Agreement reached to preserve heron habitat in Redmond
March 4, 2004
Associated
Press
King 5 News
Herons form pair-bonds, usually in March and April. Although great
blue herons occasionally nest singly, most breed in localized colonies
of up to hundreds of nesting pairs.
REDMOND, Wash. - An agreement has been reached to preserve the habitat
of several dozen herons hear the center of Redmond. Safeco Insurance
has agreed to donate 4.6 acres to the municipality. The land next
to the Workshop Tavern on Leary Way Northeast is valued at nearly
a $1 million.
In exchange for donating the land, Safeco is being released from
an obligation to spend $200,000 on a traffic signal.
At one time developers planned to build an office complex on the
land, but that idea stalled after a King County employee spotted a
heron nest on the land in the mid-1990s.