Cougar Mountain Acquisition Update!

Written by David Kappler and Kelly Jiang

Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park is growing! King County recently acquired 50 acres of land in Bellevue and Issaquah to expand the park. The new acquisitions include one 20-acre parcel below the “Million Dollar View” (the westernmost parcel highlighted in dark green below), as well as six 5-acre parcels near the Talus neighborhood in Issaquah. IATC has been advocating for conservation of these parcels for many years - in some cases, decades - and is thrilled that they are now officially in public ownership.

These new acquisitions were made possible by the recently expanded of King County’s Conservation Futures Tax, which voters approved in 2022. The expanded Conservation Futures Tax gives unprecedented funding to land acquisitions for parks in King County. IATC is excited to see that money being put to good use acquiring more public land in the Issaquah Alps.

IATC thanks our partners at King County Parks for their tireless work on this over the years. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with King County and our other partners to conserve more land across the Issaquah Alps.

If you are interested in getting involved with IATC’s advocacy efforts, please don’t hesitate to reach out to advocacy@issaquahalps.org.