Welcome to Wetlandia

No, this is not an episode of Portlandia. But it should be!

Many years ago a general large wetlands overlay* was somewhat haphazardly placed over the region, including Lake Washington. This had no bearing on Hidden Beach until the proposal to improve the street end started gaining steam. Now Hidden Beach has to be cleared of its spurious wetland status.

SDCI has an on-site visit schedule with the Army Corps of Engineers to make a wetlands determination. Multiple knowledgeable sources have determined it’s not a wetland. We even spent some of your generous donated funds to commission a wetland Letter of Determination from Wetlands Northwest LLC owner, Robert King.

Robert was previously an environmental scientist with King County, a volunteer forest steward along the Burke Gilman Trail, and is a member of the Society of Wetlands Scientists. He’s whip smart on Wetlands!

Below is the abbreviated Letter of Determination (spoiler: Hidden Beach is not a wetland). You can download the full report here.

*a wetlands expert read this post and wrote to add more detail:
the overlay was a “State Department of Ecology macro level determination that is not based on the current criteria for wetland classifications (boots on the ground or hip waders in the water from certified specialists are necessary in most cases).”