We recently spoke to Bob Pemberton, Snohomish County Senior Planner & Project Manager for Horseman’s Trail, and he told us that the EIS process for Horseman’s Trail has begun. He is having biweekly meetings with Merle Ash of Land Technologies, the engineering/consulting firm hired by Horseman’s Trail LLC to get all the permits approved and oversee the proposed 116-home development.

Merle Ash made news recently when he filed his official responses to neighborhood concerns over a proposed housing project in south Everett.
On overcrowding: “Stop breeding and start a campaign of sterilization at birth.”
On climate change: “I thought the Russians had control of our weather.”
This is the man that the developer has hired to manage Horseman’s Trail!

Front-page article: http://www.heraldnet.net/article/20071103/NEWS01/711030057
Merle Ash’s recent comments: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20071103/NEWS01/711030058
Letters regarding Merle Ash’s dismissive comments:
http://www.heraldnet.net/article/20071107/OPINION02/711070010
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20071106/OPINION02/711060023

We will keep you posted on the progress of the EIS. It will be time very soon for us to begin our own environmental analyis with regards to the extent of grading, the steepness of slopes, the nature of soils, the conversion of forested lands to impervious surfaces and its impact to surface water drainage, the potential for erosion and sedimentation, and the capacity of the downstream drainage system.

Edmonds-Mukilteo Action Committee
www.emactioncommittee.org



Check out these recently published letters to the editor written by Horseman’s Trail neighbors!

Seattle Times
May 30, 2007: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003726447_snolets30e.html

Everett Herald
May 22, 2007: http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/05/22/100let_20070522006.cfm
May 28, 2007: http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/05/28/100let_20070528002.cfm

Mukilteo Beacon
May 30, 2007
Joan Smith: BrokenProcess
Patrick Ford: PatrickFord



Reforestation vs. Deforestation

Editor,
Seattle is spending more than $114 million to plant 649,000 trees over the next three decades, and the city of Boston is planting 100,000 trees, increasing its current tree population by 20 percent.
What is Snohomish County doing to preserve our urban forests? In the case of Horseman’s Trail, nothing.

The county is requiring a very limited Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a development that will clear cut 19 acres of old growth forest (trees that absorb the greenhouse gases which cause global warming), and ignoring neighboring wetlands, a salmon-bearing stream (Picnic Point Creek), traffic on our already overcrowded roads due to ambitious development in the area, etc.
The ONLY issue being addressed in the EIS is grading.
The county needs to hear from us in order to expand the scope of the EIS for Horseman’s Trail.

Please send your letters to Robert Pemberton.

Thank you.

Julie Meghji
Edmonds, WA