Create 10 new waterfront parks and natural areas

The shorelines of Puget Sound anchor the entire Puget Sound ecosystem, as well as playing a vital role in our region's quality of life and economy.   The Alliance envisions a Sound that can be easily reached and enjoyed by people, with more parks and natural areas for generations of families to experience and appreciate.  By June 2009, the Alliance and our partners will work to establish 10 new shoreline parks or natural areas that provide increased opportunities for people to enjoy the shorelines and waters around the Sound, as well as protecting the plants, animals and natural communities that depend on the shorelines for survival.

Creating New Parks: Reports and Initiatives

The Puget Sound Shoreline Strategy report assesses the amount of public shoreline in Puget Sound and provides an overview of significant trends impacting the public enjoyment of this resource.  The report sets out TPL's conservation vision for the 12-county Puget Sound region and presents general conclusions about shoreline access around the region.
 
This new report, Protecting the Source, is part of an ongoing effort by the Trust for Public Land and the American Water Works Association to promote land conservation as a critical approach to drinking water protection.  Protecting the Source, authored by Caryn Ernst, explores scientific, economic, and public health rationales for using land conservation for drinking water protection and presents best practices for successful implementation locally.

As the nation's leading conservation group creating parks in and around cities, The Trust for Public Land launched its Parks for People initiative in the belief that every American child should enjoy convenient access to a nearby park or playground.  This new, fully footnoted white paper—The Health Benefits of Parks: How Parks Help Keep Americans and Their Communities Fit and Healthy—draws from the latest research to outline ways in which parks support and promote healthy lifestyles, particularly in cities, where eighty percent of Americans live, work...and play!

In 1997, Peter Harnik, now the director for TPL's Center for City Park Excllence, began collecting and publishing data on the nation's park systems. Initially he focused on park funding and acreage in the nation's largest cities. In this publication, Harnik has expanded data collection to 55 cities and expanded the measures of park excellence to include what he calls "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Park Systems."

Other places to learn more:

The Shared Strategy is a groundbreaking collaborative initiative by Puget Sound communities to protect and restore salmon runs.
http://www.sharedsalmonstrategy.org/
and

The WASHINGTON BIODIVERSITY PROJECT is an effort of the Washington Biodiversity Council to address one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time: How to conserve our state's native plants, animals, and ecosystems for current and future generations.
 
Published by the American Fisheries Society and the University of Washington Press, Saving Puget Sound is intended for a broad audience, including general readers interested in the future of the Puget Sound region, professionals working on related issues (e.g., land use, water rights, endangered species conservation, environmental law, tribal treaty rights, habitat restoration), and professors and students of environmental policy around the country, for whom the book will serve as an important case study.
 
And how to make your life a little greener
http://www.letsgreenthiscity.com/