Take Action — Conservation Northwest

Stop the Cross-Base Highway before it destroys our best oak and prairie habitat

Ask the Puget Sound Regional Council to remove the highway from their list of preferred projects

The Council is hearing loud and strong that the Cross-Base Highway is unwanted. Thank you for taking action! A final vote of the executive committee is expected later this winter, so keep those comments coming.

The Puget Sound Regional Council is nearing completion of plans for "Transportation 2040," a long-range plan for the Puget Sound area that aims to "identify the best ways to get people where they need to go while making our communities, environment and economy stronger as the region grows." But instead of looking forward, this new plan reaches into the dark past and attempts to revive a highway construction project rejected by voters in 2007.

The Cross-Base Highway is a destructive, expensive, and unnecessary new freeway through some of the best remaining oak woodland prairie habitat in the Puget Sound. It was a bad idea in 2007 and remains a bad idea today.

The Council needs to hear from you! Please send a letter for prairie wildlife below.Let them know that the Cross-Base Highway does not belong in our region's plans for responsible transportation. Its construction would likely increase, not minimize, greenhouse gas emissions. Urge the Council to remove the Cross-Base Highway from their preferred alternative project list. Your letter will be sent to the Council at transportation2040@psrc.org. Thank you!

March 16, 2010

Subject:

Dear Puget Sound Regional Council members,

As someone who cares deeply about the future of transportation and landscape in our region, particularly in light of climate change, I am writing to urge you to remove the Cross-Base Highway from your preferred alternative project list. The Cross-Base Highway has no place in our region's plans for responsible transportation. Its construction would likely increase, not minimize, greenhouse gas emissions.

There are several important reasons to remove the Cross-Base Highway project:
 
* We should fix existing roads and invest in new modes of transportation before building any new highways.
 
* Construction of the Cross-Base highway would harm prime habitat for 19 plants and animals facing extinction, including streaked horned lark, water howellia, Mazama pocket gopher, and Taylor's checkerspot butterfly.

* Only 3% of our state's oak woodland prairies remain, and the Cross-Base Highway would flatten 162 acres and fragment 1,600 acres of habitat that Pierce county considers "the most biologically and ecologically rich areas remaining in the lower elevations of Pierce County."

* People don't want it! In a 2003 public poll on regional transportation planning and projects contracted by the Regional Transportation Investment District, the Cross-Base Highway ranked last of all proposed Pierce County projects. Only 10% of those polled stated it was a project of importance to the region.

* It conflicts with new Washington Department of Transportation policies to analyze and reduce our transportation system's contributions to climate change and to protect and restore biodiversity.

As a council, you are deciding on the future of transportation for our region. Thank you for looking ahead to promote cost-effective and sustainable transportation options and protect rare wildlife and habitat in the Puget Sound region.

Sincerely,

We will add your signature from the information you provide.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email*

Street*

Street 2

City*

State/Province*

Zip/Postal Code*

Send an Email

Sections

Personal tools

Stop the Cross-Base Highway before it destroys our best oak and prairie habitat

Conservation Northwest

Personal tools