Issaquah is a Tree City USA for the 19th year
April 17, 2012
The state Department of Natural Resources recognized Issaquah and 82 other Washington cities April 10 for efforts to protect and expand urban forests.
Issaquah is a 19-year Tree City USA. The honor from the Arbor Day Foundation is bestowed on cities dedicated to urban forestry. Washington celebrated Arbor Day on April 11.
The city is required to observe Arbor Day in order continue as a Tree City USA. Officials must also designate staff to care for trees, appoint a citizen tree board to advocate for community forestry, establish a tree ordinance and spend at least $2 per capita on tree care.
In Issaquah, the municipal Park Board handles tree-related issues.
The city Parks & Recreation Department is holding a community tree planting from 11 a.m. to noon April 21 at the Pickering Trail entrance, near 1730 10th Ave. N.W. Participants should check in from 9-11 a.m. at a community information booth near the trail entrance.
Organizers collected more than 150 trees for participants to plant.
City hosts community tree planting event for Arbor Day
April 10, 2012
Residents can join the city Parks & Recreation Department to plant trees and celebrate Arbor Day.
The parks department is holding a community tree-planting event April 21 along Issaquah Creek and the Pickering Trail. Organizers collected more than 150 trees for participants to plant.
Issaquah earns recognition as Tree City USA for 19th year
April 10, 2012
NEW — 3:45 p.m. April 10, 2012
The state Department of Natural Resources recognized Issaquah and 82 other Washington cities Tuesday for efforts to protect and expand urban forests.
Issaquah is a 19-year Tree City USA — the honor from the Arbor Day Foundation for cities dedicated to urban forestry.
Washington celebrates Arbor Day on April 11.
The city Parks & Recreation Department is holding a community tree planting event April 21 along Issaquah Creek and the Pickering Trail. Organizers collected more than 150 trees for participants to plant.
The city is required to observe Arbor Day in order continue as a Tree City USA. Officials must also designate staff to care for trees, appoint a citizen tree board to advocate for community forestry, establish a tree ordinance and spend at least $2 per capita on tree care.
In Issaquah, the municipal Park Board handles tree-related issues.
Signal comes online along Interstate 90 Undercrossing
January 24, 2012
Crews installed a traffic signal to facilitate access to the almost-completed Issaquah Medical Building.
The complex, 1301 Fourth Ave. N.W., is along the Interstate 90 Undercrossing. The building is due to open to the public next month.
Pedestrians using the Pickering Trail can use a button to activate the signal for safer crossings.
The undercrossing is a north-south road linking Northwest Gilman Boulevard to East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast. Officials opened the connector to traffic in late 2010.
$6.2 million pedestrian bridge opens after delays
July 5, 2011
Protesters carry signs to decry the cost of a pedestrian bridge across Interstate 90 the day the bridge opened, July 1. By Tim Pfarr
The pedestrian bridge at Interstate 90 and state Route 900 opened July 1, months after the expected completed date.
Delays related to the bridge pilings and inclement weather slowed construction on the $6.2 million project.
Contentious Interstate 90 pedestrian bridge to open Friday
June 30, 2011
NEW — 8 a.m. June 30, 2011
The pedestrian bridge at Interstate 90 and state Route 900 is due to open Friday, months after the expected completed date.
Delays related to the bridge pilings and inclement weather slowed construction on the $6.2 million project. The connector separates bicyclists and pedestrians from the busy roadway. The structure includes a 12-foot-wide pedestrian bridge across the westbound interstate on-ramp and a 10-foot-wide pedestrian crossing on the state Route 900 overpass.
The city contributed $354,000 to the connector. Federal and Sound Transit dollars covered the remainder.
The bridge is due to open by late Friday, after more than a decade of planning and sometimes-contentious discussions among city officials, transit advocates and trails enthusiasts.
Construction starts on Darst Park pedestrian path
June 14, 2011
Crews are scheduled to start building a pedestrian path through Emily Darst Park soon.
The city awarded a contract to Sammamish-based WB Contracting for the project, part of the mitigation for the Interstate 90 Undercrossing project. Plans called for crews to upgrade the park to replace wetlands destroyed during construction of the undercrossing and a pedestrian connector at the interstate and state Route 900.
The path should be completed by June 30. Planners issued a notice for the contractor to proceed May 19.
The park encompasses 12 acres on the east bank of Issaquah Creek, south of Pickering Barn and north of the interstate. The regional East Lake Sammamish Regional Trail follows the park’s eastern boundary and the Pickering Trail traverses the property.
Undercrossing opens to link north and south Issaquah
December 21, 2010
Crews completed the Interstate 90 Undercrossing last week and opened the north-south connector to traffic Dec. 16. By Greg Farrar
The link between north and south Issaquah opened to traffic Dec. 16, after years of planning and months of construction.
The long-planned Interstate 90 Undercrossing — Fourth Avenue Northwest — runs from a traffic signal at the post office along Northwest Gilman Boulevard, connects into the rail corridor behind Gilman Station, forms a T-shaped intersection at Southeast 62nd Street, continues along 221st Place Southeast and then terminates at Southeast 56th Street.
Crews experienced a last-minute delay last month, after the installation of bridge safety railings lasted longer than expected. The city planned to open the connector around Dec. 6, but the slowdown prompted planners to update the schedule.
The link supplements traffic-clogged Front Street North and state Route 900, the other connectors between north and south Issaquah. Both older crossings also provide access to the interstate, but the combination of local traffic and vehicles from the on- and off-ramps add to the gridlock.
Because part of the undercrossing is located within the King County East Lake Sammamish Trail Corridor, the link also serves as a multimodal facility.
Pickering Trail also crosses Fourth Avenue Northwest at a signalized crossing, and then connects to the East Lake Sammamish Trail.
Scouts add bat and birdhouses along trail
September 14, 2010
Bats and birds received places to roost along Pickering Trail as part of a summer Boy Scout project.
Scouts built four bat houses and six birdhouses along the trail near Issaquah Creek.
The bat houses — built by Lars Boettcher as he worked toward Eagle Scout status — house little brown bats, a common species in King County. Using donations and grant dollars, he built the bat houses to state Department of Fish and Wildlife standards for the species. Read more
Grants, volunteers help city maintain trails, open space
April 6, 2010
Invasive blackberry, holly, Japanese knotweed and Scotch broom proved to be no match for the hundreds of people who volunteered to maintain city-owned open space and trails last year.
Volunteers focused last year on maintenance in the open spaces and parks cleared in 2008. Teams cleared 12 to 15 acres of the invasive plants from the Park Hill Open Space in the Overdale Park neighborhood, Timberlake Park along Lake Sammamish and other sites in 2008, and kept the unwanted plants off the site in 2009.
Volunteers returned to the sites last year to plant native shrubs and trees where invasive plants used to grow, city Open Space Steward Matt Mechler said in a presentation to City Council members late last month. The work will continue in the months ahead, he added.
Mechler detailed efforts to preserve open space and maintain city trails in a March 23 report to the Committee-of-the-Whole Council. The city owns about 1,300 acres of open space.
“We worked on getting those invasives under control and then just maintaining them last year, with the hopes that once the invasives are under control then we’ll be doing some native planting at these sites,” Mechler said.
Besides invasive plant removal, the city worked with conservation groups last year to maintain the network of trails crisscrossing Issaquah.
Issaquah Alps Trails Club volunteers helped complete a quarter-mile section of the Talus Bridge Trail to connect the urban village with the Bear Ridge Trail on Cougar Mountain. Read more
