Office of Rural and Resource Programs
Section Services
The Water and Land Resources Division is committed to retaining viable rural communities and working resource areas( agriculture and forest) in King County. The Office of Rural and Resource Programs reflects the commitment toward achieving this goal. Combining the efforts of agricultural, forestry, noxious weed control and natural resource land management programs, and property tax incentives into a consolidated organizational unit helps the programs coordinate efforts and provides "one-stop shopping" for rural and resource communities.
Farming, forest management and strengthening rural communities is not only mandated by the state Growth Management Act and the King County Comprehensive Plan, it also directly benefits our surface water management system. The agriculture and forestry programs described throughout this and other chapters in this document, are a combination of incentives, cost sharing, technical assistance and stewardship activities for farm and forest land owners.
The management of working resource and valuable ecological lands demonstrates:
- Agricultural land use regulations
- Farm Link
- Farmland Preservation Program
- Identification of farmlands on which development rights have been purchased
- Monitoring of preserved farmlands
- Restrictions on preserved farmlands
- Incentive Programs
- Livestock
- Best Management Practices (BMP) cost share program
- Educational opportunities
- Manure management programs
- Marketing and promotion of agriculture products -
Puget Sound Fresh
- Resources for raising livestock
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- Develops stewardship plans for natural habitat and trail restoration events
- Manages King County ecological and working resource lands
- Provides direction to the Parks Division on maintenance of sites
- Provides natural resource education
- Educational presentation
- Information on weed identification, biology and control techniques
- Noxious weed control and prevention
- State and County noxious weed lists
- State Weed Law information
- Volunteer weed pulls
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- Financial alternatives to developing rural farms, forests, and open space
- Forestry education
- Forest management/stewardship plans
- Rural forest retention incentives
- Rural forestry support & incentive programs
- Technical assistance to property owners (harvest, stand improvement, tree planting)
- Urban forestry program
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- Open space and timber land conservation
- Property tax reduction in exchange for resource protection
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