holistically. Part of their work
to preserve natural spaces includes restoration projects in both urban and wilderness areas.

Additionally, they have education curriculums for elementary and middle school ages, and work
to preserve the beauty of the area through legislation as well. Their most recent project is a
campaign for congress to designate the greenway as a National Heritage Area.
Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust is a product and encourager of modern
environmentalism. Their biggest focus is on restoring natural ecosystems while balancing
wilderness and human-built spaces. The rise of ecology in todays environmentalism was
encouraged by figures like the Odum Brothers and Rachel Carson. Rachel Carsons famous
book, Silent Spring, illustrated how organisms are connected to and affect each other in intricate
ways in an ecosystem. Additionally, Howard and Eugene Odums research (Fundamentals of
Ecology, 1953) demonstrated the importance of homeostasis and ecology in an environment.
This understanding of complex connections and interconnectedness in a living area led to the
modern concept of ecology, which is now a big part of todays environmental movements,
including the Mountains to Sound Greenway. They are concerned with restoring and maintaining
ecosystems in the areas around Seattle; their public volunteer events are dedicated to this
purpose. For example, some volunteer
activities include invasive species removal
and tree planting. Specifically, the
Greenway focuses on removing species
like Himalayan blackberries because they
can form tall, dense fields that choke
forest ecosystems (example field on the
right). Only the tallest trees can survive
and even then the blackberries climb up
their trunks and tangle in the branches.

Himalayan Blackberries in Redmond, WA. Katie Spires, 2016

Removing them and replanting the area with native species allows the ecosystem to be returned
to homeostasis, and start to thrive. This shows how the Greenway uses knowledge of forest
ecology to inform restoration efforts.
Removing invasive species and planting local flora is also an important way to combat
biodiversity loss. Biodiversity is essentially diversity of life, between species and within them.
As we learned in class, invasive species are a direct threat to biodiversity because they have no

natural predators or limiting factors, meaning they can essentially take over an area and rob it of
native species that are unable to compete. By removing these invasive species, like Himalayan
blackberries or Scotch broom, and replanting the area with native plants, The Mountains to
Sound and its volunteers are helping to preserve the biodiversity of Northwest. Additionally,
avoiding urban sprawl is another goal of the organization. Urban sprawl leads to habitat loss,
which is another threat to biodiversity, so the Mountains to Sound also works to conserve habitat
areas along the greenway. Furthermore, the strategies this organization uses to combat
biodiversity loss in the Northwest correspond to Ehrlich and Pringles proposed solutions. Their
work falls under a whopping four different solutions: ecologically reclaimed and restored
habitats (conserving and maintaining wilderness), onto the cultural radar screen (education and
outreach), into the fabric of local communities (National Heritage Area designation and a locally
based organization), and human-modified landscapes (working to restore urban/suburban
greenspaces). As we can see, biodiversity is a big deal to the Greenway.
The Greenway is also a good example of environmental governance, specifically a marketbased approach. Mountains to Sound is a land trust, servicing over 1.5 million acres. As a land
trust run by a nonprofit organization, this falls under privatization. However, by attempting to
create a National Heritage Area, they are moving into a blend with a centralized government
approach. Becoming a National Heritage Area means that stewardship will be still be controlled
by the local community, but aided by the government and the National Park Service (although
minimally) and nationally recognized as a historical, naturally, and culturally important area.
The Greenways work also relates directly to climate change and the biogeochemical
processes discussed in class. Restoring forests and wetlands allow the local flora to help remove
carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and eventually return it to the soil, where it
will not contribute to the greenhouse effect. Over time, allowing forests to remove atmospheric
carbon will help curb global temperature rising by reducing the greenhouse effect. Though the
Greenway influences a relatively small amount of land, they are leading by example and
encouraging other communities to do the same, which can make a big difference.
Another small connection to class is the relationship the Greenway has with population and
urbanization. Seattle is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, and the Greenway was
created to avoid the sprawl that often results from rapid urbanization. In other parts of the

country, urban areas often spread outward and can overtake a lot of habitat and natural areas. The
Greenway coalition was created to avoid this and preserve the beauty, recreational value, and
ecosystems of the area for future generations. The Greenway seeks to bring more natural spaces
to urbanized areas, and they do this by restoring ecosystems in greenspaces like parks.
The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust is a very important environmental organization in
Washington state. Though they identify their primary focus as avoiding urban sprawl and
conserving and maintaining natural spaces, they do so much more as they work to solve this
problem. They combat biodiversity loss using many different approaches, work to conserve
wilderness on a federal and local scale, restore areas that can remove carbon from the
atmosphere, educate and inspire the next generation, and restore balanced, native ecosystems in
both urban areas and wilderness. This multi-faceted, primarily local approach to environmental
issues is so powerful and important to holistically solve these issues. I am incredibly grateful to
have this kind of organization in my area and to have learned so much about them. I have
enjoyed my time volunteering for the Mountains to Sound, and will definitely continue to assist
them in the future.