Pierce County’s Non-Significance

One of the hallmarks of the past eight years under County Executive Bruce Dammeier was the prolific use of the DNS, Determination of Non-Significance. It is a term used in land development after an environmental review form is filled out and a plan for development is submitted. In the past eight years, I cannot recall…

Spanaway Lake, now it’s the beavers

Over the past several years Spanaway Lake has been having issues. For us swimming as children, it was the “duck itch” caused by a parasite getting under our skin if we didn’t dry off well with a towel after swimming. Over time, the swimming beaches became less popular, the diving docks were removed, and the…

Aerial photos of the watershed in jeopardy

Spanaway Concerned Citizens got drone footage from the area where the Good Neighbor Village is being constructed under “Executive Privilege” in Pierce County. We all hope that there can be solutions for our unhoused citizens, but a wetland that is the watershed for Spanaway Lake is not popular with the community. To make it easier…

Puyallup Watershed Symposium, Dec 5

The Puyallup River Watershed Council is presenting the Puyallup Watershed Symposium on December 5, 2024, from 1:00 – 6:00 pm at the Pioneer Park Pavilion (330 S Meridian, Puyallup, WA 98317). The presenters’ abstracts can be accessed using the QR code on the poster or using this link. To register, you can do so by…

Sequalitchew Creek Moonwalk 2024 

On July 20, 2024, from 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM, the public is invited to walk the Sequalitchew Creek Trail in the moonlight. The date in July is chosen each year to coincide with the full moon. The Sequalitchew Creek Trail is a gentle slope. It used to have railroad tracks for the Dupont Company…

Lakewood, what have you wrought?

Don Anderson (Mayor/City Council), followed by Steve O’Ban (State Senator), both attorneys and officials from Lakewood, worked on County Executive Bruce Dammeier’s proposal to put a community of tiny homes in the watershed above Spanaway Lake. The city recently voted to contribute $1,000,000 to the effort. On the other side of the military base, lake…

Frigid weather is freezing the lake and creek

Clover Creek and Spanaway Lake resister the first day or so, but now that this weather has been dipping below 15 degrees F for several days, the north part of Spanaway Lake, known as the cove is starting to freeze. It is truly thin ice that no one can stand on, but it has frozen…

Can we save Clover Creek?

By Marianne Lincoln On January 4, a group of advocates and landowners along Clover Creek met at the Parkland Spanaway Library to talk about how to improve the creek and stop hurting it. Much work is yet to be done as far as setting up a solid organization to move forward, but the list produced…

House demolition, but no silt fence

By Marianne Lincoln Spanaway is watching. There is already a high level of concern about how the Tiny Home Village project was dropped on our community. There are lawyers being paid to defend the interests of people living on the lake self-taxing to improve water quality. Then this project comes along and threatens to make…

PSM-LUAC Nov. 15, 6:30pm, Sprinker !!

By Cindy Beckett This will be heard at the Parkland-Spanaway-Midland Advisory Commission public meeting date is November 15, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. at Sprinker Recreation Center. (Remember, you will hike a distance to get in from parking due to construction right now.)  The Land Use Advisory Commission will be reviewing the homeless village project now labeled…

Watershed local project grants available

PIERCE COUNTY — 3-24-23 Pierce County is partnering with watershed councils, local nonprofits and agencies to fund a small grants program supporting community projects that improve habitat and water quality across the county. The 2023 cycle will award more than $70,000 total to projects in four watersheds: Key Peninsula-Gig Harbor-Islands, Chambers-Clover Creek, Puyallup-White River, and…