Three Years In: How the Kittitas Stewardship Fund Is Creating Local Change
The Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area extends from Seattle to Ellensburg, including both King and Kittitas Counties. Residents of both areas frequently cross Snoqualmie Pass to work, play, and visit the other end of this landscape. Kittitas County receives more than 10 million “participant days” (24 hour periods) every year according to a 2024 study released by the WA Recreation and Conservation Office. These visits are connected solely to outdoor recreation on the county’s public and private lands and contribute more than $216 million to the state’s economy every year.
Despite the money generated through the sale of passes, guide services, hotel stays, gas, equipment, and other tourism activities, comparatively little goes directly to sustaining or restoring the natural resources that draw so many people to the area. Visitors lack ways to contribute to wear and tear on local roads, the cost of emergency response programs, or local sanitation – these costs are usually covered by local county and municipal taxpayers. Compared to hundreds of thousands of annual visitors, Kittitas’ population of 44,000 is disproportionately small.
A New Solution for Unprecedented Times
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust partnered with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to consider how to address this resource gap. Recreation was at an all-time peak as outside activities became a popular respite from quarantine for so many, including out-of-area visitors who made their way to Kittitas County. Residents recognized that while extra visitors were a boon to businesses during a tough time, this major uptick in recreation also caused impacts beyond what local land managers were prepared to address. The Greenway Trust and TNC looked to other “gateway communities” across the country for potential solutions and best practices, and then considered how to offer Kittitas County visitors a voluntary way to help support the public lands they are visiting.
Local community members joined us for these conversations, and soon we began calling our effort the Kittitas Stewardship Fund (KSF). We polled the municipalities, community members, and land management agencies to determine their interest, published a full report, and proposed a new program: 1% For Public Lands. Participating businesses raise funds for the program by collecting a voluntary 1% donation on the gross sales of their goods and services. These business partners then send the collected donations to the KSF’s fiscal sponsor, Discover Your Northwest, which distributes the money to local projects and programs via an annual grant application process.
Granting Support for Local Initiatives
By 2023, we’d worked with a handful of anchor businesses and private donors to collect seed funding. That fall, we launched the first call for grant applications, seeking projects that directly benefitted Kittitas County’s public lands through restoration, education, recreation, or planning efforts. KSF was overwhelmed by responses from the local community and awarded all $21,800 of their initial collected funds to five projects. The need only grew in 2024, when we were able to support six new projects with a total of $27,000!
At the end of 2025, the KSF committee officially wrapped up our third grant cycle! We selected seven new projects that will receive a total of $30,700. You can learn all about them (and revisit projects from 2023 and 2024) on our website: kittitasstewardshipfund.org.
Three Years of Impact; Needed More Than Ever
Over the past three years, the KSF has provided nearly $80,000 in support for hyperlocal projects that keep Kittitas County’s public lands accessible, safe, and resilient. This impact comes at a critical moment. While recreation use continues to grow, funding and staffing for outdoor management are shrinking.
Against that backdrop, it’s deeply encouraging that KSF has raised all of this support with just four long-term business partners so far. We extend our warmest thanks to Basecamp Outfitters/Books and Bites, Dru Bru, The Botany Shop, and Mountain & River Residential Inspections LLC, as well as to individuals who have donated directly through our website. We’re also excited to welcome Crow Creek Fly Shop & Guide Services to the KSF community and hope to add a few more local business champions in 2026. We encourage visitors looking for a great meal, a warm drink, a unique gift, or a guided experience to support these businesses and, in turn, KSF’s important work.
Help the Kittitas Stewardship Fund Grow!
While the Greenway Trust will continue advocating for increased funding and staffing for our land management partners, our mission also calls us to take meaningful action at the local level. As visitation increases, so does the need for stewardship, and the KSF exists because our community believes these places are worth protecting.
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished in KSF’s first three years, but this is just the beginning. Imagine the impact if even more people and businesses stepped up to support the program’s future. If you know a local business that cares about the outdoors and protecting nature, please share KSF with them and encourage them to get involved.
It means so much to know that the recreating public understands the importance of protecting the places that make Kittitas County such a special place to live and play. As chair of the KSF Steering Committee, and on behalf of the small-but-mighty groups working to keep it that way, the Greenway Trust extends our sincere thanks and appreciation.
