Supporting Greider Lakes Trail Maintenance on State Lands

Big Greider Lake, Photo by Washington DNR

Washington Wild coordinated a letter signed by 30 local elected officials and recreation and conservation organizations to support a grant application submitted by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to the Recreation Conservation Office to improve popular locations within Morning Star NRCA.  The letter was signed by 18 elected officials representing Snohomish County including the mayors of Everett, Monroe, Darrington, Gold Bar, Mountlake Terrace and State legislators from the 1st and 3rd legislative districts and Snohomish County Council Member Megan Dunn. 

This grant will be used to renovate 2.5 miles of the Greider Lakes Trail, 14 campsites at the Big and Little Greider Lakes camping areas, and the Reflection Ponds Day Use Area. The overall goals of the project are to improve resource protection associated with public use, improve user experience, and ensure a safe, sustainable recreation experience for users.

Morning Star NRCA located in the North Cascades Upper Sultan Basin in Snohomish County is one of the important wilderness spaces that DNR manages and protects. 

Spanning almost 38,000 acres, this area protects a connected ecosystem of old growth forests, subalpine meadows, wetlands, and lakes. This ecologically significant space provides important habitat for sensitive species such as the marbled murrelets, northern spotted owls, state-sensitive plant species, and more. This watershed also provides clean and safe drinking water for the City of Everett and more than 670,000 residents of south Snohomish County. Morning Star NRCA is also home to many popular hiking trails and places such as Gothic Basin, Vesper Peak, Gredier Lakes, and more.