Lisa Parsons Named as One of Three Finalists for Seattle’s Cox Conserves Heroes Program, Public Asked to Vote
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Check out the Kiro TV interview with Lisa
Lisa Parsons, a south King County community member has been nominated for the Cox Conserves Heroes Award for her work on advocacy, conservation, and stewardship of open space and parks in the middle Green-Duwamish Watershed.
Program to donate $20,000 to environmental nonprofits in Seattle
Seattle (Sept. 1, 2017) — KIRO 7, in partnership with The Trust for Public Land, is recognizing volunteers who are creating, preserving or enhancing shared outdoor spaces. Finalists for Seattle’s Cox Conserves Heroes program were announced today, and the public is being asked to vote for the winner now through Oct. 2. To vote, visit KIRO7.com or go to CoxConservesHeroes.com and select the Seattle area. A total of $20,000 will be donated to local environmental nonprofits on behalf of the three finalists.
Finalists have already secured a $5,000 donation for their environmental nonprofits of choice and are now competing for an additional $5,000 – bringing the total award to $10,000 for the winner’s nonprofit of choice.
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This year I was nominated for the Cox Conserves Heroes Award for my conservation work on Cedar Creek Park and the Green River Gorge Greenway located in southeast King County in the Green-Duwamish watershed. It has been an amazing experience to be part of creating something that will, hopefully, last for generations.
Cedar Creek Park holds a special place in my heart. A 128 acre forest of towering cedars, western hemlock, and Douglas fir is home to wildlife and helps protect Cedar Creek and Jenkins Creek that flow through this park between Covington and Maple Valley. This near old growth forest is almost unheard of in southeast King County. Our children will have the opportunity to go through this forest oasis and see what forests in western Washington used to look like. The park provides a place for people to recreate, escape the pressures of urban living, and teaches us about our natural world.
Lisa Parsons (bottom left) working with King County Parks and a group of students on the trails in Cedar Creek park
The Green River Gorge Greenway is one of the most wild areas remaining near over 2 million people in King and Pierce counties. Last summer I hiked the entire 12 mile long Gorge to photo and video document this wild, rugged river carved wilderness to promote the concept of an east / west corridor of open wild space that connects the cascade foothills to the Puget Sound lowlands. It is part of a larger documentary about the Green River Gorge Greenway. I want to advocate for conserving this important landscape for recreation, wildlife, and salmon. It is a living museum of geology, hydrology, and the natural rhythms of nature. Its a place where you can escape the confines of our human landscape and touch the edges of wildness.
Lisa and her dog, Koshka, hiking in the Green River Gorge
When I was nominated for the Cox Conserves Heroes Award I learned that KIRO 7, in partnership with The Trust for Public Land, will donate $5000 to a non profit of my choosing. Also if I win the online vote the nonprofit will receive another $5000.
It really made me think about what is important. How can $5000 (or $10,000) grow into something more than just a dollar amount? As I grow older and look to the future I want to leave a path for others to follow their passion for advocacy, conservation, and community through stewardship and the arts. A natural fit is Nature Consortium. I’ve watched with much interest over the past few years as this nonprofit connects people, arts, and nature. http://www.naturec.org/about-us/
So with the funding that has been made available through this award I’m working with the Nature Consortium to develop photography in nature workshops along the Green-Duwamish watershed to bring rural and city kids in our watershed from Enumclaw to Seattle together to learn about and document their watershed as a way to promote Nature Consortium’s core mission of connecting people, arts, and nature. This workshop three fold. One is to teach kids how to be advocates for community issues, two is to learn how to use a very common tool, the camera or smart phone, to be creative for good, and three is create understanding between two very different worlds the city and the country.
Join me in supporting Nature Consortium and the work that has been accomplished in Cedar Creek Park and the Green River Gorge by inspiring the next generation to follow a path that leads upstream and down to create a community connected by a river and a watershed.
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