The Mountains to Sound Greenway is a 1.5 million-acre landscape situated in the Pacific Northwest. On March 12, 2019, it was designated a National Heritage Area, to be managed by the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, as part of the

John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act The John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019 is an omnibus lands act that protected public lands and modified management provisions. The bill designated more than of wilderness area, expanded several national par ...

. In 1998, it became the first

National Scenic Byway A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for one or more of six "intrinsic qualities": archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic. The program was established by Co ...

to be designated in Washington. Mountains to Sound Greenway, Washington, US

The corridor stretches along

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

between Seattle and Ellensburg, following several historic transportation routes and a network of bicycling and hiking trails. Its formal boundaries are along several watersheds: the Yakima to the east, the Cedar to the south, Snoqualmie and

Lake Washington Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, ...

to the north, and Puget Sound to the west. The Greenway was first envisioned in 1990, when a group of citizens hiked from the Cascade Crest alongside Interstate 90. In 1991, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust was founded to prevent the encroachment of urban sprawl on the natural areas near Snoqualmie Pass and to use them to connect Seattle and Central Washington. Its creation has been criticized for attracting public funds that could have been used on other ecological protection projects.

References

External links

Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust
official website for local coordinating entity
Guide to the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust Records 1993-2016
{{Coord, 47.41, -121.38, display=title Nature conservation in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Seattle Environmental organizations based in Washington (state) National Heritage Areas of the United States