Executive Braddock announces winners of the 2025 Green Globe Awards, King County’s highest honor for environmental stewardship

A new category for public service honored a recently retired King County Parks employee who helped protect thousands of acres open space for habitat, recreation, and gathering, including a transformative new urban forest park in North Highline.

“In a region defined by its natural beauty, we’re fortunate to have dedicated environmental stewards at trusted nonprofits, small businesses, and local governments producing measurable results for people, fish, and wildlife,” said Executive Braddock. “This year’s Green Globe Award winners are helping us create a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable future for all.”

The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks hosted a ceremony for the award winners on June 26 at the Bethaday Community Learning Space in White Center.

Here are this year’s recipients:

Environmental Catalyst

Lynda Mapes, Seattle Times environmental reporter and author

The top honor went to longtime Seattle Times environmental reporter and award-winning author Lynda Mapes.

Mapes has reported on the conditions of Puget Sound since mid-1990s, joining King County employees in the field to show how they are removing barriers to historic salmon habitat, restoring habitat throughout the watershed to benefit people, fish, and wildlife, and modernizing their approach to floodplain restoration as the local beaver population recovers.

Mapes previously received the Washington State Book Award and the National Outdoor Book Award and has twice been honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Earlier this year, she was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.

“Lynda Mapes is the narrator for Puget Sound,” said Executive Braddock. “Our work is often complicated, driven by hard sciences – ecology, biology, toxicology, and oceanography. The people of King County have a better understanding of our work thanks to her rigorous reporting.”

Leader in Local Food Economy

Growing for Good

The nonprofit Growing for Good brings fresh, locally grown food to King County communities that often lack access to nutritious, culturally relevant produce.

A partnership between Neighborhood Farmers Markets, Harvest Against Hunger, and PCC Community Markets, the program provides upfront payments to small farms, which helps stabilize their operations, allowing small farms to plan, invest, and grow more sustainably. The farm-to-food bank partnerships are tailored to meet each community’s needs, reducing food insecurity while supporting the local agricultural economy.

During the first five years of the program, more than $660,000 was raised by the community and provided directly to 22 different local farms who delivered more than 230,000 pounds of fresh, local produce to 25 hunger relief agencies improving food access while strengthening local agriculture.

Leader in Circular Economy

Bike Works

Seattle-based Bike Works is a regional bike donation hub offering classes, camps, volunteer opportunities, and open shop for bicycle repairs and tuning to the broader community. Their nonprofit, full-service bike shop in Columbia City sells quality used bikes as well as new and used bicycle parts and accessories.

Bike Works collects 5,000 bikes per year for use in its program, to share with smaller organizations, and to recycle or upcycle. That diverts 250,000 pounds of steel, aluminum, and other metals from the waste stream.

Through their relationships with vendors and sponsors, they strive to hold the bike industry and manufacturers more accountable for the entire life cycle of their products. They have been a strong advocate for the circular economy by encouraging manufacturers to participate in Bike-Take-Back programs and other actions that reduce waste.

Leader in Clean Water

Villa Comunitaria

Villa Comunitaria – a Latine and women-led nonprofit organization – provides in-language resources, leadership training, and economic development support to the diverse populations of the Duwamish Valley.  Through a partnership with King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division, the organization spreads awareness about capital projects, employment opportunities, apprenticeships, internships, and trainings.

Recent examples of their work include:

• Promoting the Clean Water Ambassadors internship to high school students and supporting students during the application process.
• Promoting King County’s award-winning Operator-in-Training program, creating a new generation of skilled operators who reflect the diversity of the region.
• Working with Partners in Water Program to better support underserved communities and small businesses through the Department of Natural Resources and Parks’ contracting program.

The partnership sets the standard for how the Wastewater Treatment Division and trusted community-based organizations can work together to achieve better outcomes for capital projects, communities, and environment.

Leader in Green Built Environment

Homestead Community Land Trust – The Southard

Homestead Community Land Trust is developing The Southard, providing transit-friendly, high-quality homes made permanently affordable through its community land trust. It will provide 11 families homes at subsidized prices affordable to low- to moderate-income buyers, and two additional homes to adults with disabilities.

What makes the Southard unique is its commitment to being an environmentally sustainable neighborhood. Homes will be highly energy efficient by using solar panels for onsite energy generation and other green features, including net-zero energy and Salmon Safe certifications. The features lower the cost of operating and maintaining the homes and make homes more resilient to climate impacts while protecting water quality.

Homestead’s affordable homeownership development in Tukwila was named in honor of DNRP Solid Waste Division’s longtime Green Building Program Manager, Patti Southard, who passed away in 2019.

Leader in Land Conservation

King County Conservation Futures Advisory Committee

The volunteer members of the King County Conservation Futures Advisory Committee have helped guide the Land Conservation Initiative, a partnership to protect the last, best 65,000 acres of urban greenspace, trails, forestland, farmland, river corridors, and natural areas. They donate their time and expertise to review each application for funding generated by the Conservation Futures Tax and the King County Parks Levy.

Their rigorous review and recommendations help ensure that the Department of Natural Resources and Parks’ approach to open space preservation upholds King County's commitment to equity and racial justice. They provide the King County Executive a balanced package of open space acquisition projects that benefit people, fish, and wildlife – laying the foundation for habitat restoration and more access to healthy outdoor recreation.

The members carefully review hundreds of pages of application documents each round, then participate in multiple meetings to finalize their recommendations. Their well-informed recommendations have guided conservation actions throughout King County, creating a more just future where all people have access to the natural environment.

Leader in Outdoor Recreation

Golden Bricks Events

Chevon Powell founded Golden Bricks Events to create culturally rooted and equity-centered outdoor experiences. Their marquee event is Refuge Outdoor Festival, a unique three-day gathering at King County’s Tolt-MacDonald Park and Campground in Carnation.

Now in its eighth year, the festival features workshops on outdoors themes, art and performances, outdoor recreation activities, and DJs under the night sky. It reflects Golden Bricks Events’ passion for inclusivity, education, and entertainment.

Participants learn everything from camping hacks, backpacking tips and ways to improve birdwatching results – all in a welcoming and relaxed environment.

Leader in Salmon Recovery

Charlotte Spang

Charlotte Spang is a tireless, engaging advocate for native salmon.

Whether it’s with Seattle Public Utilities’ Cedar River Salmon Journey or the Seattle Aquarium’s Stories from the Salish Sea, Spang has provided a sustained, entertaining, and inspiring stream of easy-to-understand information about the remarkable lives of salmon.

A longtime participant in King County’s popular Salmon SEEson, Spang used her knowledge and entertaining approach to discussing with streamside visitors what could be an overly science-y topic – salmon spawning.

Spang brought the same energy and knowledge to Puget Sound beaches during low tide as the Field Outreach Coordinator for the Seattle Aquarium, sharing reports of spawning nudibranch, oozing anemones, and colorful sea stars. Through these connections, she reinforced the importance of environmental stewardship, teaching scores of visitors the important lesson that we’re all connected to this remarkable landscape.

Christie J. True Award for Outstanding Public Service

David Kimmett, retired from King County Parks

The Christie J. True Award for Outstanding Public Service – a new category named in honor of a longtime director of the Department of the Natural Resources and Parks – honors an employee or team that has reinforced the department’s reputation as a trusted environmental steward.

The first recipient is David Kimmett, who recently retired after 38 years of service at King County Parks. His career included 14 years with the Open Space Program where he helped protect and restore natural areas that contribute to the quality of life throughout the region. Kimmett led or partnered on projects that protected more than 2,500 acres of natural land, improving habitat and creating welcoming spaces where people, families, and friends can play, relax, and connect.

His ingenuity and persistence transformed a degraded ravine in North Highline into Glendale Forest, a healthy, vibrant urban greenspace for nearby kids, families, and schools. Unifying the efforts of multiple King County divisions and partnering with Washington Trails Association, Kimmett created a welcoming greenspace in an underserved community.

The King County Executive Climate Office announced its first-ever Extreme Heat Mitigation Strategy at the forest park, identifying it as a model for healthy greenspaces where people can stay safe and cool during dangerous heat waves.

“We’re fortunate to have dedicated community-based organizations, small businesses, and volunteers reinforce our work to protect and restore the natural environment of King County,” said John Taylor, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Parks. “Our employees will be the first to tell you that we can’t succeed alone. That’s why we honor the Green Globe Award winners, to recognize their lasting contributions to the local environmental movement.”

Contact

Doug Williams, Department of Natural Resources and Parks, 206-477-4543