GRANITE FALLS — U.S. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jewel Bronaugh paid a visit last week to Washington to announce a half-billion-dollar investment — including some for Snohomish County — through the Great American Outdoors Act.
She gave a prepared statement near the trailheads for Denny Creek and Franklin Falls, along the I-90 corridor. The Mountains to Sound Greenway project received more than $14 million last year, and another $7.1 million this year, to upgrade failing infrastructure.
“Projects like the one here on the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest have incredible impacts on how visitors experience their national forests and grasslands,” Bronaugh said. “The Great American Outdoors Act and President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are betting on America — our special places, our communities and our people.”
In a statement, U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore lauded the funding, saying there has already been a “tremendous impact.”
Snohomish County is getting a chunk of change this year, too. It’ll get over $1.8 million in 2022 through the act’s Legacy Restoration Fund for road and trail projects along Mountain Loop Highway, including:
• Expanding the trailhead for Heather Lake.
• Replacing a bridge on the Milk Creek trail, restoring access to the Pacific Crest Trail.
• Rehabilitating trails in the Downey Creek fire area.
Another $724,000 was approved in 2021 to “enhance and repair recreation infrastructure” on the Mountain Loop Scenic Byway. That was meant for replacing the failed bridge and elevated boardwalk at Big Four Ice Caves; decommissioning defunct outhouses in the South Fork Stillaguamish and Sauk River corridors; and replacing vault toilets at the Big Four and Bald Eagle trailheads.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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