1936 marked a hallmark period of land surveys in King County, including the use for the first time of aerial photography. The county's online iMap tool allows us to see properties and ownership as they were then (in 1936) and now (in 2015) and several years in between. Following our recent visit to some of the restoration sites along the Green River where we planted trees a few years ago, I thought it would be interesting to see these same properties as they were then and contrast them with now.
Following is an aerial view of the Auburn Narrows near the Hwy 18 bridge crossing as it was in 1936.
As we can see, most of the area along the south side of the Green River and north up Soos Creek were managed as farmland. The soil here was rich in nutrients from past floods and flat land, making it ideal for agriculture. Flooding, however, was both a blessing and a curse and pressures built to protect this land from floods, typically through dredging and embankment reinforcement. Trees were logged off along shorelines resulting in increased water temperatures and increased runoff.
Today, the philosophy of land management along watersheds like the Green River have flipped 180 degrees.
Lands along the river have been acquired by King County and the state and trees replanted - reducing personal property damage caused by flooding and increasing salmon spawning and salmon rearing habitat. Pollutant runoff has declined which is particularly important given the area's proximity to growing urban areas. The risk of downstream flooding has also declined as have the ongoing costs of maintenance - this latter issue being particularly important in these times of stretched budgets. Sometimes, simple answers to complex problems can be the best thing going.