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North Bend accepts King Conservation District grants for Tollgate and Rybary restoration
Summary
The council unanimously accepted two King Conservation District member-jurisdiction grants: $24,625 for Tollgate Farm forest restoration (invasives removal and planting ~2,300 natives) and $32,000 for Rybary Creek/South Fork Snoqualmie River habitat restoration.
The North Bend City Council voted unanimously on May 5 to accept two King Conservation District (KCD) member-jurisdiction grants to support riparian and forest habitat restoration projects.
City staff described the first award, AB26-042, as a $24,625 grant for restoration at Tollgate Farm: removal of invasive species such as Japanese knotweed, holly and ivy and planting approximately 2,300 native trees and shrubs along about 3,000 feet of both banks of the South Fork Snoqualmie River. Mike McCarty (city staff) said the work continues earlier cooperative watershed management efforts and will be administered through the city’s agreement with KCD.
The council then approved AB26-043, a separate $32,000 KCD grant to continue restoration upstream along Rybary Creek and the South Fork Snoqualmie River. McCarty said that area is heavily overgrown with blackberry thickets and that native plantings and invasive removal will improve habitat and stream shading. He noted prior matching commitments: a 2022 cooperative watershed management grant and $50,000 in tree-mitigation funds the city previously committed to the larger project.
Councilmember Susan Torgerson moved both measures; both motions passed unanimously. Council members praised staff and partners, including the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, and described the grants as no-cost, value-added projects for the city’s riparian corridors.
