The Conservation Legacy of the Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center 

The Puget Sound region is full of protected forests that are close to urban areas like Seattle. But how do lands become protected forests, especially when the prices of these lands are usually unattainably high for our state land management agencies?  

The answer can be found in a newly protected patch of forest in the Snoqualmie Valley where a collaborative form of conservation has helped wildlife and people. With a new conservation easement in place, The Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center and the forest around it has become part of a legacy of conservation within the Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area, where nearly 60 percent of its 1.5 million acres are in public ownership—a miracle in land conservation.  
  

That’s because of several agencies, organizations, and advocates working collaboratively over decades to protect lands through public ownership and stewardship along the I-90 corridor. In the mid-1800s, Congress initially granted alternating sections of land to the railroads as a means of helping fund their construction and encourage homesteading and development. This legacy created a fragmented pattern of forest ownership throughout the landscape that made it hard for government agencies and private landowners alike to manage. It also made it harder for wildlife to move between developed lands and forests.   

What has helped stitch forests back together is land swaps, private sales, and public land acquisition in the I-90 corridor around Snoqualmie Pass, helping connect habitats across the Greenway NHA.  What has helped stitch forests back together is land swaps, private sales, and public land acquisition in the I-90 corridor around the Snoqualmie Pass, helping connect habitats across the Greenway NHA. Washington State Conservation Director for the Trust for Public Land Laurie Benson says our region would be less green without collaboration in conservation.     

“When you leave Seattle, and you drive down I-90 east, what you see is trees and green space. None of that would exist without the Greenway and the folks involved with the Greenway thinking so strategically about the maps and the open space decades ago,” Laurie says.  

In 2024, a green patch in North Bend was added to the blanket of conserved land within the Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area via a conservation easement that protects the historic Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center, one of the longest-running outdoor education facilities in the country.  The conservation easement will preserve the Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center and 345 acres of surrounding forest. The agreement protects the area from development in perpetuity and provides over $7 million to maintain the outdoor education center, fund scholarships, and expand public access to scenic trails. 

“The superintendent [of the Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center] had the foresight to buy all of the forestland that surrounds the main campus of the camp in addition to the main campus. Between that and land that has been donated to Waskowitz since then, we are just continuing the original idea of the land being conserved in perpetuity,” says Laurie. 

If it wasn’t for the conservation easement, 345 acres of forest that contain both wildlife and trails could have been developed. Instead, it is a conserved forest that exists near the South Fork Snoqualmie River with access from the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. The secret behind this example of land conservation is a recipe for collaboration that was created to make sure privately held lands can be turned into public forested oases, even as the price for land goes up.   

“First you have to come up with the idea. You have to make sure that it’s land that has conservation value and that it’s the right spot to conserve,” Laurie says. 

Not all land can be conserved since you need an organization or agency to manage the land, a landowner who is ready to sell their land or put a conservation easement over it, and funding. Bonus points if the forest can increase recreational access while providing outdoor education. In the case of the Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center, it had all these things to offer with over 300 forested acres and several miles of trails that bring students and outdoor enthusiasts from more urban areas to the Snoqualmie Valley.  

After the idea comes discussions that lead to a legal agreement between the landowner and the entity that holds the conservation easement. These agreements are tailored to meet the needs of both the long-term landowner, the funding agency, and the agency or land trust that will hold the conservation easement. For example, King County, Highline Public Schools, and the Trust for Public Land were able to agree to protect the area from development in such a way that there was little to no impact to the educational programming run on the trails and in the forest, as well as making funds available for the maintenance of the center and scholarships and expanding public access to its scenic trails. 

“The next big step was to get the funding in hand…what really made it so that we could work on the project began with the joint fundraising effort between the Trust for Public Land and the Mountains to Sound Greenway in the form of the Jim Ellis Fund for Land Conservation. The fund was created as an on-hand pool of resources that ensure that the Trust for Public Lands and the Greenway Trust can secure the highest-priority places across the Greenway into public ownership. This money is basically kind of like a funding pot which allows the Trust for Public Land to do what we do, which is fund our staff time, fund the appraisals and take on the risk of trying to pursue the transaction,” Laurie says. 
  
In exchange for the easement, the education center will receive millions in county funds to maintain the buildings that were originally built as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in 1935, fund scholarships, and expand public access to miles of scenic trails.  
  

“One of the really cool things about this property and the Waskowitz program is that it’s intended for kids to be immersed in nature and the forest. For a lot of these kids, it’s the first time they’ve ever had this experience, and it can be really life changing,” Laurie says.  

The result of protecting this space is a vast, thriving forest—and a legacy that will shelter wildlife, inspire explorers, and nurture curious minds, forever.  

  Learn more about how to donate to the Jim Ellis Fund for Land Conservation to continue this legacy of preservation.