Mid-July, nearly 3,000 members of Seattle’s Vietnamese Buddhist community gathered at the Chua Co Lam Pagoda on South Graham Street to celebrate the annual Quan Am festival. Along with live music, dance performances and food, visitors also witnessed the grand debut of a newly installed green stormwater-infrastructure features. Just two days earlier, Tom Le from Sky Landscaping Services finished installing five cisterns to capture rainwater running off the temple’s office roof, as well as a small floral garden to catch any remaining runoff.

Puget Sound Conservation Districts (PSCD) are known to be the “boots-on-the-ground”efforts to maintain and restore a healthy and thriving Puget Sound.The approach to implementing community-based green-stormwater infrastructure projects is no exception. To grow their capacity to do this work, the PSCDs formed a new partnership with the state Department of Veteran Affairs and its Conservation Corps Program.

With the many immediate neighborhood initiatives being implemented in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region, it’s easy to lose sight of long term, multi-generational goals –safe, thriving, resilient and equitable neighborhoods that are good for both people and the planet. North Rainier Mt. Baker Hub, initiated by the Friends of Mt. Baker Town Center, have expressed this long-term vision of the future through their commitment to the Living Community Challenge.