The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office announced the award of nearly $190 million in grants to communities statewide to improve outdoor recreation and conserve important wildlife habitat for Washingtonians and the native plants and animals.
Thurston County was awarded $9,977,147 in grants.
The grants were awarded to a variety of organizations to renovate parks, build trails and create new places for people to recreate outdoors. They also made investments in conserving lands that are homes to plants and animals at risk of extinction and that preserve Washington’s agricultural and forestry legacy, including farms and forests.
Thurston County will use the grants to help conserve the Hudson Cove habitat, improve rifle and pistol range safety and develop multiple parks, among other projects.
The City of Yelm will use the grant to extend the Yelm Prairie Line Trail across the Nisqually River bridge and into Pierce County. This trail will connect the communities of Yelm, Rainier and Tenino and supply recreational and transportation options.
“We’ve seen such wonderful projects from grant applicants,” said Ted Willhite, chair of the Recreation and Conservation Funding Board, which awarded most of the grants. “Knowing that we could only fund some of them shows that there is a great need for continued investment in Washington’s outdoors.”
